I got interested on how the BlackBerry memory behaves. Albeit being advertised as a system on which you can add applications, it feels a bit small for my tastes. The model I do have is a Bold9000. In the new models, the memory for internal applications will raise to 256 MB, making it the same as the iPhone. This will open new possibilties.

Blackberry Memory Overview

This diagram outlines the structure of the memory of a Blackberry Bold 9000.

Blackberry Memory Overview

The most limiting factor is the Internal Applications area where 128 MB size severely limits what you can have as apps.

Having removed all games on the machine, I have Documents To Go Premium, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and WordPress as well as DropBox, Amazon Kindle, Documents to Go Files, PDF To Go, Google Maps and Gmail.

This leaves about 20 MB available on the device f as operating memory for the applications.

It would be great to be able to switch applications back and forth to the Internal storage or the external media card. I don’t know of an application to do this and to this time need to use the Desktop Manager.

Still, this is way enough for productive work and on-line life. I had to remove the online radio application since it was taking too much.

Blackberry Memory

The memory is composed of several parts.

External Media Card

As internal storage, Just larger.

Internal Applications

Stores application modules (.cod) and serves as the RAM.

Internal Storage

Stores localfiles, photos, movies, recordings…

Hope it helped clarifying why we are always short of RAM on that box.

And sometimes, the battery removal maneuver helps for clearing that damn RAM.