Free memory: The Achilles heel of BlackBerry App World
Hip hip huzzah! BlackBerry App World has been with us for over three weeks and no doubt a lot of the World’s 25 million BlackBerry users have jumped on the wagon and taken it for a spin or two around the block. But after playing with it for a while, we’re quite sure that there are plenty of people whose puppy-love infatuation quickly turned to irritation. Why? Errors, bugs and high costs aside, it’s likely that App World users discovered the reality that BlackBerrys have a bit of an issue when it comes to dedicated application memory. This, coupled with the infamous memory leaks that sadly seem to be oh so prevalent on every BlackBerry model since the Pearl 8100, make for a device that isn’t anywhere near capable of handing as many apps as competing smartphones. Put simply, the more contacts, phone logs, saved messages and of course installed applications a user has on his or her BlackBerry, the less free memory the device has to dedicate to new apps.
It really doesn’t take much of effort at all to eat away at the 128MB of app memory on both the Bold or the Storm. In fact, we took a peek at one of the Bold’s at BGR HQ that was running OS 4.6.0.247 and found that it had a paltry 4MB of application memory left. After a battery pull it jumped up to 20MB but then quickly started its descent. The saddest thing is that this Bold only had a Twitter app (more on this some other day), Google Maps, Viigo and a few IM clients installed.
So what can be done about this? Well, for starters, RIM could not only bring its devices into the modern age by giving them 512+ MB of application memory, but it could also do something that we’ve been clamoring for for the longest time and allow users to install applications to their memory cards. And no, we don’t buy it for a second when RIM says it can’t do this securely (surely they can encrypt a microSD card). Other than that, RIM could put some serious work into its aging OS because for the life of us we cannot think of any other platform that has so many updates to fix major bugs and niggles (it seems like for each new device there is a new update, be it a leaked private beta or an official update from a partner carrier, each and every week like clockwork).
Truth be told, we think RIM can be pretty ass-backwards at times, especially considering that it spends a meagre 7-8% on R&D while its competitors spend the 11% industry standard, but it does make a damn fine product nonetheless, one that we couldn’t live without. All in all, it’s just such a shame to think that it can’t do apps right.
Blackberry sucks, Palm ftw
FIRST!
Blackberry is dying technology. Without a major overhaul, BB OS will be as useful as the old Palm OS was. BB has maybe 2 or 3 good years left before the world leaves them behind.
MBettiol said: “… ass-backwards …”
That’s a naughty word. What would the children think?
i think its funny when ppl post first, but there too late cause someone already posted the first comment. still waitin 4 niagara tho
I agree. I thought you could boot from the card. I have a 16 gig micro and would love to use it.
@gquaglia. Far too doom and gloom. We see a slow overhaul of the OS happening over time. Plus the launching devices of late have shown strong improvement, and will continue to do so. Take my 8900. I’ve got 45- 3rd party apps installed, plus a handful of themes. I still have over 100mb free and it never dips below 80mb free. BB will never be compared to palm, which will be dead once the pre flops
you mean that other company that took 2-3 years to finally produce possibly a usable OS with the times? Yeh, total win….
What twitter app would that be?? ;o)
You may have that much memory free with all those apps, but I have thousands of mails, status emails on orders, servers and much more coming into 10 email boxs, with viigo and a handful of other apps installed, I get to 0.0 (YES ZERO MEMORY) free ALL THE TIME. A battery pull is a MUST each and every day. I am on a bold
JUST BECAUSE YOU can have that much memory left doesnt mean you are using your blackbery heavily like other users are (and as it is intended to)
“Meagre 7-8% on R&D…”
Learn how to use spell-check before posting.
I agree that blackberries could have more memory, though I never dip below 40MB on my Bold, have lots of apps – way more than the list given on the BGR Bold – and I have never had a memory issue in my life. That BGR berry is for sure not being used properly – I would bet those apps are being left open and running all the time, so they are working in the background while not being used. Close the apps, solve the problem.
The bb OS could use an update for sure, but it is not dying out or going anywhere.
How do you know whats running and how do u close them.
The problem is that BlackBerries all over the world are running an OS that was built for business first, not pleasure, and it’s really beginning to show. Now that RIM is trying to push its products as serious “lifestyle” devices the OS just can’t handle it as well as competitors.
Even if they up the Application memory, there are still fundamental flaws with how the OS operates that hinder its appeal for application developers and consumers.
I wonder what RIM will produce when they finally decide to start from scratch. They totally have the resources to do so.
another point for Apple and even Windows Mobile… later RIM
Why is it people expected one device to do everything? I bet most people are fine carrying a music player and phone.
@ren alt+back key will tell you what’s open. Then simply close them by going into the app and pressing menu > close.
Great post. I have definitely run into memory issues on my Bold, especially after trying out differeny apps from App World. I still can’t use Viigo because it drains my memory like no other.
Maybe we can list the offending applications so everyone is aware of the risk of installing them?
I agree the limitation is a pain; however, there is a simple and cheap ($9.95) workaround. Aerize card loader allows you to install applications to the SD card. Works great on my Bold. Just can’t install them from the application store, or at least I haven’t figured out how to, but everything else that is a direct download or desktop manager install works great. I have over 50 applications installed, and still have application memory left. (I must admit, I haven’t found a lot at the store that I wanted that I could not find directly).
I will say that I love my Blackberry but agree 100% w/ this thread. That is one of the few shortcomings I have found with the Blackberry. I usually have around 15MB of free memory on my 8830 curve which has a total of 96MB….On my old 8830 though, which only had 64MB, memory available frequently dipped into the single digits. But even with the memory issue, I think that Blackberries are some of the best devices on the market, hands dow,….and the slaes number show the same thing…
We agree, this is the berries shortfalls….but I’m hopefully that Rim will crank out new shit for us….and then we can leave them in the dust again….besides that….try working on a new short order….
I totally agree. I went from a BB7520 to a BB8130 and it is the best phone I have owned.
BUT I HATE!!!!! THE MEMORY LEAKS and INSUFICIENT MEMORY. I deleted “World App.” there is no point in having it. I’m going to give the 9600 a try when Sprint offers it; then I’ll decide wheather it’s time to try something else.
I’d have to agree. Tried a bunch of apps, Viigo and Poynt are really the only apps worth downloading in terms of utility. Actually those two are pretty wicked and rival iPhone apps in glitz, glamor and functionality. But even then Viigo just rips through your app memory storing all that content. Poynt is pretty light-weight though.
Wow could rimm be giving us embedded NAND flash like Apple in 16 and 32 GB varieties? Why not?
Just a question. What is the point of this post? Is it a rant, or does the writer thing RIM will see this and fix the update. I thought at first that this was a post that RIM was finally going to fix this, but alas, no.
Who knows, maybe they will fix this. If they let us use our memory cards, holy cow, that would be awesome.
Oh well, lets see.