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When are we going to see a HDD iPhone?

Manic Mouse

Manic Mouse

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 12, 2006
943
0
Because let's face it, 8Gb isn't going to cut it with any music fan. I have a 50Gb+ music collection (with a few audiobooks and podcasts). The insane price of the iPhone (when you stomach the contract) for an "all in one" device doesn't work for anyone with any kind of music collection. And that's just music, 8Gb for video as well is pretty weak.

Stick 4 or 8Gb of flash memory into it if the OS needs it and store the media on the HDD, it would be great. The 80Gb iPod Classic is actually smaller than the iPhone so I wouldn't say it is impossible to get one in there.

Next rev?
 
Never. The iPod Classic is smaller because the Hard Drive is nearly the only thing inside. The iPhone would have to be considerably bigger to fit a HDD in there.

Edit: Do a google search and look for pics of the iPhone taken apart and the iPod classic taken apart. Look at the size of the HDD inside the classic and the size of the flash chip inside the iPhone. That's why it'll never happen. The iPhone is jam packed as is.
 
psychofreak said:
I don't think so, otherwise there would be an 80GB touch option...
Click to expand...

So it's low capacity high functionality or high capacity and low functionality from now on?

Would it be too much to ask for the best of both worlds? The reason Steve didn't like MP3 players at the start is because they couldn't hold a persons entire music collection, and this is why the iPod was HDD based. It was a smart move.

Now they've gone the opposite direction. Why can't I have the functionality of the iPhone/iPod touch and the capacity of the classic?
 
chriswheat said:
Never. The iPod Classic is smaller because the Hard Drive is nearly the only thing inside. The iPhone would have to be considerably bigger to fit a HDD in there.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say considerably bigger, it would only have to be the size of a 80Gb 5.5 gen iPod, it would probably be smaller.
 
chriswheat said:
You could, but Apple would have to sacrifice the almighty size/image factor to do that. And that won't happen.
Click to expand...

Then offer it as an option. Have the thinner flash models for those who are more concerned with how something looks than how it performs. I'd happily pay more for a slightly thicker HDD iPod Touch/iPhone. It's not like they don't have current models of different sizes, the iPods have always been like that.

It's going to be at least two years before we see flash based iPods that can hold as much as the classic. At least. I find that unacceptable especially with Apple trying to push TV shows and movies on us, which take up exponentially more space than music.

The whole point of the original iPod (and the reason I love mine) is that I can carry my entire music collection with me.
 
HDD are big, clunky and unreliable compared to flash memory. There will be a high capacity iPhone, when flash technology progresses that far.
 
chriswheat said:
I agree with you. But the problem with the cell phone industry is that smaller = better.
Click to expand...

Indeed, but it isn't always like that. The latest and greatest Sony Ericcsons (which always sell well) have always been chunky, the K850 is huge. But they have a heck of a lot of functionality and great battery life, and they sell really well.

IMO as long as something fits in your pocket and doesn't weigh it down too much it's small enough. Smaller is nicer but it's not a necessity. But that's me.
 
I hope this never comes... the iphone is still a GSM :p and it would fu** it up if they would make it bigger, i think apple can better wait untill they can put sizes like 32GB flash drive in for a reasonable price, and in the future, future 64GB ...
 
It all depends what you want from a media player. Only talking for myself, my 4 GB Nano suits me just fine. 600 tracks are more than enough for the 40 minute ride to work and back. I don't use it for anything else. As it stands now, if you insist on carrying your 160 GB music collection with you, the iPhone is not the way to go. ;)
 
The Touch currently has 16Gb and by next year it will be at 32 so I don't think there is much need for a hard drive based iPhone/Touch.

Assuming you don't have your music at a bit rate above 256, massing a 50Gb collection is pretty uncommon. For video, even 160Gb may not be enough to store an entire collection. I think the big difference is that people enjoy hearing their music over and over, but video is generally only watched a few times. Most people are content with placing just a few videos on their iPod that they want to watch, then continuously adding new video while removing the old. It's not ideal, but it works for most people.
 
dukebound85 said:
the interface would be slow. battery would suck

however, give it time and flash will get there. remember when the ipods came out with the almighty 5gig hd...
Click to expand...

There are already HDD phones out there and there is no problem with battery lives.

A HDD iPod Touch would be great. A lot of people are put off by the small storage capacity ( though this is going a bit off topic talking about the Touch ).
 
I am happy with my 8GB for now, it is more than enough for a days worth of music, a couple of thousand pics, and a few movies and tv shows. Much better than my old phone with 512MB!! And one other thing, I actually find it easy to listen to my music on this phone, I may have had 300mb + music on my last phone but I never listened to it.
 
remember the n91 ? ...... no ? .... well thats because that was nokia's music phone with a hard drive :p ....... amazing 4gb storage ! ...... completely failed IMO as it was a massive phone not because of its features ... (2mp camera and tiny screen) but because of the storage format.
 
Manic Mouse said:
So it's low capacity high functionality or high capacity and low functionality from now on?

Would it be too much to ask for the best of both worlds? The reason Steve didn't like MP3 players at the start is because they couldn't hold a persons entire music collection, and this is why the iPod was HDD based. It was a smart move.

Now they've gone the opposite direction. Why can't I have the functionality of the iPhone/iPod touch and the capacity of the classic?
Click to expand...

maybe for now. You'll see 32 and 64 GB soon enough. You'll never see an HDD version though.
 
I think the problem is that there are difficulties with the multi-touch and the spinning of the hard drive.

Either that, or Apple just wants to start driving flash prices down. If you were given the option of 8GB or 80GB for roughly the same price, who would choose the 8GB? Not many I am sure. Apple will make flash cheaper for all of us if they have their way, and that brings me one step closer to SSDs and I am fine with that.

Really though, I have a 30GB library. I don't need to carry around that much media. I just don't. Sure I had the 60GB iPod and it was cool to have it all with me, but it wasn't like I was going to listen to all of it. Not trying to justify, just making the point that you can get by even with a large library as it is unnecessary to carry around that much media.
 
I'm a music fan, but feel that the 8GB is more than enough for now. I only use about a little over a gig on my iPhone at the moment and that's about 10 hours of music. For the amount of traveling that I do, that's plenty.

Like others have said though, soon you will see 32GB and 64GB flash drive versions, but I'm sure Apple is waiting for the price of that size flash memory to go down before you will see it on an iPod or iPhone. Give it time...it will happen. :)
 
Also considering the power consumption of a rotational hard drive vs the solid state flashROM, I can't see it working out with an HDD.
The place to invest right now is in flashROM manufacturers, Intel and ST Micro just partitioned off this side of their business into a new JV.... most likely setting up the business admin for the explosion of growth this manufacturing corner will have in the future.
I see big things (and big capacities) for flashROM soon.
 
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