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Why no SD card reader on iPad?

PracticalMac

PracticalMac

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Jan 22, 2009
2,857
5,246
Houston, TX
iPad 3 case photos do not suggest an SD or even mini-SD slot present.

Why not?

Sure iOS does not have a Finder, but a few Apps do have file management abilities.

Piracy concern my Media industry? Copying songs from iPad to transfer to some other device?

Or simply complicates iOS and the iPad?

Sure one can get the "Camera Connection Kit", but that seams to simply complicate the issue more then if built in. I rater spend the money and have it built in.

Discuss.
 
If there was a SD card reader people might buy a 16GB iPad, then put in a huge SD card (you can get them up to, like, 64GB), leave it in there permanently... And you've got an 80GB iPad. That'd mean fewer sales of the 32 and 64GB iPad models, which cost more, therefore make more money for Apple.

I have no idea if this is why, but it could be one of the reasons :)
 
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Another one of Apple's reasons could be that they view SD cards along the same lines as optical media, an outdated form of information transfer and storage. And they're trying their hardest to move the world over to internet/cloud based storage.
 
Edge100 said:
Having just finished reading the Steve Jobs biography, I'd say that the answer is that slots on an iPad are inelegant.
Click to expand...

I'd agree with this. Steve liked elegant, simple shapes that flowed. Another example is the new "spaceship" hq they are gonna build. Not one single piece of straight glass will be used. All curved to create an infinite loop. 1 Infinite Loop, that is.

Also, transferring data from an sd card is slow.
 
If Apple ever loosens that guy's deathgrip on iPad internal architecture, allowing some sort of reasonable file browsing, they still will not put in a card slot. However, they might produce a compact "myCloud" device that can mount cards and perhaps HDs as well. Or someone else will.

Picture an iPod-mini-sized device that you can put in your pocket and use for cards and/or USB/T-Bolt for drives (probably not in your pocket). This adds the layer of security that if you lose track of your toy, your important data is still in your pocket.

Why would Apple do this? To slim down the product line. Right now, there are 18 different iPads, to offer expandability would allow them to reduce that to six, or even four if they made the cell radio switchable. Smaller product line is more efficient (or leaves room for fruity colours).
 
mrsir2009 said:
If there was a SD card reader people might buy a 16GB iPad, then put in a huge SD card (you can get them up to, like, 64GB), leave it in there permanently... And you've got an 80GB iPad. That'd mean fewer sales of the 32 and 64GB iPad models, which cost more, therefore make more money for Apple.

I have no idea if this is why, but it could be one of the reasons :)
Click to expand...

That wont happen, because iTunes will only acknowledge only the built in memory.

Why limit it that way?

If you have music, videos, whatever on an SD card and remove it, CRASH!
 
PracticalMac said:
That wont happen, because iTunes will only acknowledge only the built in memory.

Why limit it that way?

If you have music, videos, whatever on an SD card and remove it, CRASH!
Click to expand...

Well, then what would be the point of a built in SD card reader if iTunes etc only recognizes the built in memory? What would you use a SD card reader for?
 
mrsir2009 said:
Well, then what would be the point of a built in SD card reader if iTunes etc only recognizes the built in memory? What would you use a SD card reader for?
Click to expand...

People with cameras/DSLR's, importing pictures to and from the ipad.. or just viewing it straight from the SD card, that's why it exists..

But you can make it work for music/videos if you jailbreak it. Though the reason apple has limited it to the way it is, is simply because of not letting people file sharing.. it would be too easy to put music onto the sd-card from any computer if it could read it if you put it in, just like you need one computer locked onto the computer to get music onto the iDevice... ridicolous thing imho, but it stops filesharing..
 
It's all about the money. If Apple had micro-sd slots, a majority of folks would buy the smallest ipad, iphone they could, and Apple would lose $$ on each device.

Apple has great products and customer service, and other companies are in the catch up mode; most will not make it to Apples level, but one our two will, and that will foster better competition.

As android devices improve and become more standardized, Apple will eventually be forced to meet consumer demands.
 
If iPads had micro SD slots it would only provide a way to bypass the camera kit for importing photos. It would not map to general storage allowing you to buy a 16g device and adding a 64g memory card for more storage on board.
 
Apple charges $100 and $200 more over the base model for an additional 16GB and 48GB respectively. Like others have said, if they offered SD card slot, most people would go with 16GB. Only Apple can overcharge and get away with it:rolleyes:
 
thewitt said:
If iPads had micro SD slots it would only provide a way to bypass the camera kit for importing photos. It would not map to general storage allowing you to buy a 16g device and adding a 64g memory card for more storage on board.
Click to expand...

Why as a customer should I pay Apple $100 , $200 or more for the extra capacity, when I can buy an sd card for a fraction of that cost? Because for now, Apple has the edge.

It's only a matter of time before Android comes fully on par with Apple, and eventually Apple will have to compete with others that utilize the sd card as extra storage.

It's simply a matter of supply and demand.
 
There seems to be some major misconceptions about flash storage in here. The storage on an iPad is not the same as a simple SD card. Even Class 10 rated cards are glacially slow compared to the speed of the flash storage on the iPad. Write speed on an iPad 1 was nearly 50 MB/s in a test I saw. Class 10 specifies 10 MB/s.

So it would be incredibly impractical for Apple to implement some kind of system where the iPad's filesystem spanned across the built-in flash and the SD card, both because performance would be terrible and because if it worked this way the second someone removed the SD card the whole thing would go to crap.

If you just want it to be able to put an SD card with some media like movies and music on it, and have the iPad read it, I can understand that use case - but for the most part the world has moved past this sort of manual media management - people are used to just dumping their media in iTunes and letting it handle the sync.
 
Sorry if someone's said this already and I missed it, but one negative thing about an SD card slot is it would make the iPad thicker. And we all know how Apple loves to make their devices as thin as possible!

Also, if there were an SD card, then Apple would have to figure out how to manage it. For instance, some apps like games and magazines are increasingly becoming storage space hogs. So a convenient use for SD cards would be to use the space for apps. So let's say there are apps on the SD card, and you take it out. What to do with the corresponding icons on the home screen? Grey them out? They just disappear until you put the SD card back in? Not that this is undoable, mind you, but it's more details to be worked out.

Sure, not putting in SD cards means that Apple can sell us units with more storage for extra profit. Add to that the fact that it takes more work to add SD cards, and I don't see any incentive for Apple to go that route.
 
mattraehl said:
There seems to be some major misconceptions about flash storage in here. The storage on an iPad is not the same as a simple SD card. Even Class 10 rated cards are glacially slow compared to the speed of the flash storage on the iPad. Write speed on an iPad 1 was nearly 50 MB/s in a test I saw. Class 10 specifies 10 MB/s.

So it would be incredibly impractical for Apple to implement some kind of system where the iPad's filesystem spanned across the built-in flash and the SD card, both because performance would be terrible and because if it worked this way the second someone removed the SD card the whole thing would go to crap.

If you just want it to be able to put an SD card with some media like movies and music on it, and have the iPad read it, I can understand that use case - but for the most part the world has moved past this sort of manual media management - people are used to just dumping their media in iTunes and letting it handle the sync.
Click to expand...

Another very good argument.

And I totally agree on last part.
 
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