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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.

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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
Instagram 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
Google 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
LinkedIn 41 23.7 971.7
CardMunch 3 10.4 31.2
Facebook 41 30.5 1250.5
Twitter 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
Flipboard 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.

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