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Why such smal capacities?

kdryan

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I'm curious why we only have a 64gb iPad. Surely the technology is there for a terabyte drive small enough to fit in an iPad. I have a 16gb SD card the size of a thumbnail in my phone, so I know physical dimensions are not the issue. So why then?

Small, not Smal... :(
 
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tlbaker

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kdryan said:
I'm curious why we only have a 64gb iPad. Surely the technology is there for a terabyte drive small enough to fit in an iPad. I have a 16gb SD card the size of a thumbnail in my phone, so I know physical dimensions are not the issue. So why then?

Small, not Smal... :(

Why didn't you get the 64GB iPad?

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tlbaker

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kdryan said:
It was a gift, but even 64gb is ridiculously small by today's standards...

Ahhh. I got mine as a gift as well. I plan on keeping it for a while.

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HafMan

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I only have the 16GB and I'm happy with that mainly because I don't store a lot of music etc on it.
Apple certainly could do it but why should they release something that would earn them billions, when they could drip feed the market with plenty of different models.
 

twerppoet

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The iPad uses a more expensive SSD like drive. This is because it takes up less space, and is less susceptible to being damaged by sudden deceleration syndrome.

If you look around, I think you'll find the terabyte SSD drives are a wee bit more expensive than the hard drives in most laptops.
 
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kdryan

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There's an answer I can live with. I thought I had read they were more prone to failure than a traditional drive...
 

Kaykaykay

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I've read that they can take more abuse (jostling and such), so that's why they're used in devices like iPods, iPads, etc. But they're supposed to degrade over time, despite that. They are more expensive, as Twerppoet says. I'd be willing to pay for more storage than 64GBs, though. I'd like at least 1TB.
 

twerppoet

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I've read that they can take more abuse (jostling and such), so that's why they're used in devices like iPods, iPads, etc. But they're supposed to degrade over time, despite that. They are more expensive, as Twerppoet says. I'd be willing to pay for more storage than 64GBs, though. I'd like at least 1TB.

1TB SSD drives are going for more than $2000. That means the having one in an iPad (if it would fit) would probably raise the price by at least $1000. I think I can live with 64GB a bit longer. ;)
 

Kaykaykay

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1TB SSD drives are going for more than $2000. That means the having one in an iPad (if it would fit) would probably raise the price by at least $1000. I think I can live with 64GB a bit longer. ;)

Lol. I'd be willing to pay for 1TB. But Apple would probably get few takers, which is why they've limited storage to the current offerings.
 
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kdryan

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Ok, so that explains the small capacity, but why no ability to add additional storage like and external drive or an SD card?
 

tlbaker

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twerppoet said:
1TB SSD drives are going for more than $2000. That means the having one in an iPad (if it would fit) would probably raise the price by at least $1000. I think I can live with 64GB a bit longer. ;)

Uuuhh me too. That's a laptop purchase...

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twerppoet

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Ok, so that explains the small capacity, but why no ability to add additional storage like and external drive or an SD card?

Well, I can only guess; but probably just Apple's usual design choices. 1) simplicity. 2) design for the future, not now.

It's becoming increasingly obvious that physical media is going to take a back seat to cloud plus ubiquitous internet availability, especial with mobile devices. As usual, Apple has chosen to abandon what it perceives to be declining technology before it's actually dead.
 
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kdryan

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Here's my problem with that. Unless you have access to unlimited bandwidth everywhere, all the time, I don't see how the Cloud is going to be 100% effective. My cell carrier limits my bandwidth so if I go over, I get throttled back to dial-up speed or with other carriers get charged for the extra. I can't take my home internet with me and hotspots are not everywhere, so how am I supposed to go completely with Cloud storage and still have access to my data? Admittedly, I am new to all of this, but it looks to be a serious drawback.
 
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