IPhone.... well ALL APPLE PRODUCTS... missing memory (8GB iPhone)

Question

have you ever had a iPod, and noticed it had less memory than you payed for?? go to "about" on any apple product wiith storage, and i gaurentee that it has less than it claims. my 4G nano has 3.6 GB, my 8GB iphone has 7.3 GB (if you have a MAC mini than i gaurentee there is at least 2GB missing. tell me, why does apple do this?? for the operating system? it shouldnt be that way if iPhone takes .7 GB to function then they should really make a 8.7GB model and hide the .7GB ..........

Answer 1

nick0HHHlass,
There is two things at work here. One, is the difference between 1000, and 1024, carried out to several factors, as well as space needed for the software for the computer or the iPhone. This article discusses it, as well as my own explanation below:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=30065
So first off, an 8GB iPhone has flash storage memory with at 8,000,000,000 bytes. When the drive is labeled, that is rounded off to 8GB because when labeled they use 1000 bytes per kilobyte, and 1000 kilobytes per megabyte, and 1000 megabytes for gigabyte. However, when a computer looks at a device it looks at it by powers of 2. This applies to any storage drive whether its intended for a Mac, PC, server, iPod, etc.
A computer divides the 8,000,000,000 bytes by 1024 to get kilobytes, then by 1024 to get megabytes, and then by 1024 to get gigabytes. So that it is reported at around 7.5 GB. Then from that there is space used for the software to run your iPhone. This is the same with any computer. Look at the hard drive properties (Windows-based PC) or Get Info (Mac). Disk utility gives more information than get info. For example the iMac I am using has a drive with 160,041,885,696 Bytes, but after formatting it is reported as 148.9 GB (159,907,630,080 Bytes). This article contains the same information in regards to iPod drives:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=60955
Second, more is space is lost for the data needed "format" or organize the drive. The space used for the formatting becomes less efficient as the drive gets larger, so its not a set percentage. This article discusses efficiency in formatting as drive sizes get bigger:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=8647
Additional space is used for the iPhone's own software. This is the same with any computer.
Other things that may take up additional space, pre-installed software beyond the OS on a computer typically ranges between 5-25 GB currently. In addition some Windows-based PCs may have additional space in a hidden "restore" partition used for reinstalling software.
Hope this helps to explain,
Nathan C.