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Because Spec junkies buy exclusively on it. As apple is focused on consumers first and foremost, RAM is something only "the nerds" find themselves concerned about, myself included.
Exactly, the typical consumer doesn't really understand RAM. So they don't want that person to see that competitors product X has 2x the RAM of this Apple product. They want that consumer to focus on what the product does. It's specific features not just a comparison of numbers on a spec sheet. Same reason they rarely give out clock speed of the chips. They use easier to understand metrics of actual performance comparisons like 2.5x faster than the previous model at processing, graphics etc.
 
damn it, 2gb isn't enough! we need 3gb of ram on the iphone or there's simply no point buying one. biggest fail of the year. /s
2 GB is a significant upgrade. On iPhone 6 (Plus) you only get a few hundred MBs of free RAM (200-300 at best). That's enough for a couple of tabs in Safari and 1-2 apps before things start reloading. With 2 GB RAM, you have 1.3 GB of free RAM (4.5x or 450% more) which is PLENTY for dozens of tabs and apps. A huge difference.
 
Has anyone who's used both a 6 and 6+ extensively noticed that this problem is worse on the 6+? I don't remember it being that bad on my iPhone 5, which also had 1GB RAM but a lot fewer pixels, no background refresh, no app extensions, no today widgets, no watch extensions, etc.. I'm honestly still surprised they'll be selling the 6 Plus for another year (if not longer), RAM hobbles the longevity of it.

Having used the 6+ all year since launch, I can tell you the problem is only there if you tend to leave ton of apps open (as in don't clean up the multi-tasking list of apps) and have background app refresh running for ALL apps.

Then again its really not a problem though as some apps will crash every once in a while which is almost normal on mobile devices. I wouldn't say the lack of extra 1GB of RAM crippled the 6+ in anyway and for vast majority of consumers, its still optimized to the point where they will not noticed the lack of RAM.
 
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Exactly, the typical consumer doesn't really understand RAM. So they don't want that person to see that competitors product X has 2x the RAM of this Apple product. They want that consumer to focus on what the product does. It's specific features not just a comparison of numbers on a spec sheet. Same reason they rarely give out clock speed of the chips. They use easier to understand metrics of actual performance comparisons like 2.5x faster than the previous model at processing, graphics etc.

For anyone that wants insight into how Apple phrases things, the book on Jonny Ive's life (when you extrapolate his design philosophy and apply it to his position in Apple) provides excellent insight.
 
2 GB is a significant upgrade. On iPhone 6 (Plus) you only get a few hundred MBs of free RAM (200-300 at best). That's enough for a couple of tabs in Safari and 1-2 apps before things start reloading. With 2 GB RAM, you have 1.3 GB of free RAM (4.5x or 450% more) which is PLENTY for dozens of tabs and apps. A huge difference.

/s <--- that means sarcasm. u didn't understand my post ;)
 
Because Spec junkies buy exclusively on it. As apple is focused on consumers first and foremost, RAM is something only "the nerds" find themselves concerned about, myself included.
Is that why they went on and on about 64-bit and the number of transistors in their new chips? Lets not even mention all the camera science for the iPhone 6s camera...
 
Should have been 2 GB in the first place. The way apps refresh is my number one dislike of my 6+. It is beyond frustrating to type something in one app, multitask to safari to check something, and then come back to see my text obliterated.

Apple's frameworks provide a solution to that very problem. The developer of the app did not take advantage of it, it seems.
 
Keep in mind, before the "wowz it took soon long" wave comes in, this 2GB of RAM is going outperform many/most of the 3GB+ devices out there. The amount of work they've done in memory compression (acquiring firms like anobit) and tuning the OS to the hardware is just staggering.

We know this already, but my iPad air 2 is supremely superior device vs my 6+ and iPad mini 2 by virtue of it's 2gb of ram. If my 6+ came with 2gb, I wouldn't have bought the 6S+

Apple's frameworks provide a solution to that very problem. The developer of the app did not take advantage of it, it seems.

After waiting for 2+ years (since the 5S) for devs to fix this problem, I'm not holding my breath...
 
they'd be partially right. 2gb on a high end premium phone isn't a "good" amount, it's the bare minimum it should have. now we have enough, but that's it. it's still not a generous amount.

I kinda wonder though, how do you come to that number? What workflows? Any captured data on actual memory use, or just anecdotal evidence?

I do think it is time for 2GB devices (especially the plus), but when I see people state this as fact with no hard evidence, it does suggest that us developers are simply not doing our job, or that we can't optimize correctly? Or somehow play no part at all?

Isn't 2GB still quite small for multitasking? What did the iPhone 6 have?

1GB. And how that RAM gets used depends on what is multitasking, and how many recent apps you expect to remain resident in memory at once.

I understood the sarcasm, but some people here act as if more RAM is a bad thing so I had to respond :D
More RAM is always good.

To a point, the trade off is more RAM means less battery life, even in standby, as you have to keep that RAM powered and refreshed to maintain the data stored there. So you need to counteract it with a bigger battery or smaller transistors.
 
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I was really hoping for 1GB ram in the plus and 2GB in the regular version just so apple to mess w everyone

apple should invite ifixit on stage next year.
 
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Is that why they went on and on about 64-bit and the number of transistors in their new chips? Lets not even mention all the camera science for the iPhone 6s camera...

That's a good point, but again consumers can understand "the brain is smarter than any others on the market" and "holy crapnuggets :)p) check out how we got the camera to take pictures this good" vs RAM (which consumers still don't understand after 30+ years of a PC industry existing).

I'm not saying your points aren't valid, but Apple does a TON of work internally deciding what to focus on, and RAM is just not compelling to normal consumers and for whatever reason it seems to confuse them.
 
The iPad Pro is just one more step towards iOS replacing Mac OS X.
No it never will. If you're a developer/power user you would know. We rely heavily on using the terminal and being able to have tons of windows open at once. iOS is not suited for all of that. Not to mention it runs on a completely different architecture CPU. ARM processors are far too weak for power users and years and year of development have gone into Mac OS X. They are completely different ballparks. Don't compare apples to oranges.
 
Why is Apple so secretive about RAM? It makes no sense to me. Everyone finds out anyway; they may as well just list it in the specs.

They aren't secretive about it, they simply don't consider that a relevant part of their spec sheet. That same goes for countless other specs. For example, they list the A9 chip but they don't tell you the CPU or GPU speed, or even how many cores each has. Why good would that do for marketing the device? Would it help customers buy an iPhone over an Android phone if they compare the CPU clock rate and the amount of RAM to find that Apple will have a lower amount in both cases? Any customer that looks at those across disparate OSes and HW architectures doesn't understand how performance works.

Bottom line: All that matters is that the device works well, and no one has better track record of well balanced devices than Apple.
 
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