Google Explains Lack of SD Card Support For Nexus Devices

[Asrokhel]

IMHO, Google is not giving people enough credit, Matias Duarte is basically calling people stupid! My next Android-based phone will be one that does in fact have an expansion slot for an SD card.

Google has explained that Nexus devices only offer fixed storage as the company wants to avoid "techy nonsense left over from the paleolithic era of computing".

Upon answering questions about the Nexus lineup on Google+, Google's director of user services on Android, Matias Duarte, said offering consumers expandable memory through SD cards was apparently too confusing.

"Everybody likes the idea of having an SD card, but in reality it's just confusing for users," he said. "If you're saving photos, videos or music, where does it go? Is it on your phone? Or on your card? Should there be a setting? Prompt every time? What happens to the experience when you swap out the card? It's just too complicated."

Instead of implementing SD card support, Nexus devices offers a fixed amount of space that "apps just seamlessly? use", with users not having to "worry about files or volumes or any of that techy nonsense left over from the paleolithic era of computing".

As for Jelly Bean's transition to consistent system buttons and status bars, Duarte explained that it's due to usability research and muscle memory. "What mattered most of all was muscle memory ? keeping buttons where you expect them, no matter how you hold the device," Duarte explained.

Google recently announced the Nexus 4 smartphone (which won't feature LTE support), as well as the Nexus 10 tablet and a 3G 32GB variant of the Nexus 7.

http://www.tomshardw...hone,18841.html

[f0rk_b0mb]

How is it confusing? You plug it into a computer, you create a folder called "music", drag your stuff over, and plug it into your phone. How hard is that?

[FloatingFatMan]

Terrible idea, but fine. If that's the case, then they need to mandate a minimum of 32gb of available storage (not including what the OS is using), for all Android devices.

[f0rk_b0mb]

Terrible idea, but fine. If that's the case, then they need to mandate a minimum of 32gb of available storage (not including what the OS is using), for all Android devices.

(Y) Absolutely 100% agree.

[+Warwagon MVC]

I know people want thin, but I really wish some companies would give a FULL size SD card slot and not some stupid Micro. My dream was to be able to take my card out of my T2i and slap it into my tablet to look at the photos in the field. In fact the tablet I do have which is the Acer W500 (which i'm in the process of installing windows 7 on so I can run the upgrade assistance and get the $40 windows 8 upgrade ) has the FULL SD card slot, and its FANTASTIC! Thick but fantastic.

[funkydude]

Google explains lack of 4G in Nexus, Google apologists come out in full force to help them.

Google explains lack of SD storage in Nexus, ... wait for it...

Funny because the same people cried out about all the things "Windows Phone was lacking" like 4G and SD storage last year.

[FloatingFatMan]

^ I don't see anyone coming out in support of Google over the SD card thing... 4G is a different matter entirely.

[giantpotato]

I know people want thin, but I really wish some companies would give a FULL size SD card slot and not some stupid Micro. My dream was to be able to take my card out of my T2i and slap it into my tablet to look at the photos in the field. In fact the tablet I do have which is the Acer W500 (which i'm in the process of installing windows 7 on so I can run the upgrade assistance and get the $40 windows 8 upgrade ) has the FULL SD card slot, and its FANTASTIC! Thick but fantastic.

Just get a microSd -> SD adapter.

[Lord Method Man]

Pathetic excuse; sounds like something Steve Jobs would say. Lack of expandable storage is a deal-breaker for me.

[2xSilverKnight]

This thread is stupid. That's not even the main reason sd-cards are not supported. It was already posted before, btw OP.

[mr_sock_00]

Maybe Google can be more assertive by making the software easier to use to accommodate expendable storage like setting default location to save apps, music, video etc so it doesn't ask everytime.

Funny how they put 8 GB but available storage is like 6GB.

[Scorbing]

Google, like Apple, is full of sh...t. The only reason they don't include an SD card slot on their tablet is to force you to buy the model with the most storage space, just like Apple does. If they included an SD card slot on the 8 and 16GB models of the Nexus tablet, why would anyone want to spend an extra $100 or $150.00 when they can simply buy a $35.00 SD card to expand their limited storage?

Apple does the same thing. There is no excuse.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Google, like Apple, is full of sh...t. The only reason they don't include an SD card slot on their tablet is to force you to buy the model with the most storage space, just like Apple does. If they included an SD card slot on the 8 and 16GB models of the Nexus tablet, why would anyone want to spend an extra $100 or $150.00 when they can simply buy a $35.00 SD card to expand their limited storage?

Apple does the same thing. There is no excuse.

Exact reason, there is no way to pull the wool over any knowledgeable persons eyes.

That said, I'm buying the 16GB model for myself simply because it's still excellent value and I use Google Music to stream my music collection (only thing of real size I'd have on a mobile).

[remixedcat]

Sd cards are much easier to transfer files and portable the cloud is only good if u have constant connection but 16gb isn't enough fpr lots pf people ..maybye a phone but not a tablet

[ichi]

why would anyone want to spend an extra $100 or $150.00

Isn't it more like $50?

[+Fahim S. MVC]

I agree with Google on this one. For normal people it is just confusing.

I do also think they should be releasing handsets with a reasonable amount of storage for typical use-cases.

Quite happy for my mini tablet to be 16GB, but my phone has to be 64GB... not 8/16GB which quite frankly is pathetic.

[Open Minded]

I agree with Google on this one. For normal people it is just confusing.

Changing the oil in a car is confusing to some. Maybe Honda, Ford, Toyota etc. should stop putting drain plugs on the oil pan.

[FloatingFatMan]

I agree with Google on this one. For normal people it is just confusing.

People that are THAT stupid have -way- bigger problems than available storage on their phone.

[Rigby]

I agree with Google on this one. For normal people it is just confusing.

I do also think they should be releasing handsets with a reasonable amount of storage for typical use-cases.

Quite happy for my mini tablet to be 16GB, but my phone has to be 64GB... not 8/16GB which quite frankly is pathetic.

How is it confusing. When you put an SD card in a device it becomes the default storage location. There's nothing confusing about it.

[+Fahim S. MVC]

Changing the oil in a car is confusing to some. Maybe Honda, Ford, Toyota etc. should stop putting drain plugs on the oil pan.

Good product design is all about making decisions to make your product easy to use and effective. I don't know enough about the engineering motor vehicles to comment on what Honda, Ford or Toyota should do.

People that are THAT stupid have -way- bigger problems than available storage on their phone.

Right - because you understand absolutely everything and no-one in the world thinks a single thing is so obvious that they could regard you as equally as stupid for not knowing it? Grow up...

[theyarecomingforyou]

I'd be interested to know the percentage of users that actually use SD card storage for anything other than bulk storage - i.e. those who regularly swap SD cards. It wouldn't surprise me if it was less than 10% of users. I know that the only reason I use a SD card is because the built-in storage on my phone is limited, so I manually transfer apps to the SD card - it's a needlessly involved and it's not good for the user experience.

I just checked and I have 1GB of storage on my phone and 8GB of storage on SD card, of which I'm using about 5.5GB. Therefore to ensure capacity isn't an issue for devices without SD card support they really need to be aiming for a minimum of 16GB, with 32GB+ being preferable. Personally I'd prefer Google made Android recognise SD cards as internal storage by default, with an option for managing it manually for advanced users - that gets around the user experience concerns, while giving advanced users flexibility.

[+Fahim S. MVC]

How is it confusing. When you put an SD card in a device it becomes the default storage location. There's nothing confusing about it.

You've obviously not dealt with anyone who has formatted their phone thinking that everything was on the SD card? Believe me they exist...

[V-Tech]

1. I do believe that a nice % of people that purchase phones with SD card dont actually use it or could have used the internal memory of the phone instead.

2. If this is the reason Google gave then they should have created Nexus 4 with 16/32GB and not 8/16GB.

[Noir Angel]

I love Android but this argument is absolute baloney. If you can design a smartphone OS that can pinpoint your location accurate to 10 feet, check your email, remind you of appointments, and even recognise voice input, setting it up to utilise internal memory and external storage cannot be all that hard.

[sjms]

for some reason both apple and google think people are simpletons. granted there are more then a reasonable share of them out there but that's what apple is for, to slowly drain the pockets of said individuals selling them space in the "cloud" and telling them how cool the world can be using their devices to guide them through.

if you can load and understand the use of a memory card in a digital camera the rest is cake. knowledge is power.

if your life revolves around your android or iphone you should seek some psychological help because you are easily taken advantage of as you constantly have to have the next little "big" thing