Posted on March 5th, 2013 by Barry Collins

Apple must come clean on the actual size of apps

I got a nasty shock on my iPad this morning. Midway through downloading Real Racing 3, a pop-up balloon appeared warning me I was running out of available storage.

I’ve only got a 16GB model, so I’m pretty used to juggling apps to clear space on my iPad. The iTunes store listed Real Racing 3 as a 700MB download, so I’d cleared off a couple of old games in advance to leave me with just shy of 2GB of unadulterated space for Real Racing to run around in.

So I was taken aback to discover that the app, once unpackaged and installed, consumes a whopping 1.8GB of storage space – comfortably the largest, single app I’ve ever installed on my device, consuming roughly 13% of the device’s total available storage.

I’ve seen apps – especially games – balloon beyond their stated download size before. FIFA 12 was listed as a 750MB download, but consumed just over 1GB of storage on my iPad. FIFA 13 is listed as a 1.48GB download, so I haven’t dared to install it on my iPad, even though it costs only £1.49.

Coincidentally, Mike Jennings downloaded Real Racing 3 on his Android phone, but in that instance a 750MB download translated into an installation file of only 1.2GB – about a third less space than the iPad app consumed.

Apple needs to be much clearer about the amount of space apps consume on its devices. The download size is an important piece of information for people on metered data connections, but the disk space required is an equally vital piece of data, especially for paid-for apps. I’d be pretty unimpressed if I’d stumped up for an app, only to find that I had to clear off other paid-for apps to squeeze it onto my iPad.

Check out our pick of the best iPad apps here

Tags: apple, apps, FIFA 12, FIFA 13, iPad, Real Racing 3

Posted in: Hardware

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16 Responses to “ Apple must come clean on the actual size of apps ”

MJ Says:
March 5th, 2013 at 5:28 pm
I noticed that the software did a download when I ran it, so it may be that it downloads more than the initial data. But large sizes are common on these games. My 64Gb iPad is full of such things that my son uses.
WG Says:
March 5th, 2013 at 5:43 pm
I have always preferred getting software in a box and on disk. Your story of not telling You the correct size of a download which are paying for is just wrong. It may hasten the day I give up on the whole business. It is not a pleasure but an obstacle course.
Tim Says:
March 5th, 2013 at 6:05 pm
If the files are compressed, should Apple tell you the size of the download or the installation. It appears that they have followed convention and listed the download size, which seems fair to me.
jsnldrd Says:
March 5th, 2013 at 6:38 pm
Phoneclean is a great utility for clearing up space on your phone and pad. I too have a 16gb pad, and use it all the time to clear up precious space.
london_welsh Says:
March 5th, 2013 at 6:38 pm
It would be more useful if, in addition to the download size, the ‘free space required on device’ was also stated – or something similar.
Marc Says:
March 5th, 2013 at 9:00 pm
Did you run the game before making this measurement? I know many games download assets in first run (in which case Apple have little control over it).
N991234 Says:
March 5th, 2013 at 11:15 pm
Thank the little green robot for my micro SD slot. I’ve never worried about app sizes on my android tablet. Agreed it wouldn’t take much to show installed size too though before download..
Alvin Brinson Says:
March 6th, 2013 at 6:29 am
I gotta wonder why apps are so much LARGER on the iPad.

I see Angry Birds on your list at 384mb. On my Android tablet, it takes up 34.08MB total, counting app and data. In fact, the five different editions of Angry Birds I have installed all together are smaller in size than just your one Angry Birds.

And it’s not just that game, it’s a LOT of apps. They are almost always much smaller on Android, regardless of functionality.
Simon Jones Says:
March 6th, 2013 at 7:44 am
Why are apps larger on an iPad? Probably something to do with Retina displays and having to provide higher resolution images.
Coltch Says:
March 6th, 2013 at 7:49 am
Some Andriod games (not sure on iOS) will state that there is a requirement to download more data in order to run the game
Barry Collins Says:
March 6th, 2013 at 11:26 am
@Marc – No, that was the size of the installation before the game was even opened.

Barry Collins
Editor
happyskeptic Says:
March 7th, 2013 at 10:13 am
@Tim
It’s also convention to list the required disk space under system requirements when selling software – take a look at any boxed software. It would be good if both iOS and Android app stores would start doing this.
Katsu999 Says:
March 8th, 2013 at 4:38 pm
File Compression is such a new thing, many people are still confused that it can perform such magik! The idea is that you take a file and squash it down in size. How can simple electrons be shrunk, you may well ask? Its Magik! But the useful part is, the smaller filesize is quicker and cheaper to transmit, saving on your Modem’s phone bill.

/sarcasm off

For many years Games and Programs have been compressed, usually to about 30-50% of the original size. I now automatically factor this expansion ration in when I see a ‘Download Filesize’, and have done for many years now.

As for the same Game having different filesizes on different platforms, the most obvious culprit would be Hi-Res graphics, especially since Apple’s use of Retinal displays. Apart from that, either particular OS requirements or lazy coding are possible answers.

Just get a new iPad and quit making excuses to your son!
tv Says:
March 8th, 2013 at 9:26 pm
The hardware (Arm) does not have the power to uncompress on-the-fly as pc/mac do (personal experice: laptop 15x or more faster than Krait). And battery? Would be wasted on uncompressing the same stuff over and over again as there is not enough ram to keep it in memory.
App Creator Says:
March 11th, 2013 at 1:13 pm
You pointed out a very nice issue, at times it’s not the app but the accessories needed to run it that when combined make the app a bit more heavy then what its mentioned. Quite honestly, this also has happened with me. I think Apple needs to make a proper measurement of the space their app will take after installation. That will do more good.
halsteadk Says:
March 18th, 2013 at 1:17 pm
It would also be useful if iOS devices had a function to clear out cached data from apps. I regularly find that apps such as news readers, social media, etc have up to 100MB additional data – the only way to free the space is to remove the app and reinstall it.