Are App Sizes Out of Control?

In a blog post, Trevor Elkins points out the large sizes of common apps like LinkedIn and Facebook. "I went to update all my apps the other day when something caught my eye... since when does LinkedIn take up 275MB of space?!" Elkins wrote. "In fact, the six apps in this picture average roughly 230MB in size, 1387MB in total. That would take an 8Mbit internet connection 24 minutes to download, and I'd still be left with 27 additional apps to update! More and more companies are adopting shorter release cycles (two weeks or so) and it's becoming unsustainable as a consumer to update frequently."

Should Apple do something to solve this "systematic" problem? Elkins writes, "how does an app that occasionally sends me a connection request and recruiter spam take up 275MB?"

Further discussion via Hacker News.

Comments

lol know nothings

[Anonymous Coward]

I know you old perl grognards don't know anything about the size that graphical assets take up, but when you need a 2086x1080 image for every screen because iphone resolution is fuckhueg you get ballooning app sizes.

Re:lol know nothings

[Anonymous Coward]

simplistic apps like that

how is facebook simplistic? it needs to:

track your location at all times
record everything via the mic even when backgrounded
send you push notifications when your gradeschool girlfriend makes a post about how men suck
deliver you the quality ad content you deserve
let your HR department creep on your comings and goings because they have nothing else to do
support hashtaggings