[cinghoa]

Ok, so they say that BB6 won't work on most existing phones because the memory is too low. Why is it that phones that have been produced in the last 5 years are still being equipped with 512mb or less? They shouldn't even be thinking about MB these days. The base iphone has 16GB and the Droid has 8GB, granted the iphone can't use an SDcard, but the Droid can, and the upgraded iphone has 32GB. I understand that most BBs can use a 32GB SDcard, but that does no good when it comes to the new OS.
If they would equip their phones with a sufficient internal memory to begin with, they wouldn't have the masses so ready to abandon ship because they can't upgrade. The question isn't even about innovation, it's about common sense. If our competitor has X amount of memory and our OS requires Y, why don't we give X or even close to it, to make our phone usable after the OS sucks its requirement?

[Spiral_ouT]

It isn't all about memory.. There is also processor speed to take into consideration. The 9700 with only 256mb of memory will be getting the new OS due to its 624mhz processor.

[Roo Zilla]

Because RAM is expensive. It costs almost $4 per 128MB.

[BigBadWulf]

I believe you're confusing memories. Just as some BlackBerries have come with on board storage, so does the iphone and droid. That doesn't mean you can use it to load your OS. I know you can partition the media card on the droid for apps, the iphone I couldn't tell you.

[jetman1287]

Because RAM is expensive. It costs almost $4 per 128MB.

That's not expensive at all.

To the OP, the "excuse" for not giving more memory is that RIM telling you you don't NEED the memory. Well sorry, I'll take my smartphone dollars elsewhere if that's the case.

[the_sandman_454]

Same reason we didn't need an improved web browser, a faster processor or higher resolution screens in recent BB devices I guess. .

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[jetman1287]

Same reason we didn't need an improved web browser, a faster processor or higher resolution screens in recent BB devices I guess. .

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Yeah I mean, those are only toy features anyway...who needs a web browser these days? BBM is all anyone ever needs.

[Roo Zilla]

That's not expensive at all.

To the OP, the "excuse" for not giving more memory is that RIM telling you you don't NEED the memory. Well sorry, I'll take my smartphone dollars elsewhere if that's the case.

I was being facetious.

[soccernamlak]

I believe you're confusing memories. Just as some BlackBerries have come with on board storage, so does the iphone and droid. That doesn't mean you can use it to load your OS. I know you can partition the media card on the droid for apps, the iphone I couldn't tell you.

The internal memory on the iPhone (minus any sort of jailbreaking applications you choose to use) has one partition for the operating system and system applications and the other partition for everything else (your installed apps, files, etc.)

Droid, of course, has OS on internal memory and app internal as well as app external.

The BlackBerry has OS internal, app internal only.

The main issue is not the memory space for the Operating System (which 512MB seems to be enough for OS6), but of course the space for applications.

Without support for application install over memory card or providing adequate flash memory for storage (Think 8GB+), then BlackBerry apps will be doomed to being small in size and users sometimes having to scrape by on the precious memory they do have. However, that does open up the market for products like MemCleaner and what not to help free up your space, but it's a market that sadly shouldn't exist in the first place.


All in all, I understand BlackBerry wanting to keep app size small: downloading large apps tens or hundreds of megabytes in size goes against the overall idea of data conservation phone, but with flash memory as cheap as it is now-a-days, providing your user with barely enough (if that) on the top-of-the-line phone is a poor choice.

[Deathcommand]

That's not expensive at all.

To the OP, the "excuse" for not giving more memory is that RIM telling you you don't NEED the memory. Well sorry, I'll take my smartphone dollars elsewhere if that's the case.

2gb ram on a computer- free.
doubleing it to 4 gb- 200
doubling again to 8 gb- 600
Again everyone! 16 gb - 1500
lets just go again!! 64 gb.- 6000

Not very expensive.

[the_sandman_454]

2gb ram on a computer- free.
doubleing it to 4 gb- 200
doubling again to 8 gb- 600
Again everyone! 16 gb - 1500
lets just go again!! 64 gb.- 6000

Not very expensive.

Seems to be affordable enough for everyone else to be able to toss in, along with faster processors, which similarly jump in price.

So the question becomes: why isn't RIM able to make an affordable device with better specs, but the competition such as Motorola, HTC, Apple, etc seem to have figured out how?

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[pattste]

There are no excuses. Just like there are no excuses for releasing the Torch with the same processor and display they've been using for two years. It won't prevent me from buying the Torch because the BlackBerry experience overall still beats anything else out there as far as I'm concerned. But I can already anticipate my one-year old Torch being underpowered to run OS7 when the time comes.

[T�nis]

I don't quite understand why some people are always squawking about memory. My Curve is never low on memory.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[Spiral_ouT]

I don't quite understand why some people are always squawking about memory. My Curve is never low on memory.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Didn't happen near as much till news of OS 6 came around. Now half the people with unsupported devices are throwing fits. Most are blaming it on memory even though there are more factors than that.

[the_sandman_454]

You don't run big, intensive apps or games on your curve either, do you?

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[lnichols]

2gb ram on a computer- free.
doubleing it to 4 gb- 200
doubling again to 8 gb- 600
Again everyone! 16 gb - 1500
lets just go again!! 64 gb.- 6000

Not very expensive.

That's RAM. Do you think the iPhone 16GB has 16 GB of RAM and it costs $1500. These smartphones don't have lots of RAM, they have lots of flash memory for storage which is cheap. 16 GB micro SD cards are under $50, and flash chips for boards should be cheaper. I believe that the RAM on an iPhone is either 256 MB or 512 MB.

[MOTH477]

The reason TORCH did not get more memory is because Research Is in Motion

[aNYthing24]

512 MB of RAM is pretty standard. There's nothing wrong with that. When RIM was released phones with 256 MB, it was pretty standard as well. The issue that I personally have is hardly any BB's have onboard storage, and the ones that do can't have apps stored on them. Android phones have this capability, I don't understand why RIM couldn't integrate this technology for BlackBerry's. Oh well.

[JackPack]

Don't laugh, cost is a real issue.

$10 or $15 worth of LPDDR may not seem like a lot of money, but when BOM for phone is around $170, it's a lot.

The Torch already costs nearly the same to manufacture as the iPhone 4. But Apple's sales are at least an order of magnitude greater than the Torch. When you take into account the bargaining power Apple has because of that, the cost of the components is a real concern.

[chrstdvd]

I have been on a mission trying to find out why most BB's only have 128 MB or RAM. I have not found "the answer" but I am close deciding that it all because of JAVA.

I started my quest by trying to find out if I could erase the CLDC files which led me into the way the BB works in the first place. Ya see, there is a little "JAVA virtual machine" built inside and it runs on the "NVRAM" which is our 128 MB.

My storm has a dual core MSM7600 processor which could "walk, talk, and take names" but instead of using a real operating system to process apps, everything including the OS goes through this "virtual machine" which then communicates with our processor.


CPU: 32bit Qualcomm MSM7600, 528MHz
Memory: 192MiB RAM, 128MiB + 1024MiB ROM : PDAmaster | PDAdb.net - Comprehensive Database of Smartphone, PDA, PDA Phone, PNA, netbook & Mobile Device Specifications

6.What kinds of products is J2ME CLDC suited for?

The CLDC configuration was designed to bring the many advantages of the Java platform to connected devices that are limited in available resources. Targeted devices include cellular phones, pagers, mobile point-of-sale terminals, and any other device constrained in processing power, memory, and graphical capability.
J2ME CLDC and K virtual machine: Frequently Asked Questions

A graphic of Virtual Machine
Core of IT: The Virtual Machine: Java Model

Frankly, I still do not know why the apps are stored in the RAM. Why can they not be stored on the ROM and then loaded into RAM when you run a particular app.

NVRAM means you do not loose the "data or files" when you loose power, but you do not loose data at power off from ROM either. So what is the point?

Even if the operating system loaded and running leaves only around 40 MB to process apps, if they were stored on ROM and Loaded into RAM you could have as many apps on the 800 MB or ROM as it would hold depending on the size of each app. Each app would need to be less than say, 30 MB to run, but how many apps for a cell phone platform are that large? (My wife has one app that is 411 MB on her iPod touch, but that is an exception and a lot of her apps are larger than 50 MB)

Anyway, I am looking for a replacement for my S1 and it will not be another BB. I like the S1 and sure press virtual keyboard, but I do not like the email, or the browser, nor do I like Opera browser app.

I have been researching how the Androids work, as well as, the iPhone. Each has its quirks, but at least the email and browsers are what I expect.

[lnichols]

Yeah there are really only two possibilities, the OS is hard to make handle more memory for OS/App space, and/or RIM is out of touch. I think the first is the more likely, but I think they are still out of touch for the hype they put on the Torch which really was a blunder. They probably didn't plan on iPhone and Google coming out with feature rich apps and upping the ante, or BB users seeing this stuff and saying "Why can't we get a little of that" as quickly as it happened. They can't change make major changes to the OS without jeopardizing the FIPS 140-2 validation for the devices, and the validation allows them to be used freely by the federal government. Anytime you change the OS you have to prove to NIST that you didn't mess with the crypto module. I think they've been tweaking things to get to 256 MB, and now to 512 MB, and I bet they are about to the limits of the OS. Lets hope the blackpad is a crash program for a new OS and it can deliver what we know as Blackberry OS can not, or lets hope that Blackberry will go into the secure client app business and make clients for Apple and Android that allow you to have all the BIS/BES features we enjoy now.