64 GB or not 64 GB: iPad and Surface storage capacities aren’t what they seem
Marco Arment has an interesting idea about storage capacities:
[S]torage capacities referenced or implied1 in the names or advertisements for personal computers, tablets, and smartphones should not exceed the amount of space available for end-user installation of third-party2 applications and data, after enough software has been installed to enable all commonly advertised functionality.
With the 64 GB Surface Pro only having 23 GB of free space for anyone to actually use (The Verge), Arment’s bang-on with this. It’s annoying enough when you buy an iPad and realise iOS has ronched about 4 GB of space, but it’s insane that you can now buy a unit and find well over half the storage space taken up by the operating system and some bundled apps. At best, it’s misleading; at worst, it’s outright deception. It’d be interesting to see what would happen if people complained to local advertising standards watchdogs about this.
I think the comparison is somewhat misleading, because the Surface comes with way more substantial software than the iPad. Effectively, the whole Office suite is preinstalled, which accounts for about 8 gigs of the occupied space. If you remove that, you end up with 31 gigs. Still bad, but not as bad as 23 gigs.
It’s not as bad, but it’s still half the capacity the typical buyer will assume they’re getting. Available space should be made much clearer on these devices. (And note that I don’t think Apple should get away with this either, although it’s easier to swallow four or so GB being taken up by iOS than half the space being ronched by Windows.)
How does Office for a tablet take up eight GIG?