I love Android, particularly the latest release, KitKat. It's come a long way from my first Android phone, the T-Mobile G1 (the one with the weird flip out QWERTY keyboard). My current Android phone - the Motorola X - is superb, with a stunning display, great camera and a gigantic unified memory for all my apps, music and photos. But I only bought it because my previous Android phone became practically unusable after 3 months of ownership. Why? Because of this annoying message: Insufficient Storage Available.
I bought that phone in November last year and by February of this year it was basically useless. Despite saying there was hundreds of megabytes of usable space left in the phone's internal memory it would not allow me to install (or update) apps.
While my smartphones are always Android, for my tablet I've had iPads since the very first one came out. iOS just "works" here. You can install as many as you like and you never have to worry until your device's memory is used up. Since iOS devices have at least 16Gb of storage, there's a lot of room for apps.
So what's up with Android? Most Android phones allow you to plug in an SD card to massively expand your storage space. Unfortunately apps generally can't be installed on external cards. So that leaves you with the phone's internal memory, usually pretty meagre. And prior to version 4 of the operating system, Android would split the phone's internal storage into two; another constraint. But adding insult to injury, carriers and manufacturers then install "bloatware". In return for a fee from the app developer (how much?) they will include that app as standard. I don't particular mind about this, but what I really object to is that this bloatware cannot be removed. You are stuck with it! Picture me swearing at the phone, and shouting "You didn't tell me when I bought the phone it was going to be hobbled!"
I dug out a very old Android phone I had as a spare. This phone from three years ago had 512Mb of internal storage, but only around 150MB available for apps. Precious space is taken up by a whole bunch of apps from Google, Facebook, Twitter and carrier apps like "My T-Mobile". App developers for their part don't help matters: when this phone was first purchased, these apps were just a few megabytes in size, but once you update them to the latest version and start using them, they massively increase in size. Facebook and Chrome both balloon to around 100Mb.
My LG Optimus F6 had 1Gb for applications, but within a few months I started getting the warning message. I slowly pared back the apps until it got to the point I was deleting apps that I really wanted and/or needed. It was time to give up, despite the fact I was very happy with the phone overall. I was hesitant to buy another Android, but I'm glad I did: the Motorola X I have now has no external storage, and a massive 32Gb of internal memory, and as far as I know that can all be used for apps if required. (It also had virtually no bloatware as I bought it off-contract).
Closing thoughts...
If you're stuck with an Android phone and "Insufficient Storage", there's a few things you can do as a workaround, but believe me, I tried them all, and it only put off slightly the time until I had to abandon the phone altogether.
If you're a carrier or manufacturer, shame on you! Stop this policy of install bloatware, or at least allow people to uninstall it.
If you're selecting your next phone, it's probably a good idea to choose one that doesn't have an external memory card slot. Ironically enough, the attraction of a phone with this handy capability is probably going to harm your overall experience rather than add to it.
Screenshot from my new Android phone, with plenty of memory left. But that's not the experience most... [+]
