on some telecomunication services like AT&T or Telecom there is a 20MB download limitation for gprs/umts - so if an app is over 20mb you need WiFi to download the app.
Is there a known maxsize for the zipped app file to still fit this 20MB limitation ?
After I zipped my .app file my finder say its 19,9MB (19.922.768 Bytes) - I heared somewhere that Apple is going to add some stuff like provision file and some other bytes I do not know. So would that app fit the 20MB limitation? How many bytes apple is going to add? Is apple counting 1000 or 1024 bytes for a kilo?
I havent heard of "app store limits".
Theres an AT&T artificially imposed 20mb D/L limit in the US.
Otherwise people can DL any size apps with wifi
Related
I asked a question on here a few weeks ago, and everyone said I needed to look at the .ipa file and that was it (to stay under 50 mb). However, I was browsing Apples iTunes Connect website from questions, and they posted this:
Why did Apple make my app file size larger than the .zip file I uploaded for my binary in iTunes Connect?
When your application is approved by Apple to sell on the App Store, it is encrypted for DRM purposes and re-compressed. When the encryption is added, the size of the compressed file will increase. The exact size of the increase will vary from app to app, however, the size increase can be large when the binary contains a lot of contiguous zeros. We are unable to guarantee the size of your file after the encryption has been added.
iOS apps with a final size of up to 50MB can be downloaded over the 3G network. Larger iOS apps will require a Wi-Fi connection.
So does that mean the .ipa file is going to increase once they encrypt it, or is the .ipa file already encrypted?
You can check the estimated App Store size in Organizer after you archive your app. In my case, the actual file size is even smaller than the estimate (828k vs 534k).
Okay, so i've read countless places saying the app size limit is either 20 mb and some say it's 50mb... which is it?
More importantly, my current app has an "estimate app store size" of 106.1mb in the Archive section of the Organizer. HOWEVER, when I distribute it to an ad-hoc file, it comes out as a .ipa which has the size of 48.3mb. Which one should I use, and I'm confused as to why they are so different.
The official (and reliably up to date) resource for this is the Uploading Your Binary section of the iTunes Connect Guide (expand the 'To begin the Ready to Upload Binary flow' section). At the time of this edit it states:
iOS App binary files can be as large as 2 GB, but the executable file (app_name.app/app_name) cannot exceed 60 MB. However, consider download times when determining your app’s size. Minimize the file’s size as much as possible, keeping in mind that there is a 100 MB limit for over-the-air downloads.
Over-the-air download limit means apps below this threshold can be downloaded with a mobile data connection (anything above the limit requires a WiFi connection, or to be downloaded through iTunes on the computer). This is important as many users may not have ready access to WiFi and you don't want to prevent them from being able to get your app!
Also the .ipa is a compressed, encrypted zip file, whereas the archive is just a fully inflated package of the app, which is why the file sizes are different. The .ipa file size is the one that will be used in the App Store, so use that as your reference for total size. That said, the smaller you can make your app, obviously the happier the user will be!
Apple recently bumped up the size from 20 to 50 shortly after WWDC '12. I am not sure if it was officially announced, but was observed in the error message of larger apps.
Use the IPA size. The files sent from the app store are compressed. Perhaps the 106.1 is the uncompressed size, or it is a bug.
Today, Apple Increases Over-the-Air App Store Download Limit to 100MB.
I have an app which is quite huge. It has tons of images and sounds. In total it's 30 MB in size.
1) Is there an official limit for the app size?
2) Are there other "practical" limits I should consider?
Reading around, there are reports that the absolute maximum size for an application is 2GB (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1605342).
Other than that, if your app is over 10MB, users will only be able to download it over a wifi connection, having the impact that users won't be able to download your application easily when they are out and about.
This might sound obvious, but there are two size limits to keep in mind here - neither are absolutely defined.
One is the limit for the application bundle. I don't know if there is a real limit (other than the device's flash storage limit), but this should rarely be an issue. Keep in mind the 10Mb threshold that the other Phil mentions though. There may be something in the 2GB limit too, I don't know.
The more important limit is on the size of the loaded binary image and it's runtime memory usage. The iPhone is obviously a constrained device in this area. The original iPhones and iPod touches had 128Mb of total RAM, with no paging. Current models have 256Mb, but it's a bit early to limit yourself to that subset of the installed base if you can help it.
Assuming 128Mb, of that a fair chunk is used by the system itself and its background tasks (and people want user background tasks too!?!).
In a conversation with an Apple Engineer he said that apps should be written to use no more than about 25-30Mb! Up to 60Mb may be available but cannot be counted on (but you could use this extra for caching stuff that you can purge as necessary).
1) I believe that you shouldn't ask for maximum size, as you have to aim for minimum possible size for your apps. As iPhone has limited memory (both storage & RAM), you should not create a huge app. (I doubt an app > 200MB can pass through Apple's app check.)
Yeah, Phil is right, when you app is over 10MB, it can only be downloaded via wifi or iTunes. Quite a lot users may want to download anywhere they like using 3G networks, so >10MB is not recommended.
Also, take care those users with iPhone 2G. If you produce a >10MB app, it takes them a day to download your app (if they are lucky enough to have no disconnection at the middle of download...)
2) practical limit ... K.I.S.S = Keep It Simple and Small.
That's it. Hope it helps.
I plan to submit my new app to App Store. App consist of a lot of image resources (animation) - more than 40M.
Is there any formal limits at App Store of the app bundle size? I never see such condition and think it will be ok. Is it right?
My major question is..
Is there any negative aspects for usability in case app is a huge?
-increase user traffic
-problem with installation
-etc...
Should I try to reduce my app size as much as I can? (actually I've done it already but size still big)
I have no statistic on this point. What is the average app size at app store and how many exclusion with big size?
Thanks, Mike/
The only limit that I'm aware of is that if your app is larger than 10 megabytes, you must download it over wifi when installing via the App Store on the phone.
There are some huge apps that I've installed, including:
Apple's Hold em: 172.8 MB
Spore: 68.5 MB
Oregon Trail: 52.6 MB
and 10 more that are over 40MB
I'd venture to guess that the upcoming Tom Tom app with the maps will be very large.
I don't think most people look at app size when downloading via iTunes or even on the phone when on Wifi. Smaller applications will install faster, but at that point they've already bought the application.
If you somehow have the ability to get your app under 10MB, then I'd say shoot for it. I don't have any actual numbers, but I would guess it certainly wouldn't hurt. However, if you can't get down to 10MB, I would spend only a reasonable amount of time getting your application size down. The decrease in download time and disk space I doubt will raise sales that much.
I don't know of any limits, but remember that anything larger than 10 MB requires a wifi connection to download. Under 10 MB can be downloaded over 3G.
At least these are the limits today, they could change soon.
iTunes Connect developer guide says there is a hard limit of 2 GB.
App Size Tips (For iOS Apps Only)
■ Apps can be as large as 2GB, but be aware of download times.
■ Make efforts to minimize file size.
■ Remember there is a 20MB limit for Over the Air downloads
https://itunesconnect.apple.com/docs/iTunesConnect_DeveloperGuide.pdf
I'm wondering what's a reasonable size for iPhone Apps. Right now I'm working on an iPhone game, and of course it loads fast into my device since I'm connected directly to it through a USB cable, but I've no idea how long it would actually take to download from the App Store.
In my case it's about 2mb in size, which is reasonable for a desktop or even a flash game, but I've no idea if this is reasonable size for the iPhone.
My other concern is what's the non-wifi download limit of the App Store? Occasionally there are Apps that won't download unless you've got a wifi connection. And personally I've never downloaded such apps, since it gives me a bad impression. So I'd definitely want to stay below that limit.
Also since I'm already asking about app sizes, it would be probably be useful to collect good sizes for other types of apps as well.
Thanks!
Looking through some of the games i have on my phone they weigh in around 7 or 8 mb a pop. I think your 2mb will be fine.
One thing i can tell you for sure is that if you want to be distributable over the cell network your application has to be under 50 mb. If you exceed this it will have to be downloaded using wifi or itunes on a computer.
The 3g network is fast. I wouldn't limit your development based on this - do exactly what you need to do to make your game as good as it can be, and people will download it even if it takes a tiny bit longer. I've downloaded 10MB+ applications from the store over 3g and it might as well be a slow wi-fi connection, it's just that fast.
Also remember that many people purchase on their computers (hence a fast connection) and then just sync to the iPhone, especially those that are in areas with slower cellular networks.
Bottom line, size won't affect downloads, ratings will.
Besides the resonable numbers being somewhat lower the limits:
Maximum app size ist 2GB
Application larger than 20MB won't be downloadable over a cellular connection
I would try and keep it as small as possible. The app-store could probably support, say, a 100MB application, but it wont be nice to install for users.
The problem is installing via the phone - all you get is a simple progress bar, and most people have their phone auto-lock after 1 minute.. So, ideally the app would download in under a minute on an average connection..