Motorola Droid by Verizon has done well to create a iPhone killer hype and the Android 2.0 device is reported to have sold 100000 units in the first weekend itself. However here is what the Droid doesn’t do after all the hype and hungama before launch: It fails to allow you to take full benefit of the 1000’s of Android apps out there by restricting app installation memory to just 256MB.
We have seen many iPhone Killers shot down by lack of an App store competitor. However here we have something really promising, has great potential but it shots itself in the foot by allowing just 256mb of internal app storage space. Android doesn’t provide ability to support app installations on the SD card and the internal ROM of Droid is just 512MB leaving some 256MB for apps. Compared to the iPhone which gives over 7GB space (minimum) of space for apps with some apps on the App store weighing more than 500MB+.
The PowerVR SGX 530 GPU of the Motorola Droid (similar to the one in 3GS) looks quite a waste with no proper app storage capabilities. The great games just won’t take off on the Android platform that easy. Some relief though is the fact that apps in Android does allow storing some extra info on the SD card, but that isn’t a great experience competing with the iTunes appstore.
Update in comments below:
A well written Android app will create what use to be called an “executive” which will be loaded in ROM. Most execs are very small (measured in KB not MB). The rest of the program (app), regardless of size, can be on the SD card. The only limitation is the size of the card. And that can (eventually) be up to 32GB.
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This is not correct and misleading. A well written Android app will create what use to be called an “executive” which will be loaded in ROM. Most execs are very small (measured in KB not MB). The rest of the program (app), regardless of size, can be on the SD card. The only limitation is the size of the card. And that can (eventually) be up to 32GB.
This was obviously written by the Apple/AT&T camp. Face the facts….any device close to the iPhone will do great on a real network. There’s a map for that, biatch!
It’s not an ‘executive’, it’s an executable – that which you execute when you command it to run. This is why windows apps are often named .exe. The 256mb limit doesn’t matter much if the size of the executable is small, and its RAM footprint when running is small. Consider legacy PalmOS applications where the prc and pdb (palm resource (executable) and palm database) were both about 8-16kb. If applications take up so little room, then the 256mb limit is no longer scary. I don’t know of specific applications which store a portion of the application on the SD card (other than content like music or documents) but even if that doesn’t take place and all apps are on the internal ROM, it just doesn’t matter if the size of the binary executable is small. The average size of an iPhone app is 10MB. What is the average size of an Android app? Is it a factor of 10 less? I don’t know. If it is, then 256MB is not a problem.
The only people who REALLY need a phone that does EVERYTHING or stores so much more apps and data are those without a life! I’m assuming you may be one of those who depend on your phone for everything, considering you couldn’t even spell “shoots” correctly. Give the android/droid a break! How about reporting on something more important.