Most Android phones have an SD card slot, which allows users to add extra storage space
to their device.
But Apple has never brought the feature to iPhones, and there are some good reasons why.
Starting, with the user experience.
Apple likes having complete control over their products to make sure users enjoy them with
few headaches.
But SD cards come with several problems.
For example, instead of the device managing files automatically, users have to decide
where to put them; on the SD card or internal storage.
This is not only inconvenient, but it also adds fragmentation.
When a user fills up their SD card, they’d have to either transfer that data to a larger
card which can be a complicated process or stop using the old SD card completely and
go without having the data on device.
Also, when transferring to a new phone, users would have to manage their SD card data in
addition to their internal storage which makes upgrading even more inconvenient.
And thats a problem, since Apple wants to make buying new phones as easy as possible.
Not to mention just shopping for an SD card is unnecessarily complicated.
Users have to figure out which ones are compatible with their device, and how much storage capacity
their device supports.
Get either of those wrong, and you’re stuck with an SD card that doesn’t work at all.
Next, is performance.
SD cards are slow and unreliable.
Delivering an uneven smartphone experience.
If users select a video from the SD card, they may wonder why it takes so much longer
to open compared to videos stored internally.
Plus, after a number of years, SD cards can fail, since they have a limited number of
write cycles.
And the last thing Apple wants are users blaming them for losing their family photos.
Plus, no expandable storage motivates customers to choose higher capacity iPhone models, which
means more profit for Apple.
Finally, SD card slots take up quite a bit of space.
Which Apple may prefer allocating to things like a larger battery or larger camera system.
This is Greg with Apple Explained, thanks for watching till the end, and I’ll see
you in the next video.