And suffers greatly reduced usability as a result.
Let's be honest, average users don't care to decide where everything goes - many won't even know what this means. When one downloads a funny cat picture from the internet, nobody wants to be asked "to internal memory or SD?". Nor do people want to mentally track which files are on what card, nor do they want to break their music library metadata because a song is on a card no longer in the machine.
Yadi yada, the number of ways removable storage (as a primary storage medium, which it is in most smartphones... minimal internal + large removable) harms the user experience is infinite.
What makes WP7 microSD compelling is that it's an upgrade path - which is how people treat removable storage when it comes to smartphones. The fact that the entire experience is unified helps greatly too - your extra capacity is seamless to the user.
If anything, MS is the first smartphone maker to do removable/expandable storage right.
Now, it would be nice to be able to recover a card for normal everyday use after you're done with it, but all in all that's a fairly minor complaint. Like someone else mentioned, you're adding a disk to a RAID, not a gameboy cartridge to ta Game Boy.
How so? I cannot remember a single issue I had with my phones because of it. It's true I was, about once every phone, confronted with a daunting 2-choice menu asking me where would I like my photos and recorded audio to be stored.
> If anything, MS is the first smartphone maker to do removable/expandable storage right.
You are most likely kidding.
> Like someone else mentioned, you're adding a disk to a RAID
And that's a concept my grandma would easily grasp...
No. It's not a usability issue. It's a design flaw that has to be disguised as a feature because they had to launch the product.
It seems like a welcome contrast to the external storage mess Android is in. I think if it were Apple doing this, it'd be labeled as a brilliant move.
- Your grandma isn't even going to be taking off the battery cover, let alone swapping tiny microSDHC cards.
- Cautiously, I'd say Microsoft might want to keep this scheme going. It certainly seems better than the more drastic measures phones like the iPhone and HP/Palm phones take (soldered on, non-upgradeable storage).
WP7 doesn't use the card in the SD slot like your computer would. It's more synonymous with adding another disc to your RAID array.
More info: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2450831
Microsoft/AT&T have done a poor job of messaging this to the users. The fact that AT&T advertised these phones as having "expandable memory" doesn't help any.
"It creates a single file system that spans the internal storage and the SD card." - Meaning that you don't worry about "shall I store this photo in the phone or in the card" and juggle disk space around after upgrading the memory.
There are WP7 devs that are poking at this problem as well: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=9247202
If a UI design presents a slot or button or knob to an inexperienced user, then you should expect it's going to occasionally going to get poked at. Humans are an inquisitive lot, after all.
And if some unique and irrevocable things happen that's also specific to your device, then you're going to lead an inquisitive user to have a problem. Particularly if the slot is commonly used for transferring data in and out of other similar devices.
Most folks don't encounter and don't poke at RAID disk arrays. Most folks do shuffle files and pictures in and out of handhelds and laptops and cameras via SD. If you're aiming for the former audience and your product happens to be bought in droves by the latter (and as is increasingly arising with SOHO and consumer-facing RAID devices, for that matter), you've missed your target product audience, and you're going to have product acceptance problems.
Worse for WP7, this particular case likely arises among the more inquisitive members of your target audience, and this is likely also the same group that can be your early adopters and your best proponents.
Oh... It renders them unusable on any other device but the one you inserted them into...
> Microsoft/AT&T have done a poor job of messaging this to the users.
I think the OEM (was it HTC?) should have placed the SD slot under a metal cover you would have to unscrew before you even saw the card.
Nonetheless, I consider that to be an essential smartphone feature.
A related note: What is Microsoft thinking coupling the performance of a phone to performance of an SD card?! Architecturally, I can't see a good reason (unless my assumption that the phone has internal storage is actually wrong)
Why would anyone consider implementing it this way is beyond me.