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iTunes app updates are broken and here’s why
Apple just celebrated 50-billion apps downloaded, but that number pales in comparison to the number of app updates it’s delivered.
So I thought I’d examine the version history of every app currently on my phone, and even make a best guess of how many megabytes it took to keep all my apps up to date.
Since I don’t have the size of historical binaries, I’m only going to use the size of the latest version, which will probably overstate the true number of megabytes since apps tend to grow in size over time. I’m also assuming that I owned each app starting from version 1, which isn’t always the case. On the other hand, I’m not going to count the vast number of apps I’ve downloaded and then ultimately removed from my phone.
Here goes:
| App name | Number of versions | Binary size (MB) | Size over time (MB) |
| Fantastical | 8 | 7.8 | 62.4 |
| Google Maps | 2 | 7.2 | 14.4 |
| Google Earth | 13 | 25.7 | 334.1 |
| CARR | 18 | 4.4 | 79.2 |
| Living Earth | 23 | 43.1 | 991.3 |
| Sigalert | 4 | 4 | 16 |
| Find iPhone | 10 | 16.2 | 162 |
| Flashlight | 4 | 3.5 | 14 |
| AirPort Utility | 4 | 4.4 | 17.6 |
| Speedtest | 14 | 7.6 | 106.4 |
| hue | 4 | 19.6 | 78.4 |
| Camera+ | 27 | 23.2 | 626.4 |
| FatBooth | 20 | 21.2 | 424 |
| AgingBooth | 19 | 17.2 | 326.8 |
| 41 | 12.2 | 500.2 | |
| Amazon | 28 | 7.3 | 204.4 |
| Yelp | 41 | 17.5 | 717.5 |
| Apple Store | 17 | 5.8 | 98.6 |
| Redfin | 34 | 16.3 | 554.2 |
| CrimeReports | 5 | 3 | 15 |
| Homesnap | 11 | 25.1 | 276.1 |
| Fab | 13 | 10.2 | 132.6 |
| livingSocial | 40 | 9.6 | 384 |
| Groupon | 41 | 25.8 | 1057.8 |
| realtor.com | 25 | 15.6 | 390 |
| Passport | 6 | 4.9 | 29.4 |
| Airbnb | 27 | 30.3 | 818.1 |
| Word Lens | 11 | 29.9 | 328.9 |
| MemorableMeals | 9 | 9.5 | 85.5 |
| Congress+ | 29 | 94.3 | 2734.7 |
| 34 | 19.3 | 656.2 | |
| Google Translate | 7 | 2.2 | 15.4 |
| Walkee | 9 | 41 | 369 |
| NearestWiki | 6 | 0.3 | 1.8 |
| myAT&T | 25 | 9 | 225 |
| Articles | 22 | 14.9 | 327.8 |
| Evernote | 41 | 36.3 | 1488.3 |
| 41 | 23.7 | 971.7 | |
| CardMunch | 3 | 10.4 | 31.2 |
| 41 | 30.5 | 1250.5 | |
| 41 | 20.8 | 852.8 | |
| Path | 41 | 23 | 943 |
| Google Voice | 10 | 2.4 | 24 |
| Find My Friends | 5 | 19.1 | 95.5 |
| Cards | 8 | 91.9 | 735.2 |
| TheIceBreak | 19 | 6.8 | 129.2 |
| Eventbrite | 11 | 13.9 | 152.9 |
| Pages• | 13 | 30.3 | 393.9 |
| Skype | 31 | 25.2 | 781.2 |
| Google+ | 23 | 27.2 | 625.6 |
| Bizzabo | 22 | 9.7 | 213.4 |
| Vine | 8 | 11 | 88 |
| Remote | 19 | 17.9 | 340.1 |
| Netflix | 33 | 19.9 | 656.7 |
| Pandora | 41 | 14.2 | 582.2 |
| Flixster | 41 | 12 | 492 |
| IMDb | 27 | 9.5 | 256.5 |
| YouTube | 4 | 10 | 40 |
| Shazam | 40 | 8.1 | 324 |
| iMovie | 10 | 473.4 | 4734 |
| GarageBand | 7 | 560.8 | 3925.6 |
| Podcasts | 8 | 7.2 | 57.6 |
| CNN | 20 | 8.8 | 176 |
| Capture | 6 | 27 | 162 |
| #sworcery | 8 | 158.6 | 1268.8 |
| Angry Birds | 29 | 34.1 | 988.9 |
| Mini Piano | 9 | 5.2 | 46.8 |
| Paper Toss | 18 | 18.3 | 329.4 |
| RecklessRacing | 4 | 57.9 | 231.6 |
| Cut the Rope | 19 | 24 | 456 |
| DoodleJump | 41 | 31.4 | 1287.4 |
| FlightControl | 13 | 17.9 | 232.7 |
| TalkingCarl | 24 | 41.4 | 993.6 |
| Tiny Wings | 8 | 13.9 | 111.2 |
| Fruit Ninja | 21 | 41.8 | 877.8 |
| Minecraft PE | 4 | 4.3 | 17.2 |
| Pages | 13 | 245.1 | 3186.3 |
| Opera Mini | 14 | 4.8 | 67.2 |
| Chrome | 11 | 19.7 | 216.7 |
| Keynote Remote | 4 | 2.5 | 10 |
| Gmail | 12 | 11.6 | 139.2 |
| Clear | 6 | 4.6 | 27.6 |
| Github Issues | 6 | 1.3 | 7.8 |
| Gain Fitness | 33 | 36.2 | 1194.6 |
| Lift | 17 | 3.6 | 61.2 |
| Keynote | 15 | 304 | 4560 |
| GoalSponsors | 11 | 7.2 | 79.2 |
| Google Drive | 9 | 26.9 | 242.1 |
| Mailbox | 5 | 8.8 | 44 |
| Square Register | 41 | 28.1 | 1152.1 |
| Mint.com | 25 | 12.2 | 305 |
| PayPal | 41 | 15.5 | 635.5 |
| iBooks | 21 | 41.1 | 863.1 |
| iTunes U | 5 | 18.3 | 91.5 |
| Our Choice | 4 | 52.7 | 210.8 |
| 34 | 14.3 | 486.2 | |
| Scanner | 35 | 1.9 | 66.5 |
| QRReader | 11 | 11.1 | 122.1 |
| Scan | 14 | 6.2 | 86.8 |
| Eventbrite Entry | 22 | 8.1 | 178.2 |
| Fooducate | 29 | 10.5 | 304.5 |
| ShopSavvy | 39 | 24.6 | 959.4 |
| MogoTix | 7 | 5.9 | 41.3 |
| RedLaser | 14 | 7.1 | 99.4 |
| Smoopa | 23 | 4.2 | 96.6 |
| M.dot | 5 | 8.7 | 43.5 |
| Ticketmaster | 11 | 13.6 | 149.6 |
| Live Nation | 13 | 17.1 | 222.3 |
| Fandango | 33 | 9.4 | 310.2 |
| United Airlines | 31 | 8.4 | 260.4 |
| Target | 36 | 15.1 | 543.6 |
| Walgreens | 24 | 16.7 | 400.8 |
| PayByPhone | 11 | 0.4 | 4.4 |
| YappBox | 16 | 4.6 | 73.6 |
| Yahoo! Weather | 2 | 8.5 | 17 |
| Note | 2 | 1.2 | 2.4 |
| Jawbone UP | 11 | 41.1 | 452.1 |
| Squarespace | 14 | 26.5 | 371 |
The totals
2,193 versions averaging 31.511MB each, for a total of 58 925.5MB or 58.9GB. That’s an average of 1GB per month of app updates since I downloaded my first app. It’s no wonder the App Store is the largest percentage of traffic on iTunes—more than music, movies and books combined.
I spend about 6 GB per month downloading web pages. But that comparison isn’t entirely fair, because the figures above would be much higher if they included the data I download while using the apps.
And since I only use about 10% of my apps in a given day, the question I wish I could answer is: how many of those updates came and went without me ever opening the app? How many of them were just wasted bits?
This article by Joshua Merril originally appeared on Techradar, a Burn Media publishing partner.
