If you’re Mac owner, you’ve probably seen this notification, warning that your startup
disk is almost full.
It’s become such a common issue that Apple actually introduced a new feature in macOS
to reduce clutter and optimize storage space.
Now the obvious reason why users are running out of space so quickly is due to Apple’s
tendency to equip their Macs with small drives, a problem that’s only gotten worse in recent
years.
So in this video we’re going to find out why Apple appears to be stingy with storage
space, and how that has effected users.
This is Greg with Apple Explained, and I want to thank Clean My Mac X for sponsoring this
video.
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Now the Mac is a product that’s very popular among content creators who require a lot of
storage space for their video and photo files.
Macs have always had fairly competitive base specs compared to their PC equivalents, except
when it comes to storage space.
Take the MacBook Pro for example, the 13” base model costs $1,300 and has virtually
the same specs as the $1,250 Dell XPS 13.
The only difference is that the MacBook Pro, which is $50 more, has half the storage space.
And upgrading the solid state drive to the same 256GB as the XPS 13 would cost $200,
something the vast majority of customers don’t do.
So they end up going home with a pro level machine capable of video editing, photo editing,
and 3D rendering, but isn’t capable of holding many of those project files.
Forcing users to either delete old files or move them to external drives which can be
an annoying, time consuming process.
Now, I mentioned how Apple charges quite a bit more than their competition for extra
storage space, and when you combine this with the fact that base model Macs have significantly
smaller drives on average, you begin to understand what’s happening here.
Apple is employing an up-sell strategy that becomes extremely profitable considering the
high margins on their SSDs.
Upgrading to a 1TB drive on the MacBook Pro costs $600.
Compare that to one of the best external 1TB SSD on the market, the Samsung T5, which retails
for $180.
More than a third less than what Apple is charging.
Now if you’re wondering why computers like the iMac offer 1TB of storage for significantly
less than the MacBook Pro, it’s because the base iMac has a hard disk drive, rather
than a solid state drive.
So what’s the difference?
Well, hard drives are pretty old technology that go back to the 50’s.
They have a spinning disk with a moving arm that uses magnets to store and retrieve data,
and today you can get a high capacity hard drive for a very affordable price.
But there are drawbacks.
The speed of a hard drive depends on how fast it’s platter can spin, and although there
have been improvements over the years, spinning hard drives are still significantly slower
than solid state drives.
Also, hard drives are fragile.
They contain moving parts that operate at a high level of precision, so dropping a computer
with a hard drive could result in corrupted data.
Lastly, hard disk drives are ridged and can’t be reshaped to accommodate other components.
Compare all that to the more modern solid state drive which features no moving parts.
It’s much more durable, accesses data much faster, operates in complete silence, and
can be molded to fit inside modern electronics much easier.
But the big drawback is its price.
SSDs are significantly more expensive per gigabyte than hard drives.
So while computers like the Mac Mini will reboot, launch apps, and open files much quicker
than its hard drive-based competitors, it won’t have nearly as much space.
For example the HP Z2 Mini features a 500GB hard drive standard, compared to the Mac Mini’s
128GB solid state drive.
That’s almost four times more storage on the Z2, although it would perform much slower.
I should also mention that you can upgrade the Z2 to a 256GB solid state drive, but it’d
cost an additional $71, which would bring the total to $912.
Which is almost $100 less than the cost of an equivalent Mac Mini.
I’ve actually made the mistake of buying a MacBook Pro with 256GB of storage space,
which isn’t much at all for a video creator.
So what I do is store my large project files on an external drive, and use a Mac cleaner
app called Clean My Mac X to delete old files, apps, and hidden junk that I wouldn’t be
able to find easily on my own.
It has the best interface of any Mac cleaning app I’ve used and the first time it scanned
my drive it found almost 30GB of unused files that I deleted with a single click.
And what makes Clean My Mac X even more useful is that it also locates and removes malware
which can sneak onto your Mac through third party app downloads or internet extensions.
It’s also easy to monitor what the app is doing through the menu bar widget.
So if you need to free up space on your Mac just click the link in the description and
you’ll be able to download a free trial of Clean My Mac X or you can get a premium
license for just $35, which is way cheaper in the long run compared to a monthly subscription
service.
Now, the Mac’s storage problem wasn’t too bad until the rise of SSDs beginning with
the original MacBook Air released back in 2008.
It came standard with an 80GB hard drive, which was comparable to many other PC notebooks
in the same category.
But you could upgrade the MacBook Air to a smaller 64GB solid state drive for an extra
$1,000.
Now the cost of SSDs quickly dropped and Apple was able to offer the same 64GB upgrade for
$600 about six months later, but it didn’t solve the problem that 64GB of storage space
on a notebook was extremely limiting, even in those days.
Users coming from the base model MacBook Pro, which featured a 200GB hard drive, were forced
to decide which files to keep on their MacBook Air, and which to store on an external drive.
And as I mentioned earlier, this is an issue for Macs that still exists today, over a decade
later.
Now, Apple has tried to solve this storage space problem with something called the Fusion
Drive, introduced in 2012 with the iMac and Mac Mini.
As the name suggests, the Fusion Drive combines a hard drive with a solid state drive in an
effort to get the best of both worlds.
High capacity and high speed.
It achieves this by automatically storing frequently used files on the smaller solid
state drive, while moving rarely accessed files to the larger hard drive for long term
storage.
Now, reception of the Fusion Drive has been mixed.
With some users enjoying the increased performance and others noting the poor integration of
both drives.
Saying they see the rainbow beach ball more often than with a tradition hard drive.
And this mixed reaction is probably why Apple hasn’t expanded the fusion drive to any
of their other Macs, and actually removed it from the Mac Mini.
So with that semi-failed attempt at trying to bring hard drives and solid state drives
together, Apple’s had to deal with the reality that most of their Macs will have to feature
more expensive solid state drives, which forces Apple and their customers into an uncomfortable
position.
Apple wants to keep margins on hardware high, resulting in price hikes of their base model
computers.
Or, they could keep prices the same and simply include a smaller solid state drive that costs
less.
And I think Apple did a little bit of both.
Remember back in 2018 when Apple updated the Mac Mini?
It came standard with a 128GB solid state drive which replaced the 500GB hard drive,
but it also received a significant price hike, from 500 to 800 dollars.
So not only were users getting a quarter of the storage space, but they were also paying
$300 more for it.
And when it comes to the situation customers are in when shopping for a Mac, it’s equally
as disappointing.
The MacBook Air is one of Apple’s most popular notebooks, but look at how much storage space
comes with the base model, just 128GB.
Compare that with one of it’s top selling competitors, the HP Spectre x360.
It costs $100 less and comes with a 512GB solid state drive.
Upgrading to that capacity on the MacBook Air would cost an additional $400.
And consider the fact that the 2012 15” MacBook Pro shipped with the same 256GB of
solid state storage as my 2018 15” MacBook Pro.
But during that period, the iPhone’s base storage increased by 300%, from 16 to 64GB.
And when it comes to buying more storage space, the iPhone offers a better value than the
Mac.
Upgrading from 128 to 256GB costs an extra $100 for the iPhone 11, but $200 for the Mac
Mini.
So Mac customers face a tough decision, risk purchasing a lower-capacity base model that
could run out of space very quickly, or spend an extra few hundred dollars on a larger drive
to give yourself more breathing room.
And although this sales approach is very profitable for Apple, it has a detrimental effect on
the user experience.
Not only are many users forced to deal with this low storage alert on a regular basis,
but they’re also forced to repeatedly sift through the finder and decide which files
and apps are worth keeping and which should be deleted.
For professional users, things are even worse.
Many video editors, me included, have to carry around external drives or pay for cloud services
to accommodate our large project files that make our workflow more complicated than it
needs to be.
So will this problem ever be solved?
Well, it’s already started to improve with the recent 16 inch MacBook Pro, which offers
a better deal per gigabyte than the previous 15 inch model that it replaced.
But Apple is still charging significantly more than the competition, which means they’re
likely to continue leveraging SSDs as an up-sell opportunity, leaving customers to pay a premium
price for more internal storage.
Alright guys thanks for watching and I’ll see you next time.