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zin

macrumors 6502
May 5, 2010
491
6,617
United Kingdom
I agree that is was a mistake saying "no" to more RAM. They have held at 1GB for long enough. At this point it seems rather insulting to their users SCREAMING for more RAM.

The only people screaming for more RAM are us nerds on this forum and some others.

Most iPhone users don't even know what RAM is.
 

fallenjt

macrumors 6502a
Jul 3, 2013
519
43
It's adequate for now, but it'll suck in a year when they optimize their latest OS for the new 2 GB versions of their devices. So where does that leave the 6 and 6 Plus? On par with the iPhone 5—a phone that was released in 2012. In fact, they'll be worse off with the higher resolutions and 64-bit architecture.

Bravo, Apple.

Does iPhone 5 suck now after 2 years? Nope, so S.T.F.U
 

benjalamelami

macrumors member
Jul 30, 2012
35
3
Seemed to handle? or Handled.... that's quite an important description they didn't care to dig too much into?

I gotta say thou, Apple has never made my new devices / computers feel sluggish... EVER.

Its totally the oposite. I have always felt the other devices I tried feel a little slugish even when shiny new.
 

doelcm82

macrumors 68040
Feb 11, 2012
3,765
2,776
Florida, USA
My emphasis should of been on the fact that THEY HAVE HELD AT 1GB FOR wayyyyyyy too long...

Well, keep screaming if it's important to you. The 1GB RAM hasn't caused any problems on my iPad or iPhone.

Maybe this year's iPads will have 2GB (or more). It's probably too late for Apple to change it now if they've already settled on 1GB. But there will be another new iPhone in twelve months, and it's probably on their list of enhancements to consider. Some pressure from the SCREAMING may influence their decision.

And there's always the option of Android. Or WindowsPhone. If Bigger GBs is what you really want, there's probably an Android phone out there that will give it to you. The ability to shop elsewhere is your biggest power as a consumer. When something is as important to you as this seems to be, then you have to be willing to make some sacrifices to make your point. Otherwise Apple has you by the whatever-it-is-you've-got.
 

TTMax

macrumors member
Oct 3, 2011
42
0
I'm paying over $1,000 for a device with 1 gig of ram, that's disappointing.

Someone gets it. You are paying through the nose for these devices and people's reactions are "don't care" "show me how to trigger a refresh" "it's plenty" oh and that old chestnut "shut the f up before I get really mad."

Apple never mentions RAM, not on their website and not in keynotes. Well we wouldn't want to confuse folks with "different" types of gigabytes would we? And if the specs aren't quite as good as the competition, Apple likes to sweep that under the carpet. Try to find "A5" on the iPod touch tech specs page on Apple's website.

People think that 16 or 32GB is the "memory" of the device and it seems to keep them happy. So most people won't even know what you are talking about, letalone understand what an app refresh is and why it happens.

So your apps will refresh a lot. But at least they'll refresh 25% faster than before!
 

bigthanbigger

macrumors regular
Sep 12, 2014
157
0
i think apple is richest company right now , they have billionare,

everything hardware they make is 1 step behind droid , such as

camera 8.0 droid 10 up
ram 1 gb droid 2 up
water resistant
wireless charger

all stuff they behind

but ,,, that how apple treat us , less hardware but faster than droid ,

apple weapon is small but powerful
droid weapon big but dont work like it

also apple kind cheap , apple never giving customer free stuff , remembering iphone 4 glass rear change to aluminium , iphone 5c plastic , apple save money for build big company headquarter ,
 

the-msa

macrumors 6502
Oct 24, 2013
425
210
Awesome, so safari will reload pages when you go to the homescreen and back to safari?
 

cracksoup

macrumors 6502
Mar 26, 2014
287
258
The lack of RAM is a deal breaker for me. Can't deal with the constant safari- and app -reloads on my iPhone 5 or Ipad Air.
 

H2SO4

macrumors 603
Nov 4, 2008
5,652
6,938
BS. Just tried it. No reloading.

Someone show me how to trigger a RAM fault. If I can't because it's so "intermittent" it never happens, or I have to open 8 tabs in Safari while playing Bioshock, then it's a problem created by abusing the hardware, not through "normal use"

And all this "power user" crap is just that: crap. Whining because something malfunctions doing something nearly no one else uses it for doesn't make you a "power user". It just means you are unable to purchase the right hardware to meet your unusual needs.

For 99.9% of users, 1GB is plenty.

I couldn't care less about the .01%, and evidently, neither does Apple. Neener neener :p

So because it doesn’t happen to you it’s BS? QED√.
There are lots of people that have problems and decide not to mention it because they can’t be bothered/don’t know how to go about getting it fixed. There are some who even think it’s supposed behave badly from time to time, others accept it as one of those things and so on and so on.
My iPhone 5S has no low memory logs right now but my RiPad Mini certainly does. Some other apps open and 3 Safari tabs. Now if it’s the other apps that are the problem why does Safari show the symptoms?

Your maths is crap too. 99.9+0.01=99.91, so stop trying to be so clever.

----------

i think apple is richest company right now , they have billionare,

everything hardware they make is 1 step behind droid , such as

camera 8.0 droid 10 up
ram 1 gb droid 2 up
water resistant
wireless charger

all stuff they behind

but ,,, that how apple treat us , less hardware but faster than droid ,

apple weapon is small but powerful
droid weapon big but dont work like it

also apple kind cheap , apple never giving customer free stuff , remembering iphone 4 glass rear change to aluminium , iphone 5c plastic , apple save money for build big company headquarter ,

The weapon is as powerful as you want/need it to be. If it’s number one priority on your list that your device is waterproof and/or takes very hi res photos the iPhone is going to slow you down a lot.
They do give away free stuff but not often.

----------

Someone gets it. You are paying through the nose for these devices and people's reactions are "don't care" "show me how to trigger a refresh" "it's plenty" oh and that old chestnut "shut the f up before I get really mad."

Apple never mentions RAM, not on their website and not in keynotes. Well we wouldn't want to confuse folks with "different" types of gigabytes would we? And if the specs aren't quite as good as the competition, Apple likes to sweep that under the carpet. Try to find "A5" on the iPod touch tech specs page on Apple's website.

People think that 16 or 32GB is the "memory" of the device and it seems to keep them happy. So most people won't even know what you are talking about, letalone understand what an app refresh is and why it happens.

So your apps will refresh a lot. But at least they'll refresh 25% faster than before!

Absolutely. That reload issue I reckon must have happened to everybody at least a few times. Some it bothers some it doesn’t.
Apples biggest strengths are marketing and aesthetics.
 

odedia

macrumors 65816
Nov 24, 2005
1,044
149
All I wanted was widescreen home screen and OIS. both are only in the plus model which is to big for me. I can understand the OIS needs more room but why not widescreen view in the 4.7" model? Portrait view sucks when you're in the car.
 

H2SO4

macrumors 603
Nov 4, 2008
5,652
6,938
Can it seriously be saving them that much money? Do they not care at all what their customers are screaming for? Man, I sure wish I wasn't such an Apple fan, and have such an Apple ecosystem, or I would strongly consider jumping ship. Unless there is something I am missing, Apple as a whole sure seem to have their heads buried in their own asses, not their customers (where it should be).

Quite possibly. My company anongst other things makes very large hardware in the power electronics industry. When we go to carry out service work we curse at the length of the ribbon and signal cabling that links the boards. (Now I am well aware that especially in the case of signal cabling that the wire can act like an antenna), but there are many times that when adding one inch can make a significant difference to service work but they will not. Times when they could put an access panel in the equipment to facilitate test and measurement but no. It’s down to cost virtually every time.
Someone made the point earlier, there is a cost/benefit analysis. When the job of the workers in the field is harder and takes 6 hours now instead of four, they pass this on to the consumer, (you and I), in more ways than one. It may be in ongoing service, it may be in upfront cost but rest assured we pay for it. Usually the consumer finds out the undesirables when he/she has long been separated from his or her money.

----------

All I wanted was widescreen home screen and OIS. both are only in the plus model which is to big for me. I can understand the OIS needs more room but why not widescreen view in the 4.7" model? Portrait view sucks when you're in the car.

Was going to buy two without reservation but this time around I think I’ll go play before I buy.
 

jz-

macrumors regular
Jun 14, 2013
141
28
Probably because developers are lazy. Once they have access to beefier specs, they stop optimizing for lesser specs and that would be catastrophic for the huge user base still using iPhone 4 (me), 4s, 5, 5s... you get the picture.

Clearly RAM is not the end-all-be-all of better performance. Apple has achieved tremendous performance gains while retaining 1GB of RAM. I call that responsible device design.

Doesn't this just delay the problem? At some point, Apple will move to 2GB RAM, developers will optimise for that, and the previous generation will lose out
 

flaw600

macrumors 6502
Jan 21, 2014
291
96
i think apple is richest company right now , they have billionare,

everything hardware they make is 1 step behind droid , such as

camera 8.0 droid 10 up
ram 1 gb droid 2 up
water resistant
wireless charger

all stuff they behind

but ,,, that how apple treat us , less hardware but faster than droid ,

apple weapon is small but powerful
droid weapon big but dont work like it

also apple kind cheap , apple never giving customer free stuff , remembering iphone 4 glass rear change to aluminium , iphone 5c plastic , apple save money for build big company headquarter ,

What?
 

KylePowers

macrumors 68000
Mar 5, 2011
1,688
197
Nope.

As everyone knows - except you maybe - RAM needs to be constantly "refreshed". That costs electricity. Or "battery life", if you prefer.

The more RAM you have the more it costs in terms of electricity. So you want to keep that cost as low as possible.

Savvy so far? Good. If not, here you can educate yourself a little: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_refresh
Ha! You're cute.

Electrical engineer here, specifically VLSI and microfabrication. While you're certainly not wrong in that additional memory can lead to additional power draw, you're merely in denial if you don't think this is primarily a financial decision.

Edit: let me quantify it for everyone, just for fun. Let's say Apple opted for 2GB, a measly $5 more than their current 1GB modules (arbitrary price). Well, take the case of 4 million preorders. Welp, that's $20 million they just lost in revenue. Are you going to give up $20 million when your primary consumer base would never notice the performance difference?
 
Last edited:

till213

Suspended
Jul 1, 2011
423
89
Ha! You're cute.

Electrical engineer here, specifically VLSI and microfabrication. While you're certainly not wrong in that additional memory can lead to additional power draw, you're merely in denial if you don't think this is primarily a financial decision.

That Apple safes on bucks as a nice "side effect" is certainly true. I did not deny that! I referred to the "That is all (saving bucks)" part of the previous poster when I said "Nope".

While it's true that I have absolutely no clue how much electricity can be saved while still sticking to 1 GB of RAM (as opposed to, say, 2 GB) I am pretty sure that is a crucial factor for Apple: even if it means that "battery life" can only be improved by a couple of percent (5% maybe?) it is already a win, since we all know that battery life is the weak factor of any smartphone.

So yes, I still think that Apple engineers are trying to save as much on electricity costs as possible. If most apps run well with 1 GB, why change it? (And again, saving money and making the user still pay a lot is a nice effect, too ;))

But hey, it's funny, software engineer here: I can tell you that unless you want to load huge amounts of "texture data" into VRAM (shared RAM in case of the A8/iPhone) - which applies to games only anyway, which yes, are an important factor in the ecosystem - then I can tell you that 1 GB RAM is PLENTY (even considering the amount the OS itself is consuming)!

The iOS API has plenty of "hooks" which let app developers "unload" resources they currently don't need (or which can be easily re-created later, once the app becomes the "active" one). If the app does not do so (which yes, requires effort and knowledge on the part of the developer) within a certain grace period the app is being kicked from RAM (in "low RAM" situations).

That is just one example how apps on embedded systems can (and should) deal with their resources.

So yes, if you're into 3D games then you never can have enough RAM (for hi-res textures, sound etc.). Otherwise: stop whining! Write efficient code! Unload resources you don't need! Etc.
 

till213

Suspended
Jul 1, 2011
423
89
Welp, that's $20 million they just lost in revenue. Are you going to give up $20 million when your primary consumer base would never notice the performance difference?

On the other hand, they just sticked an estimated amount 5 times as high up the arse of U2 ;) Just saying...

By the way, while I certainly agree with your numbers here's another view on the story:

Let's assume the production cost of the average iPhone model is somewhere around $500. They sell it for an average price of $700, so the net gain is $200.

With your 4'000'000 pre-orders that is a net gain of $800'000'000. Minus the above $20 Mio that's only $780'000'000. So they loose about 2.5 percent (in reality I believe the margin is much higher, and the "loss in percentage" would hence be much lower).
 

cdmoore74

macrumors 68020
Jun 24, 2010
2,413
711
The only people screaming for more RAM are us nerds on this forum and some others.

Most iPhone users don't even know what RAM is.

They also don't know the resolution of the screen; just that it's bigger.
 

farewelwilliams

Suspended
Jun 18, 2014
4,966
18,041
How else are they going to sell the 6S?

I'm guessing that by "else" you mean in addition to the usual laundry list of improvements that Apple adds to its "S" models:

  • Faster processor.
  • Camera improvements (13 MP? OIS on both models?)
  • Sensor improvements.
  • Perhaps an all-new feature or two.

The else may quite possibly be:
  • More RAM

Apple has never released an "S" model with improvements in just one area. There is no reason to expect them to start now.

Also, I don't recall them ever emphasizing the amount of RAM, even when they've doubled it in the past. That's more of an under the hood enhancement than a marketing point. If it happens, it may be obliquely hinted at in their keynote, but the tech blog junkies will have to read every leak and review post hoping for a mention of the "bigger GBs", while the everyday iPhone user won't really be aware.

i remember my iPhone 4 was extremely sluggish and felt the need to upgrade to an iPhone 5.

the only reasons why I'm upgrading from an iPhone 5 to an iPhone 6 is the screen size + touch ID since the iPhone 5 seems to be running just fine in iOS 8.

it'll be hard to get me to an iPhone 7 unless apps are getting greedy with the memory, so therefore, the 1GB could be a reason why I would upgrade.

----------

I've said it before and I'll say it again. How would this help Apple in term of marketing as they never advertise the RAM in the iPhone?

when the users start to notice that launching any game closes all other apps and they need to be relaunched upon resume.

and also the fact that safari feels the need to reload tabs constantly
 

JamonBull

macrumors 6502
Dec 14, 2009
268
520
Australia
1gb? Thought this might end up being the case. One of the reasons I'm waiting for the 6s Plus. Hopefully it has 2gb of RAM, the sapphire display, better battery life and an even better camera and by that point accessory makers will have had a year to refine some great products for the new design. E.g. New version of Logitech Case+drive? Essential to my daily iPhone use. Yeah my 5s will do me just fine for another year.
 

G4DP

macrumors 65816
Mar 28, 2007
1,451
3
I asked my friend who works at Apple and actually develops iOS. He said iOS is more efficient and doesn't need more ram. In fact having more ram will simply encourage developers to be sloppier lazier and you end up with the same performance but greater battery drain. If you only give the developer 1gb they will learn to code better and maximize the resource they have. If they can't do it it will just weed out the inferior developers.

Although partly true, 1gb will show it's limits in a year or two. Developers will get fed up with hardware restrictions stopping them from developing new and better apps.

If as you claim it is to stop coders becoming lazy, maybe Apple should look at themselves. Mac OS has become a bloat. Takes more RAM to run every new version.
 

Pagemakers

macrumors 68030
Mar 28, 2008
2,835
1,143
Manchester UK
Does the 6+ have tabbed browsing in Safari like the iPad?

If so and with 1GB I wonder if the tabs refresh constantly like the do on the iPad Air making Safari virtually unusable for anything serious.
 
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