Hugo Barra claims microSD will disappear in smartphone

[snowComet]

Xiaomi held a press event in Hong Kong today, and Hugo Barra come on to the stage to unevil the Mi4i, the budget friendly version of Xiaomi Mi4. He also did a teardown of the Mi4i after the press event. During the teardown, he was asked about the reason behind lack of micro sd slot on the Mi4i. When he was explaining he said this is a trend that micro sd will disappear on smartphones ( or smart devices).

He stated that firstly, having micro sd slot will compromised the design and ergonomic of the device (Mi4i), as they will have to make the device thicker, taller, or having a smaller battery. Also micro sd has performance and reliable issues. Many micro sd cards in the market are slower in performance, poor quality, and unreliable, thus bringing consumers tons of problems and issues. (I love how he described problems from micro sd as "source of headaches for consumers")

He stated he believe the solution is bigger internal memory, and we should not expect micro sd slots on their flagship devices.

English is not my first language, thus my summary might not be the best description of what Hugo Barra said. You can watch the video of Hugo Barra talked about micro sd in smartphone here:

So what do you think? Will micro sd slowly disappear in smartphones (or smart devices)? I'm ok with phones without micro sd slots,but what do you think?

*update: Engadget has published an article which they did a better recap of what Hugo Barras said....

 

"For high performance devices, we are fundamentally against an SD card slot."

 

Barra backed up his statement by pointing out that his team didn't want to sacrifice battery capacity, ergonomics, appearance and, in the case of the new Mi 4i, the second Micro SIM slot for the sake of letting users add a storage card. More importantly, microSD cards "are incredibly prone to failure and malfunctioning of various different sorts," and the fact that there are a lot of fake cards out there -- and we've seen it ourselves -- doesn't help, either.

"You think you're buying like a Kingston or a SanDisk but you're actually not, and they're extremely poor quality, they're slow, they sometimes just stop working, and it gives people huge number of issues, apps crashing all the time, users losing data, a lot of basically complaints and customer frustration. It's gonna be a while before you finally accept that maybe the reason why it's not performing is because you put in an SD card, right? You're gonna blame the phone, you're gonna blame the manufacturer, you're gonna shout and scream and try to get it fixed, so many different ways until you say, 'Actually, let me just take the SD card out and see what happens.'"

Barra probably would have given the same reasoning if he was still the VP of Google's Android division. Despite many techies' desire to have storage expansion option, all Google Nexus devices bar the Nexus One lack microSD expansion, and Matias Duarte, VP of design, once explained that this is because "in reality it's just confusing for users." Google engineer Dan Morrill also voiced a similar concern on Reddit a while back.

"It is a trend: SD cards will disappear," Barra added. "You should basically not expect SD card slots in any of our flagships."

http://www.engadget.com/2015/05/06/hugo-barra-xiaomi-microsd-battery-mi-4i/

[Reno2792]

Hearing all of the problems that are associated with running Apps off of SD cards, I wouldn't be surprised that they would slowly disappear. If internal storage keeps getting cheaper, then there really wouldn't be a reason to add SD cards at all. 

[AxelRantila]

I want phones with high internal storage without MicroSD card for a couple of reasons

 

1) Some apps refuses to work with the external storage, meaning that the storage is not usable anyway. I mean, I'd love to have Hearthstone as well as all my Comixology comics on my microSD card but nope, the apps refuses to do that.

 

2) Internal storage is from my experience much more reliable compared to memory cards from my experience. From my experience, something else in your phone will fail before your internal storage does

 

3) It means that I don't have to worry about what cards are compatible with what phone (Yes I've had this issue a few times)

[christianled59]

I believe they will disappear as well. Technology evolves. They'll disappear just like floppy disks and seemingly soon, optical drives in pc's.

[Hans Christian | Teri]

I absolutely agree with him. People are going to be bitching about it though, but that's just people I guess......

[cesrai]

SD cards in CAMERAs I don't think so, phones ?? maybe.

[terrytek]

This makes me very upset.

[LAwLz]

I think of microSD as being able to change or upgrade your hard drive/SSD in your computer. Most people don't use it but there is no good reason to remove the option. Call it "bitching" if you want but it is clearly a tactic used to force people to buy the ridiculously overpriced (profit margins being several hundred percent) big capacity models of phones, and I hate it.

 

Imagine if you couldn't change the storage in your PC or DSLR. It is equally stupid.

 

Hugo Barra can go and shove an external hard drive up his ass if he thinks that's a better solution.

[Suika]

Good post, OP.

I'm not shocked, my only disappointment is in manufacturers charging ludicrous prices for memory and then telling consumers that flash storage is bad. I mean, yea, flash storage just doesn't behave well, but 64GB for $100? pls. I'm pretty sure a 128GB chip would cost $40 to buy from a manufacturer.

The problem isn't a need for microSDs, the problem is the ridiculous pricing for extra storage on a device.

[AxelRantila]

The problem isn't a need for microSDs, the problem is the ridiculous pricing for extra storage on a device.

That I can agree with. However, it is still better than having 16GB of internal storage even when you need more because the apps you need (and don't have an alternative for) don't work with external storage

[Trik'Stari]

I think of microSD as being able to change or upgrade your hard drive/SSD in your computer. Most people don't use it but there is no good reason to remove the option. Call it "bitching" if you want but it is clearly a tactic used to force people to buy the ridiculously overpriced (profit margins being several hundred percent) big capacity models of phones, and I hate it.

 

Imagine if you couldn't change the storage in your PC or DSLR. It is equally stupid.

 

Hugo Barra can go and shove an external hard drive up his ass if he thinks that's a better solution.

^ you took the words out of my mouth.

 

If MicroSD disappears, I'll stick to using flip phones that have them. I want to have music on my phone, but I'm not using a streaming app and I'm not paying a ridiculous amount for a few extra gigabytes.

 

I don't really use apps to begin with. I want internet, calls, texts, video, music, pictures, and that's about it (maybe a flashlight app)

[lufihengr]

And here we see again, Apple knew micro sd cards aren't the way to go years before everyone else

 

To be honest I wouldn't have minded a sd card slot on older iPhones, but now I don't need one as I can't see myself filling 128gb anytime soon.

[kuzimins]

For you all SDcard lovers, it won't simply dissapear without the internal memory getting bigger. win/win

[LAwLz]

I'm not shocked, my only disappointment is in manufacturers charging ludicrous prices for memory and then telling consumers that flash storage is bad. I mean, yea, flash storage just doesn't behave well, but 64GB for $100? pls. I'm pretty sure a 128GB chip would cost $40 to buy from a manufacturer.

Yeah 40 dollars for 128GB sounds about right. The very high-end 64GB eMMC chip in the Galaxy S 6 is estimated by IHS to cost about 25 dollars. So if they wanted a 100% profit margin (which is really really high) then going from 64GB to 128GB would be about a 50 dollars extra. Going from 16GB to 128GB would be maybe 75 dollars. But good luck trying to make manufacturers "only" have a 100% profit margin when they have gotten away with 500% profit margin for ages.

 

 

If all phones were 64GB or 128GB standard then I wouldn't really have any issue with not having microSD. The only reason why I am not pissed at OnePlus for not having microSD is because they have a reasonably priced upgrade to 64GB. But I can't see how anyone can go "I'm going to spend 100 dollars for 32GB more storage" without also thinking "I am really being screwed here".

[Jade]

In phones, yes. Don't have unlimited data? Get more storage. It's not like most devices don't come in 64GB or 128GB models. That's 25GB for your music, 20GB for your pictures, and 10GB for your apps. Assuming you're even half managing your apps, you'll never even finish the 10GB for the apps, much less the 20 for your pictures.

[Thony]

*curses at mobile data signal strength*

[Thony]

U store apps on SD card ?! I only use it for music.

Also not to forget: 16gb more storage costs over (16gb phone vs 32gb) £50 when for £50 I could get freaking 256gb SD card.

There's a reason people prefer SD card over higher internal storage, its The price manufacturers ask for higher capacity devices !

Many phones don't have SD card slot so he didn't say anything new.

[Thony]

*curses at the mobile data signal strength*

[TroubleKlef]

Although the price premium is a bummer, I'm all for phones getting rid of sd cards. All of Hugo's points were valid.

[LAwLz]

In phones, yes. Don't have unlimited data? Get more storage. It's not like most devices don't come in 64GB or 128GB models. That's 25GB for your music, 20GB for your pictures, and 10GB for your apps. Assuming you're even half managing your apps, you'll never even finish the 10GB for the apps, much less the 20 for your pictures.

You forgot videos. A lot of my video files are well above 10GB each. With 4K getting more and more common the storage needs for people will dramatically go up as well.

I would have no problems filling my tablet if it had 64GB of storage (it only has 16GB so I have to swap out files on it every day, and still I can't have everything I want on it). You're also forgetting that upgrading to 64GB or 128GB costs way too much for what you get.

[Jade]

You forgot videos. A lot of my video files are well above 10GB each. With 4K getting more and more common the storage needs for people will dramatically go up as well.

I would have no problems filling my tablet if it had 64GB of storage (it only has 16GB so I have to swap out files on it every day, and still I can't have everything I want on it). You're also forgetting that upgrading to 64GB or 128GB costs way too much for what you get.

You don't need 4k on a damn phone. Most people are already happy with 1080p and say: "This display is super nice!"  And no, you don't, if you don't buy from manufacturers that shaft you.

[Trik'Stari]

 

U store apps on SD card ?! I only use it for music.

Also not to forget: why 16gb more storage costs over £50 when for £50 I could get freaking 256gb SD card ?!

There's a reason people prefer SD card over higher internal storage, its The price manufacturers ask for it !

 

Try telling that to the apple fanboys coming out and saying "SEE? APPLE KNEW THE RIGHT WAY TO GO YEARS BEFORE ANYONE ELSE!" Completely ignoring or missing the point.

 

I've never had any reliability problems with MicroSD, and I've never had a problem, or seen anyone have a problem, with them falling out. Which is what the apple defenders invariably go to "what if you snag it on something?" Well, for that to happen my battery wouldn't be in the phone (but they wouldn't know that, seeing as the idea of a removeable battery is heresy in the apple walled garden), and even if the SD card was on the side....HOW DO YOU SNAG SOMETHING THAT'S THE SIZE OF A PINKY NAIL (let alot recessed into the phone)?! You would have to intentionally be trying to do that. The things are hard enough to remove even when you are trying to remove it.

[bigboy678]

I think the big problem that a good few people will have with this is that it will be impossible to root your phone anymore. rooting your phone does allow you access to some cool programs or features android simply doesnt offer

[Jade]

I think the big problem that a good few people will have with this is that it will be impossible to root your phone anymore. rooting your phone does allow you access to some cool programs or features android simply doesnt offer

No it's not. I root all of my devices without any trouble or SD card.

[AxelRantila]

 

 

 

Try telling that to the apple fanboys coming out and saying "SEE? APPLE KNEW THE RIGHT WAY TO GO YEARS BEFORE ANYONE ELSE!" Completely ignoring or missing the point.

 

I've never had any reliability problems with MicroSD, and I've never had a problem, or seen anyone have a problem, with them falling out. Which is what the apple defenders invariably go to "what if you snag it on something?" Well, for that to happen my battery wouldn't be in the phone (but they wouldn't know that, seeing as the idea of a removeable battery is heresy in the apple walled garden), and even if the SD card was on the side....HOW DO YOU SNAG SOMETHING THAT'S THE SIZE OF A PINKY NAIL (let alot recessed into the phone)?! You would have to intentionally be trying to do that. The things are hard enough to remove even when you are trying to remove it.

 

You haven't used a Galaxy Note 10.1...