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Home / News / Apple doubles app size limit to 4GB, making your 16GB iPhone even more inadequate

Apple doubles app size limit to 4GB, making your 16GB iPhone even more inadequate

Entry-level device storage stays the same, yet the largest apps only get bigger

Hope you’ve got plenty of space available on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, because the glossier, higher-end apps and games on the App Store are about to get even larger than they are already.

That’s because Apple has doubled the file size limit for iOS apps, now allowing downloads as large as 4GB in size. Four gigabytes! That’s a serious amount of data, especially for something you may be enjoying on a few-inch display.

Of course, not all apps and games will suddenly have massive footprints because of the cap increase. In fact, many app makers trim their file sizes – often cutting the quality of artwork or requiring users to download more content upon opening the app – to fit under Apple’s cellular download limit of 100MB. That number hasn’t changed.

In reality, raising the limit so significantly is mostly a great thing. It means that developers can bring even richer and more comprehensive experiences to touch devices, and especially means that game makers can go all-out in developing large, stunning worlds to explore.

But for device owners, there’s a problem of practicality. Apple still ships its entry-level iPhone and iPad devices with just 16GB of unformatted storage, and by the time the OS is installed, you’re left with a much smaller figure (and there’s even a lawsuit over it). Can you imagine only being able to fit a couple super-sized apps at once?

To get the most out of one of Apple’s premium devices, you really need a premium amount of storage to work with, and that’s never been more true than after this size limit shift. Here’s hoping that Apple likewise doubles the storage of its cheapest devices when the next wave launches.

But seeing as the average selling price per iPhone keeps ticking upwards as customers feel compelled to shell out for added storage, there’s sadly little incentive for Apple to do so.

[Sources: Apple, AppleInsider]

READ MORE: Apple sued over “deceptive” device storage space due to iOS 8 size

Profile image of Andrew Hayward Andrew Hayward Freelance Writer

About

Andrew writes features, news stories, reviews, and other pieces, often when the UK home team is off-duty or asleep. I'm based in Chicago with my lovely wife, amazing son, and silly cats, and my writing about games, gadgets, esports, apps, and plenty more has appeared in more than 75 publications since 2006.

Areas of expertise

Video games, gadgets, apps, smart home

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