Expandable Memory for iPhone

Many people are wondering if it is possible to get expandable memory for the iPhone. After all, Apple's device is supposed to be more than just a mobile phone; it's also supposed to satisfy our needs for a portable music player. The iPhone replaces both your cellular phone and your iPod, so you want to have extra storage for all those songs and videos, right?

Unfortunately, there is no official solutiuon to get expandable memory for iPhone. Each handheld comes with a certain amount of integrated storage -- up to 16GB, depending on the model -- and then there is no memory card slot for additional memory expansion. This is one of the most common iPhone complaints, especially from users who are coming from owning a larger 80GB iPod, for example. It's hard going from 80 gigs to 8 gigs.

Even with the announcement of the second generation iPhone, Apple did not include the option to expand memory on the handset. The form factor is much the same with the 3G iPhone as with the first model, so there is no slot for a memory card and thus no way to get expandable memory.

That said, there are a couple of viable alternatives that you may want to consider.

At the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2008 in San Francisco, Apple head honcho Steve Jobs announced a new service called MobileMe. This online storage solution is meant to replace the old .Mac system designed for desktop and laptop computers. MobileMe extends this service to the mobile market as well, so you can actually upload content from your Apple iPhone to this online "cloud" for storage.

The standard individual account with MobileMe costs $99 a year and provides 20GB of online storage and 200GB of monthly transfer. Using this service, users are able to use push e-mail (via a @me.com e-mail address), push address book, push calendar, photo gallery, and something that Apple calls iDisk. There is also a Family Pack subscription for $149 a month that allows for up to four family accounts.

If you really want expandable memory on the iPhone, you may have no option but to look to competing devices that have a similar user interface and shape as the iPhone. For example, the HTC Touch also has a large touchscreen display and a lack of a physical keyboard. Unlike the iPhone, the HTC Touch runs on Windows Mobile, which is the same smartphone software that you will find on many business devices. The kicker, particularly for the current discussion, is that the HTC Touch has a slot that will accept microSD memory cards.

Another phone that you may want to consider is the LG Voyager from Verizon Wireless. It features a large touchscreen display on the cover, but when you flip it open, you will see a second display and a full QWERTY keyboard. This phone also has a memory card expansion slot and an integrated multimedia player, so you will be able to enjoy as many tunes and pictures as you'd like. The haptic feedback on the touchscreen is also a nice feature.

Available through Sprint Nextel is the Samsung Instinct. The display is a 3.1-inch touchscreen that has haptics feedback. This means that when you tap on the screen, the mobile phone vibrates a little to acknowledge your commands. The phone comes with a 2GB microSD memory card, but this can be upgraded to up to 8GB.

Until the memory card format is able to offer higher storage, it seems that we are stuck at around the 8GB or 16GB range of memory on most phones, including the iPhone. Even the recently revealed HTC Touch Diamond has the same amount of internal memory as the iPhone, and like the latter, the HTC Touch Diamond does not have an external memory slot either. Maybe with the third generation, Apple will finally offer expandable memory for iPhone. Then again, based on how the iPod family has gone thus far, this might not happen at all.

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