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Piggie

macrumors G3
Original poster
Feb 23, 2010
9,316
4,344
Do you think Apple dare to fit only 512MB of Ram in the iPad2 ?

Given all the recently shown tablets. The Motorola Xoom, the Rim Playbook and the HP Touchpad are all going to have 1GB of Ram.

Yes, I know many of you will say, numbers and specs don't matter to most people.

But even if that is the case for some. Do you think Apple would only go with 512MB in their next product to carry them till April 2012 ?

Personally I feel they will go with 512MB, but I hope I'm wrong and the surprise me with 1GB as more RAM is always a good thing for Devs to work with.
 
I expect 512MB, but I wouldn't be surprised by 1GB. It really depends on how aggressive (if at all) the overhaul is for iOS5.
 
I believe Apple will go with 512MB's of RAM but I seriously hope I'm wrong. At this point though everything's up in the air. We can assume it will have a better processor, more RAM and an improved display. To what degree, nobody knows.
 
I imagine your average user will never know and it will not be mentioned during the release.
 
I imagine your average user will never know and it will not be mentioned during the release.

I will be interested to see what most people here think.
I imagine like me, and the 1st two replies, most people are expecting 512MB but would like 1GB.

In reply to what you say, some customers will never know, and some customers will never care, however you can bet reviews that normal people do read will comment on this. I'm not saying it would stop a purchase, but it would still be a negative point in a comparison review which I'm sure there will be plenty of in tech magazines over the course of the year.
 
I will be interested to see what most people here think.
I imagine like me, and the 1st two replies, most people are expecting 512MB but would like 1GB.

In reply to what you say, some customers will never know, and some customers will never care, however you can bet reviews that normal people do read will comment on this. I'm not saying it would stop a purchase, but it would still be a negative point in a comparison review which I'm sure there will be plenty of in tech magazines over the course of the year.

I think that this masturbatory "I think Apple should do this, but it's more likely that Apple will do that" perseveration is getting a little old.
 
I think that this masturbatory "I think Apple should do this, but it's more likely that Apple will do that" perseveration is getting a little old.

I know you are one of the regular posters who seem to stand up for Apple no matter what, but don't you perhaps feel from a developer point of view, the less number of changes the better.
If you are now having to manage to stay within the limitations of the 256MB total RAM in our iPad1, and then for iPad2 be able to use 512MB of RAM and then in iPad3 be able to have 1GB to use.

Would it not be better for Devs to give them 1GB on the next model and be able to run this same amount through to the iPad3 also?

The least number of things changing has to be better an easier to manage for everyone don't you think?
 
I know you are one of the regular posters who seem to stand up for Apple no matter what, but don't you perhaps feel from a developer point of view, the less number of changes the better.
If you are now having to manage to stay within the limitations of the 256MB total RAM in our iPad1, and then for iPad2 be able to use 512MB of RAM and then in iPad3 be able to have 1GB to use.

Would it not be better for Devs to give them 1GB on the next model and be able to run this same amount through to the iPad3 also?

The least number of things changing has to be better an easier to manage for everyone don't you think?

I didn't say it should or shouldn't have 1GB of RAM, just that you're incessant "Apple's not going to do what I think Apple should do" speculation is tiring. Maybe they'll have 1GB and maybe they won't. Save up your hostility for when the next iPad is actually released.
 
If they bumped it to 1GB, wouldn't that preclude the original iPad from running a lot of newer software? Too much obsolescence too soon, IMO.
 
If they bumped it to 1GB, wouldn't that preclude the original iPad from running a lot of newer software? Too much obsolescence too soon, IMO.
If the rumors are true, and the iPad 3 does indeed make its debut in September at Apple's iPod/ iTunes event, then 512MB RAM on the iPad wouldn't be terrible. They could save the 1GB for iPad 3. I agree though - a jump from 256MB to a whole 1GB would be too much obsolescence too soon. :D
 
I don't understand the too much concept of 1gb being worse for iPad 1 than moving to 512mb.

If you use 1k more than the 256mb in the iPad 1 then it won't run.

Doe not matter if you have 1mb more of ram or 1 terabyte more ram, once you used more than the iPad 1 has that's it.
 
If you are now having to manage to stay within the limitations of the 256MB total RAM in our iPad1, and then for iPad2 be able to use 512MB of RAM and then in iPad3 be able to have 1GB to use.

Would it not be better for Devs to give them 1GB on the next model and be able to run this same amount through to the iPad3 also?

The least number of things changing has to be better an easier to manage for everyone don't you think?

That argument doesn't make a whole lot of sense. If they put 1GB of RAM in iPad2, people will simply clamor for 2GB of RAM in iPad3. On the other hand, if iPad2 has only 512MB, and they raise it to 1GB in iPad3, there will be more overall satisfaction -- people will be happy this year that the iPad2 has more RAM than iPad1, and people will be happy next year that iPad3 has more than iPad2.
 
That argument doesn't make a whole lot of sense. If they put 1GB of RAM in iPad2, people will simply clamor for 2GB of RAM in iPad3. On the other hand, if iPad2 has only 512MB, and they raise it to 1GB in iPad3, there will be more overall satisfaction -- people will be happy this year that the iPad2 has more RAM than iPad1, and people will be happy next year that iPad3 has more than iPad2.

That all fine and dandy except iPad isn't the only tablet on the market this time around. Android and WebOS tablets will all have higher specs so Apple needs to at least try to be somewhat competitive.
 
That all fine and dandy except iPad isn't the only tablet on the market this time around. Android and WebOS tablets will all have higher specs so Apple needs to at least try to be somewhat competitive.

They need to be competitive in performance, yes. I'm not convinced 1GB is necessary over 512MB for performance.
 
They need to be competitive in performance, yes. I'm not convinced 1GB is necessary over 512MB for performance.

I agree --- the same thing can happen on the CPU front as well.

Apple doesn't need to go dual-core on the iphone 5 --- they can go with a single core 1.2-1.4 GHz CPU.
 
I agree --- the same thing can happen on the CPU front as well.

Apple doesn't need to go dual-core on the iphone 5 --- they can go with a single core 1.2-1.4 GHz CPU.

SHHHH

I want POWER..

GIVE ME POWERRRR
 
Apple is a "ram enemy"

hahaha quoted for truth.

One thing we know is that Apple will only upgrade the iPad to match the top end iPhone currently available.

I mean, look at what happened last year. iPhone 4 was in the pipeline with 512MB of RAM. Yet Apple shipped the iPad with 256MB. Apple/Jobs knew far enough in advance about the changes that they were going to make to the iPhone 4 and could have updated the iPad accordingly. But they did not.

So that means we'll only see an iPad with 512MB of RAM.

And look at their computers too. Apple generally includes 1/4-1/2 the RAM you get in PCs for the same price.

Apple is definitely not going to play the spec game with the iPad the same way they don't with computers. They'll make up other reasons as to why they feel their product is better, even if others outclass it in terms of specs by light years.
 
Hardware-wise, you dont need that much RAM, it is the processing speed and graphic capability that really matter.

I cannot complain about the current ipad's speed even under heavy load, so I think 512mb is more than enough.

However they should not step back in battery life, it is the main reason I still own it even though i use my iphone 80% of the time.
 
I bet even if Apple didn't upgrade the RAm, people would still buy it over the others because it's an iPad.
 
Apple is all about sales and profits and if going to 1GB vs 512MB is going to cost them say, $10 more, that could easily translate to $100,000,000 in lost profit (10 Million iPads sold).

Would they recoup that $100 Million from additional sales by going with 1GB? That's around 166,700 additional iPads at an average of $600/iPad...would they get 166,700 more people to buy it because it has 1GB vs 512MB?
 
If they bumped it to 1GB, wouldn't that preclude the original iPad from running a lot of newer software? Too much obsolescence too soon, IMO.

Exactly. Why is this not obvious to others? All they care about is whining about what they think it should have. Face it, 1GB makes no sense
 
People can tell the difference, even if they don't know why.

More RAM helps with being able to keep more web pages in memory.

Yea something the iphone 4 has no problem with. It has 512mb of ram. Sorry, but just because 1GB sounds enticing hardware wise, does not mean it makes sense for apple. If software for the ipad has to be designed to work withing the 256MB of the original ipad, why on Earth would they need to include 1GB of ram. Completely overkill
 
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