Why there is No SD card support in Nexus devices and newer devices from Motorola and HTC?

Ok i have seen many people complaining about SD card support on Nexus devices and newer Motorola devices so wanted to clear things out. The lack of an SD card in Nexus devices is nothing new. Google stopped SD card support since the release of Nexus S. Google still supports removable storage in Android, but it is leading by example and selling phones and tablet with single big block of storage that users can use for anything they like - be it media, documents, or apps.

Advantages of using only onboard memory

1. It allows the device to use ext file systems instead of a mix of ext and FAT. This is faster and safer - both for the data on the device and the way it's handled, and access to our own personal data. A journalized file system means fewer file errors, and ext preserves file system permissions so random code can't find your pictures or documents folder. 

2. When you connect your phones or tablets to a computer it cannot mess things up and molest the file system since it does not have block level access. A proxy FUSE (Filesystem in Userspace) file system is used to mount a psuedo-SD card folder so that your computer can read and write to it via MTP. This means you won't get errors from incorrectly unmounting or unplugging your device, and the device still has access to all the data even while plugged into a PC.

3. Apps on SD card cannot auto load on device restart. So you have to manually launch apps to enjoy features like push notifications or backgroung updates. There will be also be a delay in rebooting your phone and being able to access any apps or data on the SD card right after reboot.

One great thing about SD cards is that they make your data portable. So, when you upgrade your phone, you can just swap out the SD card and you still have all of your app-data, contacts, images and videos. However there are plenty of apps in the play store which offer backup solution like Helium - App Sync and Backup,  App Backup & Restore and for root users Titanium Backup. Users can also backup up their contacts, messages, calendar, wifi passwords by syncing with thier g-mail accounts.

Google's director of User Services on Android, Matias Duarte, once said on Google+ 

"Everybody likes the idea of having an SD card, but in reality it's just confusing for users," he said. "If you're saving photos, videos or music, where does it go? Is it on your phone? Or on your card? Should there be a setting? Prompt every time? What happens to the experience when you swap out the card? It's just too complicated."
Instead of implementing SD card support, Nexus devices offers a fixed amount of space that "apps just seamlessly… use", with users not having to "worry about files or volumes or any of that techy nonsense left over from the paleolithic era of computing.

Some of the people would say Google wants to force us to use it's cloud services. Yeah they would like you to use it, but let's be clear here. You are free to use other cloud services offered by Dropbox, Box or even Skydrive from Microsoft. 

The cost of NAND flash memory has dropped a lot over the past few years. Most high end smartphones these days come with 16GB of internal storage, but the jump to 32GB typically costs an additional $50. Yes, $50 may not seem like much, but i understand it’s too expensive considering that you could purchase a 64GB microSDXC class 10 card for the same price. Google is offering that jump at $50 by offering 16 GB Nexus 5 at $349 and 32 GB Nexus 5 at $399. Likewise Motorola have offered Moto G at $179 for 8GB model and $199 for 16 GB model. 

MicroSD cards are very cheap and they keep getting cheaper by the day and are easily swappable. Unfortunately, the inclusion of expandable storage slots in mobile devices is on a decline. By removing the slot, manufacturers are able to design and build devices in a different manner. Just look how great HTC One looks and feels. It has unibody design, no removable backs, but if HTC had decided to include SD card slot it wouldn't be as good as it is now. 

Google has been way too much forward thinking for most of the people. Google pushed the idea of using on-screen keys instead of hardware keys or capacitive buttons since Galaxy Nexus or Android 4.0 (more than 2 years ago). They also ditched "Menu" key for "Recent Apps" Key since Galaxy Nexus.  But most of the manufacturers ignored it and sticked to using hardware buttons and capacitive buttons with Back, Home and Menu buttons. However Samsung went with on-screen keys in their new Note Tablets as shown in CES 2014 and also ditched menu key. It is rumoured that the new flagship phone from HTC will also feature on-screen keys. 

After reading all this some people will start giving second thoughts on SD card support. But some of the Samsung Fan boys will still question it. Let me know what you think on the comments below.