5 ms·

Shocked they are still using 128GB as the starting storage size.

rootusrootus 2y ago
I guess they have more information about usage patterns than we do. Anecdotally, I have a 256GB iPhone, and I use it consistently for a whole variety of things, and my usage is just under 94GB. I'd bet that my 'normal' family members use a good bit less than that.
- metaltyphoon 2y ago
  Ahh you need is kids to see that storage be laughable.
  - eitally 2y ago
    I'm going to downvote you because I don't know what you're talking about. My kids have 128GB phones and don't have any issues at all. They're also on our family plan with Google One for shared storage and we're still -- as a family of five where I personally have contributed about 100,000 photos (and some videos) over the past 15 years -- only at 1.2TB of consumed storage. What are your kids doing that consumes so much local storage?
    - sturza 2y ago
      Both of you generalized from anecdotes.
      - supportengineer 2y ago
        Here is a data point. We went on a one-week family vacation, my teens created a shared album which contains 3,000 photos and 100 videos.
        kevinsync 2y ago
        Yep. I'm in my early 40's, recently self-hosted Immich, imported the archive of photos and videos my wife and I have created since 2000, and we're sitting at 216,000 photos, 5000 videos, 650gb+ of data. 2000-2011ish was point-and-shoot digital + DSLR, then 2012-2024 has been the output of TWO CELL PHONES. We aren't photographers, we just goof around, and our almost-teenaged son doesn't factor into those numbers. The sheer volume of data created is just .. it's nuts. And there's another 300gb of data generated from all the metadata, sidecar, smart search, face detection! Imagine all that plus much more that Apple Intelligence generates. Long gone are the days of just putting JPGs into a folder!
        dagmx 2y ago
        But since it’s a shared album, most of that lives in the cloud and not locally cached. If I was betting, most people likely pay for a cloud storage solution and don’t use the majority of their device storage.
    - rashkov 2y ago
      They do cute things that I want to take a video or photo of and never delete from my phone
    - metaltyphoon 2y ago
      I see it was clear enough. We, my wife and I take many pictures and videos (4K 30fps) of our kids. My kids don’t use phones at their age. So our phone storage is always scary high.
- fkyoureadthedoc 2y ago
  I'm at 67/256GB, I don't know why I even went with 256GB
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- cruano 2y ago
  I got the 512GB model and have been using it without any regard for storage for a couple of years. All my music is downloaded locally in lossless formats. I keep full-res versions of all my vacation pictures/videos and I also download a ton of crap, from videogames to movies. I'm at 285GB right now. The breakdown is 81GB for music, 56GB for pictures, ~40GB of download content on TV/Youtube/Audible and ~23GB of games. I could _easily_ cut down on that. There's games I haven't played in a while, movies I've already watched, or even music I don't really listen to frequently enough to have it downloaded. Safe to say I'll go for 256GB next time
- drivers99 2y ago
  I'm at 166 GB out of 256 GB. Every time I upgrade my iPhone (average every 5 years), I get the most storage available (after learning my lesson on the iPhone 4) and it ends up being 4x bigger than before. iPod touch (32GB), if you ignore this iPhone 4 (16GB), 2010 iPhone 6 (64GB), 2014 iPhone SE 2nd gen (256GB), 2020 iPhone 16 (1 TB)?, 2024 Every time, I think "that's probably way more than I'll need", but I guess in 6 years or so I'll upgrade to the 4 TB model. Or wait for next year's model, maybe another SE will come out...
- jerlam 2y ago
  I wonder if storage needs have a very bimodal distribution. Both my parents barely use the 64GB on their phone. The one that does photography, probably can't store all their photos on any iPhone, because it measures in the multi-TB. I usually overbuy storage but after three years, I'm removing things like music and podcasts because it's completely full.
  - schmidtleonard 2y ago
    > bimodal Those who go heavy on the video vs those who don't.
- lucb1e 2y ago
  > they have more information about usage patterns than we do. They, unlike us, also know what 256GB of storage actually costs but somehow that's not reflected in the price difference either
- joshstrange 2y ago
  Every time I upgrade, I go and look at my storage and see that I’m close to my 256 limit, then I take a closer look and realize it’s my audiobook in podcast app taking up 40 to 50 gigs each. That plus a bunch of apps that I don’t actually use and could easily delete off my phone.
_mlbt 2y ago
With iCloud and music streaming 128GB is enough for a lot of people. I know I still have quite a bit of room left on my 128GB iPhone 12, even with taking tons of photos and videos.
hintymad 2y ago
For people who want 256GB, they might as well just buy iphone pro max. It will be just $100 more compared to iphone pro.
- el_benhameen 2y ago
  I still prefer the smaller form factor. Easier one-handed use, and less bulk in my pocket. I wasn’t going to upgrade this cycle anyway, but the larger size of both pro models has removed any inkling of the “well maaaaaybe” feeling that I usually get.
veber-alex 2y ago
Everything is in the cloud now. 128GB is plenty for me.
kube-system 2y ago
Why is that shocking? Delivering a base model with minimal specs and upcharging for the specs that power-users need is Apple's standard way of doing business. If you want to store more, you pay more, either by buying more expensive models, or by subscribing to iCloud. This pricing strategy is intentional in the way it is limiting to encourage people to buy more expensive models. They don't offer 128gb as the base tier because they think it will meet everyone's needs. They offer that as the base tier because they think it won't meet everyone's needs. An ideal pricing strategy captures as many sales as possible while also upcharging as many people as possible who would be willing to pay more.
trustno2 2y ago
They can sell more iCloud subscriptions that way
madeofpalk 2y ago
Fair - I'm sure it costs pennies to double the capacity. But also I just checked and I have 128GB and its fine for me.
systemtest 2y ago
I use around 60 gigabyte on my phone. When I go on holiday I put around 40 gigabyte of offline maps on it. 128 gigabyte is enough for me.
johnisgood 2y ago
Why would a storage capacity exceeding 128 GB be necessary? If more than 128 GB of storage is required, why not utilize an SD card or other storage solutions (e.g. HDD / SSD used for your desktop) for storing large files? Is there a practical use case where data needs to be stored and actively accessed on a device with such large storage? For instance, I have a collection of videos totaling approximately 30 GB in size. I should consider transferring these files to my HDD or SSD rather than seeking a device with higher internal storage capacity.

I guess they have more information about usage patterns than we do. Anecdotally, I have a 256GB iPhone, and I use it consistently for a whole variety of things, and my usage is just under 94GB. I'd bet that my 'normal' family members use a good bit less than that.

metaltyphoon 2y ago
Ahh you need is kids to see that storage be laughable.
- eitally 2y ago
  I'm going to downvote you because I don't know what you're talking about. My kids have 128GB phones and don't have any issues at all. They're also on our family plan with Google One for shared storage and we're still -- as a family of five where I personally have contributed about 100,000 photos (and some videos) over the past 15 years -- only at 1.2TB of consumed storage. What are your kids doing that consumes so much local storage?
  - sturza 2y ago
    Both of you generalized from anecdotes.
    - supportengineer 2y ago
      Here is a data point. We went on a one-week family vacation, my teens created a shared album which contains 3,000 photos and 100 videos.
      - kevinsync 2y ago
        Yep. I'm in my early 40's, recently self-hosted Immich, imported the archive of photos and videos my wife and I have created since 2000, and we're sitting at 216,000 photos, 5000 videos, 650gb+ of data. 2000-2011ish was point-and-shoot digital + DSLR, then 2012-2024 has been the output of TWO CELL PHONES. We aren't photographers, we just goof around, and our almost-teenaged son doesn't factor into those numbers. The sheer volume of data created is just .. it's nuts. And there's another 300gb of data generated from all the metadata, sidecar, smart search, face detection! Imagine all that plus much more that Apple Intelligence generates. Long gone are the days of just putting JPGs into a folder!
      - dagmx 2y ago
        But since it’s a shared album, most of that lives in the cloud and not locally cached. If I was betting, most people likely pay for a cloud storage solution and don’t use the majority of their device storage.
  - rashkov 2y ago
    They do cute things that I want to take a video or photo of and never delete from my phone
  - metaltyphoon 2y ago
    I see it was clear enough. We, my wife and I take many pictures and videos (4K 30fps) of our kids. My kids don’t use phones at their age. So our phone storage is always scary high.
fkyoureadthedoc 2y ago
I'm at 67/256GB, I don't know why I even went with 256GB
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
cruano 2y ago
I got the 512GB model and have been using it without any regard for storage for a couple of years. All my music is downloaded locally in lossless formats. I keep full-res versions of all my vacation pictures/videos and I also download a ton of crap, from videogames to movies. I'm at 285GB right now. The breakdown is 81GB for music, 56GB for pictures, ~40GB of download content on TV/Youtube/Audible and ~23GB of games. I could _easily_ cut down on that. There's games I haven't played in a while, movies I've already watched, or even music I don't really listen to frequently enough to have it downloaded. Safe to say I'll go for 256GB next time
drivers99 2y ago
I'm at 166 GB out of 256 GB. Every time I upgrade my iPhone (average every 5 years), I get the most storage available (after learning my lesson on the iPhone 4) and it ends up being 4x bigger than before. iPod touch (32GB), if you ignore this iPhone 4 (16GB), 2010 iPhone 6 (64GB), 2014 iPhone SE 2nd gen (256GB), 2020 iPhone 16 (1 TB)?, 2024 Every time, I think "that's probably way more than I'll need", but I guess in 6 years or so I'll upgrade to the 4 TB model. Or wait for next year's model, maybe another SE will come out...
jerlam 2y ago
I wonder if storage needs have a very bimodal distribution. Both my parents barely use the 64GB on their phone. The one that does photography, probably can't store all their photos on any iPhone, because it measures in the multi-TB. I usually overbuy storage but after three years, I'm removing things like music and podcasts because it's completely full.
- schmidtleonard 2y ago
  > bimodal Those who go heavy on the video vs those who don't.
lucb1e 2y ago
> they have more information about usage patterns than we do. They, unlike us, also know what 256GB of storage actually costs but somehow that's not reflected in the price difference either
joshstrange 2y ago
Every time I upgrade, I go and look at my storage and see that I’m close to my 256 limit, then I take a closer look and realize it’s my audiobook in podcast app taking up 40 to 50 gigs each. That plus a bunch of apps that I don’t actually use and could easily delete off my phone.

_mlbt 2y ago

With iCloud and music streaming 128GB is enough for a lot of people. I know I still have quite a bit of room left on my 128GB iPhone 12, even with taking tons of photos and videos.

hintymad 2y ago

For people who want 256GB, they might as well just buy iphone pro max. It will be just $100 more compared to iphone pro.

el_benhameen 2y ago
I still prefer the smaller form factor. Easier one-handed use, and less bulk in my pocket. I wasn’t going to upgrade this cycle anyway, but the larger size of both pro models has removed any inkling of the “well maaaaaybe” feeling that I usually get.

veber-alex 2y ago

Everything is in the cloud now. 128GB is plenty for me.

kube-system 2y ago

Why is that shocking? Delivering a base model with minimal specs and upcharging for the specs that power-users need is Apple's standard way of doing business. If you want to store more, you pay more, either by buying more expensive models, or by subscribing to iCloud. This pricing strategy is intentional in the way it is limiting to encourage people to buy more expensive models. They don't offer 128gb as the base tier because they think it will meet everyone's needs. They offer that as the base tier because they think it won't meet everyone's needs. An ideal pricing strategy captures as many sales as possible while also upcharging as many people as possible who would be willing to pay more.

trustno2 2y ago

They can sell more iCloud subscriptions that way

madeofpalk 2y ago

Fair - I'm sure it costs pennies to double the capacity. But also I just checked and I have 128GB and its fine for me.

systemtest 2y ago

I use around 60 gigabyte on my phone. When I go on holiday I put around 40 gigabyte of offline maps on it. 128 gigabyte is enough for me.

johnisgood 2y ago

Why would a storage capacity exceeding 128 GB be necessary? If more than 128 GB of storage is required, why not utilize an SD card or other storage solutions (e.g. HDD / SSD used for your desktop) for storing large files? Is there a practical use case where data needs to be stored and actively accessed on a device with such large storage? For instance, I have a collection of videos totaling approximately 30 GB in size. I should consider transferring these files to my HDD or SSD rather than seeking a device with higher internal storage capacity.