The 8GB in his example is internal memory, used only by the phone to store the Android system image and application packages. All user data, including videos, are stored on the SD card, external memory. The vast majority of users will never install enough applications to fill internal memory, hence the OP's point is relatively moot.
I assume the author probably bought a dirt cheap Android device that doesn't actually have a decent amount of internal memory; my original G1 for instance only had 512M of internal memory, and installing some big apps or games could quickly fill that up. Modern, powerful Android phones can have 4G or more of internal memory for installed programs, which most users will never have a problem with.
Granted, I'm not saying this still isn't confusing, but for most people it should be a non-issue because the only thing they'll care about is filling the SD card.
OP here. I got the Optimus V - dirt cheap and only has 256 mb of internal memory. So, obviously this isn't representative of "modern" phones, but I'm not convinced that better hardware is a good solution to a potential design flaw.
Case in point, this phone recently went on sale at Best Buy and Target and has been sold out in every store in my city. There's a lot of new Android users that will be dealing with this problem.
What version of Android does it run? I have a similar budget phone (ZTE Blade) and this was an issue under 2.1 (I would get warnings about being low on space) but I haven't even thought about it since I went to 2.2 a while ago. I believe most larger apps install themselves automatically to the SD card now? Enough do it that it doesn't bother me anyway.
I actually have no idea how much internal space my phone has, which I take as evidence that it's not an issue for me. Google tells me it's got a shockingly small sounding 150MB of internal of memory.
Blade has 512 MB of internal memory, but it is partitioned into /system, /data and /cache. Both system and data are somewhere around 235 MB each and cache is the rest.
Android doesn't help that it warns you when you are below 10% of free /data. On Blade, it is still 23 MB.
Just out of curiosity, what are you using for 2.2 on Blade? AFAIK, the official version is still 2.1.
Yeah, I got that installed. Unfortunately, there's still quite a few apps that only install to the internal memory. I hope that will change over time.
" roll around in the money you saved from not getting a 32GB iPhone."
That's exactly what I'm doing! For all my aggravations, the phone is still great. I only paid $140 for it (contract free!) and the savings from the virgin mobile prepaid plan will pay for the phone shortly.
As for a minimum spec, I'm a little torn. If Google had imposed a minimum spec, then I wouldn't be having this problem - because I wouldn't have bought the phone and wouldn't be telling my friends what a great deal it was.
I assume the author probably bought a dirt cheap Android device that doesn't actually have a decent amount of internal memory; my original G1 for instance only had 512M of internal memory, and installing some big apps or games could quickly fill that up. Modern, powerful Android phones can have 4G or more of internal memory for installed programs, which most users will never have a problem with.
Granted, I'm not saying this still isn't confusing, but for most people it should be a non-issue because the only thing they'll care about is filling the SD card.