The Downside To Having Retina Display On The New iPad
March 16, 2012
Upwards of one million customers will begin experiencing their new iPads today, which come with an incredible Retina display for the first time. Still, there is one significant downside to having such a technology. In fact, the new iPad's Retina display will also affect (negatively) those users that haven't upgraded, according to The Verge.
The new iPad boosts a huge graphics upgrade over the iPad 2, as it includes a 2048 x 1536 Retina display. Those better graphics, however, mean some of your favorite apps are growing in size. In fact, many might soon be five times larger than their previous versions.
For example, Pages went from 95MB to 269MB, while iMovie is now 404MB, versus just 70MB before the upgrade. Meanwhile, Tweetbot went from 9.8MB to 25MB since its last update. And keep in mind, we're talking about download sizes here. Once an app is installed it may be even larger!
These app size increases don’t just affect those using the new iPad. Rather, even those on legacy tablets will have to eventually upgrade their apps, even though these users cannot experience the new display capabilities.
As Apple doesn't fragment its releases, instead relying on unified apps, the bump in size will also hit owners of the iPad and iPad 2, as they'll have to store the unused Retina graphics.Most customers understand that products eventually need to be replaced as technological improvements make older products obsolete. However, just as app sizes are increasing, Apple has failed to introduce iPads with higher capacities. Since 2010 when the first iPad was released, the company has offered a 16GB, 32GB and 64GB model. Now, imagine being a 16GB iPad 2 owner who is now forced to download larger apps and you can see the obvious problem. Finally, envision shelling out $499 today for a 16GB new iPad and then realizing just how little space you’ve actually got to use. I don’t hold out much hope Apple will begin offering the same apps for different iDevices in the App Store. However, the time seems ripe for an overall upgrade to the iPad line in terms of size capacity. Hopefully, by 2013 larger capacity iPads will become a reality. Are you happy with the Retina display on your new iPad, even though it will lead to larger app sizes?
