Why are all the external memory cases for Iphones dead, dying or AWOL?

[LyellLiar]

If you're like me and the idea of shelling out an extra few hundred dollars/pounds to upgrade your 16gb of storage to 64 or even 32 gb, then you might have felt that twinge of regret as your 30th app or 100th video finally puts you in a never ending cycle of "storage almost full" purgatory.

 

So rather than upgrade the phone and bloat up your phone payments, you think "is there a case with built in ext. storage?"

 

Well there is, or at least there was.

 

I saw Mophie first, advertising their battery+storage case back in 2016:

http://uk.mophie.com/shop/space-pack

That's gone now, replaced with a battery only range. No product has external storage anymore.

 

Maybe iXtra? they had a successful $30k Kickstarter.

http://ixtratech.com

They've disappeared, never to be heard of again.

 

SanDisk iXpand? Now there is a recognisable brand name! Surely that's what i'm looking for!

https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-iXpand-32GB-Memory-iPhone/dp/B01EUXL36W

Nope, almost universally non-functional and hated, with limited usability. I'd say this a dying product.

 

Maybe we look to China? KUNER Kuke claims to be able to add 256gb to your iphone 7! Great!

https://www.amazon.com/KUNER-Original-Lightning-Ultrathin-iphone-7-plus-5-5-inch/dp/B01N52OZSH

It's unavailable of course, and has been for nearly a year and isn't available for iphone 6 or 8.

 

There's a whole host of usb-like devices that you can use for external storage, but the point of this is to avoid carrying around a small, easy to lose little dongle that needs removing every time you charge your phone.

 

So LTT, why is the market so barren? It seems such and obvious market niche that I'd honestly be interested in seeing a comparison video of some of these products, just to see why they're all failures/hated.

 

 

[Zusafek]

10 minutes ago, LyellLiar said:

If you're like me and the idea of shelling out an extra few hundred dollars/pounds to upgrade your 16gb of storage to 64 or even 32 gb, then you might have felt that twinge of regret as your 30th app or 100th video finally puts you in a never ending cycle of "storage almost full" purgatory.

 

So rather than upgrade the phone and bloat up your phone payments, you think "is there a case with built in ext. storage?"

 

Well there is, or at least there was.

 

I saw Mophie first, advertising their battery+storage case back in 2016:

http://uk.mophie.com/shop/space-pack

That's gone now, replaced with a battery only range. No product has external storage anymore.

 

Maybe iXtra? they had a successful $30k Kickstarter.

http://ixtratech.com

They've disappeared, never to be heard of again.

 

SanDisk iXpand? Now there is a recognisable brand name! Surely that's what i'm looking for!

https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-iXpand-32GB-Memory-iPhone/dp/B01EUXL36W

Nope, almost universally non-functional and hated, with limited usability. I'd say this a dying product.

 

Maybe we look to China? KUNER Kuke claims to be able to add 256gb to your iphone 7! Great!

https://www.amazon.com/KUNER-Original-Lightning-Ultrathin-iphone-7-plus-5-5-inch/dp/B01N52OZSH

It's unavailable of course, and has been for nearly a year and isn't available for iphone 6 or 8.

 

There's a whole host of usb-like devices that you can use for external storage, but the point of this is to avoid carrying around a small, easy to lose little dongle that needs removing every time you charge your phone.

 

So LTT, why is the market so barren? It seems such and obvious market niche that I'd honestly be interested in seeing a comparison video of some of these products, just to see why they're all failures/hated.

 

 

Personally Apple should have had an expandable memory slot on their product to begin with.  Hence why I don't use Apple at all. 

 

As for the cases, my Father in Law had the Mophie case on his Iphone and it was terrible.  It got really hot in your hands, the memory slot would work only when it felt like it, and it just felt cheap.  He got rid of that and just upgraded his phone to one with more storage.  Plus he always makes sure to remove anything from his phone every night now so he doesn't clog up his storage.  

[DrMacintosh]

These products die because they are not convenient, too expensive, and are essentially useless as the only thing you can do with them is load photos and videos onto them. 

[ARikozuM]

I use a SanDisk Connect for my iPhone and laptop at school. The thing's battery lasts about a week and makes sharing data between my devices easy as I connect it to my server once I enter the garage for backup and charging.

 

I dislike memory cases since their usability dies once you no longer have the phone or device. 

[kirashi]

25 minutes ago, LyellLiar said:

So LTT, why is the market so barren? It seems such and obvious market niche that I'd honestly be interested in seeing a comparison video of some of these products, just to see why they're all failures/hated.

Because manufacturers would rather encourage planned obsolescence than support the longevity of a device for those who maybe couldn't afford the larger capacity model at time of purchase. If you had asked prior to eMMC storage being 1) much cheaper and 2) UHS3 SD cards being widely available, then I'd have said they don't support expandable storage because it was much slower. Now a days, even external storage is fast enough to run basic apps on, but manufacturers still don't provide the user a choice to even try out expandable storage options to see if they'll suit their needs based on the apps they use.

[LyellLiar]

28 minutes ago, Zusafek said:

 

As for the cases, my Father in Law had the Mophie case on his Iphone and it was terrible.  It got really hot in your hands, the memory slot would work only when it felt like it, and it just felt cheap.

Makes perfect sense, all these products seem to be universally bad. I just wonder how no one has managed something even halfway decent.

 

19 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

These products die because they are not convenient, too expensive, and are essentially useless as the only thing you can do with them is load photos and videos onto them. 

yes and yes, but honestly all I'd want to do is load videos/photos on to them. They'd still be accessible by my phone but no longer taking up valuable app space.

14 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

I use a SanDisk Connect for my iPhone and laptop at school. The thing's battery lasts about a week and makes sharing data between my devices easy as I connect it to my server once I enter the garage for backup and charging.

 

I dislike memory cases since their usability dies once you no longer have the phone or device. 

I'm tempted to get a SanDisk connect, but I'm already so forgetful with my phone I can't imagine id be any better with what amounts to a USB stick.

[Streetguru]

45 minutes ago, LyellLiar said:

 

Just buy a 128GB google pixel 1st gen instead of any iphone to start with? they're really cheap on the used market now

[ARikozuM]

1 minute ago, LyellLiar said:

I'm tempted to get a SanDisk connect, but I'm already so forgetful with my phone I can't imagine id be any better with what amounts to a USB stick.

I keep mine attached to my carabiner or inside my wallet depending on what my activity is. 

[LyellLiar]

2 minutes ago, Streetguru said:

Just buy a 128GB google pixel 1st gen instead of any iphone to start with? they're really cheap on the used market now

Inertia, which may seem like a bad excuse. I've had an iPhone 6 for nearly 10 years and its still chugging fine, storage is literally the only problem. 

[LyellLiar]

7 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

I keep mine attached to my carabiner or inside my wallet depending on what my activity is. 

Good idea. Might be a cop out for me to say I'm not that organised, but its the truth. Though at £50 it's a price point that makes it worth a shot.

[LyellLiar]

16 minutes ago, kirashi said:

Because manufacturers would rather encourage planned obsolescence than support the longevity of a device for those who maybe couldn't afford the larger capacity model at time of purchase. If you had asked prior to eMMC storage being 1) much cheaper and 2) UHS3 SD cards being widely available, then I'd have said they don't support expandable storage because it was much slower. Now a days, even external storage is fast enough to run basic apps on, but manufacturers still don't provide the user a choice to even try out expandable storage options to see if they'll suit their needs based on the apps they use.

I agree with you here, but it's in apples interest rather than peripheral manufacturers, and the ones that tried seemed to have burned up on entry to the market. Maybe apple intentionally makes it difficult for this type of peripheral to work, it seems strange that it would be so difficult.

[Streetguru]

1 hour ago, LyellLiar said:

Inertia, which may seem like a bad excuse. I've had an iPhone 6 for nearly 10 years and its still chugging fine, storage is literally the only problem. 

Depending on your carrier if you're in the US anyways you might be able to get a really good deal on a phone

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Google-Pixel-128GB-Quite-Black-Verizon-Smartphone/283208460691?epid=229567448&hash=item41f08a2993:g:KkwAAOSwHt1bwUYT:rk:28:pf:0

[Donut417]

2 hours ago, Zusafek said:

Personally Apple should have had an expandable memory slot on their product to begin with.

Shit SD cards cause slow downs. Thats why Apple and some Android phones such as the Google Pixel dont have SD card slots. Actually from what I have read, Stock Android has no SD card support. The only reason why some phones have it, is the phone makers add it in.