4 ms·

I feel like these purges are a relatively common practice? I've heard people say things to the effect of "Oh, I had that app but I deleted it because I never us

I feel like these purges are a relatively common practice? I've heard people say things to the effect of "Oh, I had that app but I deleted it because I never used it and I needed more space." That's usually what prompts me to delete some unused apps. This blog feels like it's a few several years too late.

jagger27 10y ago
> several years too late That's Mossberg for you. He's a good and thoughtful writer who today only writes about what we already know.
- pavlov 10y ago
  There's a place for that, as not everyone is an early adopter. He probably knows his readership pretty well, and introduces concepts to them when he feels they have been sufficiently "baked" in tech blogs and other venues.
davidiach 10y ago
I use a 16GB iPhone and I delete apps all the time because of lack of space. In a sense I see this as a strategic mistake by Apple, you can't have people downloading and using lots of app and also sell most iPhone with only 16GB space.
- coldtea 10y ago
  Maybe Apple doesn't care about "people downloading and using lots of app" beyond a certain point? The App Store has never been a cash cow for them. Hardware has always bin.
- shoover 10y ago
  And then carriers will sell Android phones with 8GB in which the OS takes 5GB and undeletable apps use 2+GB. But it runs quickly enough in a demo and once you buy it you're stuck.
  - bdcravens 10y ago
    Aren't most expandable via SD?
    - wccrawford 10y ago
      Older ones were, but the new Nexus phones aren't, and I'm pretty sure I've heard of others. I was horrified at first, but I will probably end up buying a new phone before it really becomes a problem... And I bought a huge one this time, too, so it really isn't a problem.
      - bdcravens 10y ago
        I have an S7 as my secondary (primary is 6S Plus) so I'm a casual user at best, but the SIM slot appears to hold both the SIM and a MicroSD.
    - shoover 10y ago
      Yes, which is great for photos and other data. You can move individual apps there, too, but parts of the moved apps still stay on the phone and you can't control this. My wife's phone has all movable apps except Trello moved to SD, along with all photos, Audible cache, etc., and it's running about 300MB free on the phone most of the time. When we bought it I assumed it would be fine because my low end HTC came with 2GB free space. The difference I missed was Android 4.4 is much larger. We will try replacing Facebook/Messenger with Metal as suggested elsewhere and see if that leaves more wiggle room and improves battery life and overall performance.
  - deong 10y ago
    There are exactly five new phones on the first page of the AT&T site for sale right now that you can buy with less than 32 GB of memory. They are: * Apple iPhone SE * Apple iPhone 6s+ * Apple iPhone 6s * Apple iPhone 6+ * Apple iPhone 6
    - ac29 10y ago
      The "first page of the AT&T site" is a rather arbitrary criteria for finding what phones are on offer. The only Android phones there are high end ($600-700) Samsung and LG phones. Its definitely not hard to find Android phones with 8 or 16GB of storage, especially on the cheaper end. Saavy consumers can get a pretty solid Android phone for around $200, though. I'm specifically thinking of the Moto G, now on its 4th iteration, and all of them have been fairly well spec'd and reviewed for that price point.

jagger27 10y ago

> several years too late That's Mossberg for you. He's a good and thoughtful writer who today only writes about what we already know.

pavlov 10y ago
There's a place for that, as not everyone is an early adopter. He probably knows his readership pretty well, and introduces concepts to them when he feels they have been sufficiently "baked" in tech blogs and other venues.

davidiach 10y ago

I use a 16GB iPhone and I delete apps all the time because of lack of space. In a sense I see this as a strategic mistake by Apple, you can't have people downloading and using lots of app and also sell most iPhone with only 16GB space.

coldtea 10y ago
Maybe Apple doesn't care about "people downloading and using lots of app" beyond a certain point? The App Store has never been a cash cow for them. Hardware has always bin.
shoover 10y ago
And then carriers will sell Android phones with 8GB in which the OS takes 5GB and undeletable apps use 2+GB. But it runs quickly enough in a demo and once you buy it you're stuck.
- bdcravens 10y ago
  Aren't most expandable via SD?
  - wccrawford 10y ago
    Older ones were, but the new Nexus phones aren't, and I'm pretty sure I've heard of others. I was horrified at first, but I will probably end up buying a new phone before it really becomes a problem... And I bought a huge one this time, too, so it really isn't a problem.
    - bdcravens 10y ago
      I have an S7 as my secondary (primary is 6S Plus) so I'm a casual user at best, but the SIM slot appears to hold both the SIM and a MicroSD.
  - shoover 10y ago
    Yes, which is great for photos and other data. You can move individual apps there, too, but parts of the moved apps still stay on the phone and you can't control this. My wife's phone has all movable apps except Trello moved to SD, along with all photos, Audible cache, etc., and it's running about 300MB free on the phone most of the time. When we bought it I assumed it would be fine because my low end HTC came with 2GB free space. The difference I missed was Android 4.4 is much larger. We will try replacing Facebook/Messenger with Metal as suggested elsewhere and see if that leaves more wiggle room and improves battery life and overall performance.
- deong 10y ago
  There are exactly five new phones on the first page of the AT&T site for sale right now that you can buy with less than 32 GB of memory. They are: * Apple iPhone SE * Apple iPhone 6s+ * Apple iPhone 6s * Apple iPhone 6+ * Apple iPhone 6
  - ac29 10y ago
    The "first page of the AT&T site" is a rather arbitrary criteria for finding what phones are on offer. The only Android phones there are high end ($600-700) Samsung and LG phones. Its definitely not hard to find Android phones with 8 or 16GB of storage, especially on the cheaper end. Saavy consumers can get a pretty solid Android phone for around $200, though. I'm specifically thinking of the Moto G, now on its 4th iteration, and all of them have been fairly well spec'd and reviewed for that price point.