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Size of the Average iOS App Increased 16% in Six Months

paradox22 said:
so the question to ask is why didn't the iPhone 5 base price start at 32GB?
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There are people who only need 8GB. Not everyone is fully using the capacity of their device.

I have an iPhone 4 I got from my company. 8GB capacity with about 5GB of free space. I only use this for work. Not much gets stored locally. No music. Only a few apps. My personal phone, iPhone 5 with 32GB capacity has less than 16GB free space.

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This brings up an interesting question. How much does it cost Apple to add 8GB to an iPad? We've been using flash like this for several years and Apple certainly has enormous purchasing power. I'm guessing that the difference between 8 and 16 GB can't be more than a few dollars for Apple. It puts it in the realm of possibility for Apple to be aggressive on this and start at 16 GB.
 
JonneyGee said:
Here's the solution. Purchasing an app gives you access to all versions, and the complete app can be downloaded to iTunes, but your iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch only downloads the components necessary for that particular advice. For example, purchase an app on your iPhone and it shows up on your iPad, but the iPhone only has iPhone graphics installed and the iPad version only has iPad graphics installed. iPad apps are marginally smaller, and iPhone apps are significantly smaller. Simple, right?
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I was going to post something similar.

From iTunes to the device it is simple, however there is a problem going back from the device to iTunes in that if you have updated the Application over the air (via a mobile network or wifi), then the copy you are syncing to the PC will not have all the data for other devices. Namely, if I downloaded the update on my iPad, the files on my laptop will have iPad assets but not iPhone assets.

Either you can't sync back, or iTunes needs to do a delta and pull the necessary files off the iTunes server. Doable, but if it's a 1GB+ application and there's several hundreds of megs left, it's not very user friendly if someone expects to be able to sync right away (both an iPad and iPhone are connected to the system for instance) and they have a slow internet connection.

That all said, I'm sure it can be worked around and I'd prefer to have the smaller files on the device. It'd also make over the air updates smaller too...something I do more frequently now days than updates via my laptop.
 
Apps are getting bigger for sure!

A couple of big games, a big navigation app like TomTom, some videos and some podcasts and a 64gb iPad or iPhone is all filled up!

Time for 128gb!
 
bb426 said:
I hate to bash on these statistics (in order to educate those who do not know how this stuff works), but this is almost useless information to most of us.

It's assumed that as we go along and technology improves, applications will become larger, especially graphic intensive ones. This in turn will require higher capacities for the devices that run these applications... something that has been happening on an almost exponential level for the past 40-50 years.

It's a no brainer. Spend time and money on more useful research. :p
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The thing is, in many cases it's just sloppy/lazy programming - it's not always because Apps are bigger and better.

My friend is a lead games programmer for Sony, he recently commented that he had to install a new mouse driver - it was 24meg. He was amazed at what that 24meg would be required for on a simple mouse driver? In the past said driver would have been a fraction of that size and there's no real reason it would have to massively increase like that as it's only doing the same job it always has. Just an example.

If more space is available people don't work as hard on making apps compact, I'm sure in most cases they could if they had to.
 
Perhaps Apple needs to add better support for vector graphics. It's really stupid to package four versions of all the graphics into an app. The best solution I found so far is to save my vector graphics into a PDF-File and then create images at runtime. All the svg-libraries I tried so far were not good enough. I would say that with a little more work one could reduce the size of most apps.
 
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Need more storage. I don't consider the Cloud a viable alternative to 64GB of local storage. I probably would have picked up a new iPad, but couldn't justify it without an increase in storage-- I've been up against the storage limit on my iPad2 and iPhone for too long now.
 
The Average Size of iOS Apps Increased 16% in Six Months

I fixed the thread title for you!
MacRumors said:
The increase is thought to be partly the result of ... a March increase in the over-the-air App Store download limit from 20MB to 50MB.
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Really? So someone (who?) thinks that developers increase the size of their apps to fill the space available? Or is it just that developers create apps of whatever size is necessary and the increase in d/l capacity a reflection of that (as you later state)?
 
Consumers constantly want more content which leads to larger file sizes.

The only viable alternative available to developers right now is to develop an app that links to a custom server that then downloads the assets only needed for that device. This is a costly solution for each individual developer. Especially if their apps/games aren't making much money.

I expect Apple to bring in a solution similar to this "one day". Especially as they add more devices and larger screen sizes.
 
I would say that developers can reduce the size of their apps if they have to. It's just a little more work.

Truffy said:
I fixed the thread title for you!

Really? So someone (who?) thinks that developers increase the size of their apps to fill the space available? Or is it just that developers create apps of whatever size is necessary and the increase in d/l capacity a reflection of that (as you later state)?
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Moore's Law is rearing its head. We have had 16/32/64GB models since the original iPad two years ago. I'm expecting at the media event the new iPad will be updated to 32/64/128 models.

I've always found the 8GB iPhones a joke. Wha on earth can you do with them? Make a 10 minute video with the camera and hope you haven't got to install anything else.

16GB is difficult enough to install apps if you're not bothered about music or video.

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appahappa said:
I would say that developers can reduce the size of their apps if they have to. It's just a little more work.
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It would help if developers bothered to run their PNG files through utilities like PNGCrush or PNGOut. Apple and Adobe are terrible for creating PNG images, using these utilities will decrease file size by third to half.
 
Capacity Increase

This is only making that 128 gigabyte iPad sound sweeter and sweeter.
 
I reckon most people could check out how many apps on their device they ever use. I know I find apps that have simply been replaced by better apps or apps that I just never use. Plus, some apps are barely different to the mobile version of a website anyhow - so is it worth have them for very occasional use?
 
appahappa said:
I would say that developers can reduce the size of their apps if they have to. It's just a little more work.
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That's not really the point I was making. The OP suggests that apps are increasing in size in part due to the increased d/l limit. I suggest that it's more likely to be the other way around.

I don't dispute that devs could decrease the size of their apps in some circumstances, should thery truly wish to do so.
 
Macist said:
I reckon most people could check out how many apps on their device they ever use. I know I find apps that have simply been replaced by better apps or apps that I just never use. Plus, some apps are barely different to the mobile version of a website anyhow - so is it worth have them for very occasional use?
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Website apps shouldn't be very big anyway... if they are just pulling data from the server/website. I doubt the Target app would be hogging up too much room.

The really big apps are ones that have lots of built-in graphics or local content... like games and reference materials (Elements for iPad: 1.71GB!!!)

Those are the apps you need to watch out for.
 
Truffy said:
Really? So someone (who?) thinks that developers increase the size of their apps to fill the space available? Or is it just that developers create apps of whatever size is necessary and the increase in d/l capacity a reflection of that (as you later state)?
Click to expand...

There was a big incentive to get under 20MB if the app was just over. There is now a big incentive to get under 50MB if the app is just over. I think the earlier limit applied to more apps, although an app reducing file size by 10% to get under 50MB will have more effect than 2 apps reducing by 10% to get under 20MB.
 
Since people forget that there is already an installation progress while downloading an app (or to be exact, after the download process; the installation is the last third of the entire process) the only two intelligent solutions to this "problem" are these:
1. After downloading an app from the App Store or transferring an app from your computer, the installation process should get rid of the unused files.
2. Before downloading an app from the App Store, Apple should make sure that only the truely universal data is sent (people still have data caps above their not-so-flat flatrates) plus the device-relevant data of the app.

Increasing the capacity simply does not cut it since Apple and developers were indirectly invited to keep on bloating devices with irrelevant data. And I don't think bloating, which is bad code and therefore kind of unsexy, is what Apple claims to be a point counting towards their remarkably high quality standards, which, in the last years, went like crazy downhill. Especially the QA department seems like nonexistent.
 
About time they increase the sizes. I regret getting my child the 8GB ipod touch. It doesn’t hold much and we are constantly changing her games. She can’t hold many songs and no videos. It’s pathetic really. After reading this I’m concerned about buying a 32GB iphone 5.
 
reallynotnick said:
I totally agree, it's nice to be able to buy a universal App but I shouldn't have to have all the excess data installed on my device for other devices. Apple either needs to find a way to deal with this or start to seriously start upping storage (preferably both). I filled up 16GB of my 32GB iPhone 5 in a month, while I am still pissed I was charged $100 for the extra storage I would have been more upset up if I had the 16GB version.
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Pissed!?.... Really? Apple didn't hold a gun to your head when YOU chose to buy the model YOU wanted.
 
Truffy said:
Really? So someone (who?) thinks that developers increase the size of their apps to fill the space available? Or is it just that developers create apps of whatever size is necessary and the increase in d/l capacity a reflection of that (as you later state)?
Click to expand...

Developers do plan their bundles with the size of cellular downloads. If Apple raises the bar, then developers who made a few comprises to fit in the previous download limit will adjust their apps.

Being under the cellular download limit is important as it enables "impulse buys".
 
ncaissie said:
About time they increase the sizes. I regret getting my child the 8GB ipod touch. It doesn’t hold much and we are constantly changing her games. She can’t hold many songs and no videos. It’s pathetic really. After reading this I’m concerned about buying a 32GB iphone 5.
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You should always buy the biggest capacity offered by Apple. That way, you will never have any regrets.

It is a win/win for Apple and the consumer, and for the entire Apple community and for the Apple Lifestyle.

In fact, Apple offers low capacities so that new buyers will buy them, fall in love with their device, and then buy a second one with larger capacity. Apple is brilliant in this regard.

so I'd suggest that you buy your kid a second device with a larger capacity. That way, everybody comes out ahead.
 
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