What's the maximum memory footprint in MB for an typical iPhone app?

Question

I know this is a subjective question. As far as I know, there are somewhat about 25 MB available for the app, but it depends on what else is going on. Currently playing music, a current phone call or what ever might drop that amount of memory down a lot. I don't know.

Just tell us what you think, or what you have experienced. My app currently consumes about 15 MB at a time, mostly lots of images loaded into views for animation. I have encountered no problems with this. But is there some "border" that can be drawn, to make a simple-to-follow rule like "do not consume more than x MB of memory at any given time", where x stands for the max amount?

Answer 1

This value highly varies per device and per user. For example, I restart my phone every few days, freeing up lost memory claimed by Apple and 3rd party leaks. My mother, has not restarted her phone ever on her own. EVER. She has tons of trouble with apps, gives me a call and I tell her to restart the phone to increase the ram. She does and the apps dont crash anymore.

Moral of the story is: Never plan on having available memory. You should always keep your memory down to the bare minimum you need at any given time.

Answer 2

You can use Instruments and launch some apps and find out for yourself.