Microsoft Sued For 32GB Surface Model Offering 16GB Free

[kellybean]

MS need the extra memory to keep a log file of all your transactions for the FED.

 

[everygamer]

Last checked this happens on Android devices, iOS devices, Blackberries, PC's, Mac OSX machines, server, game devices you buy for children ... so why is this new news to this guy.

What this is going to lead to is the same thing that happened with monitors back in the 90's. Advertising back then included the frame around the screen in the size, they had to change their advertising to just show what the screen offered. The same thing is going to happen here, they are just going to start advertising the available space on the device out of the box going forward. Colossal waste of time and money.

 

[everygamer]

[citation][nom]kellybean[/nom]MS need the extra memory to keep a log file of all your transactions for the FED.[/citation]

Huh? That doesn't make any sense. I take it your the type that always feels there is someone watching you, following you ... Boooooo!

 

[everygamer]

[citation][nom]lemlo[/nom]If this was on a desktop system or even a laptop or netbook this would be hard to understand. But I agree with this guy. You get an android or ios tablet labled 32gb its gonna have pretty darn near that amount. My tf had around 28gb to play with out of the box, bloatware and all. With this kind of platform and with the mild amount of space there is to deal with people will consider a 32gb device over a 16gb device in many cases. That is why these options exist. 32gb advertising in this case is misleading in my opinion.[/citation]

Define near, 16GB android device out of the box likely has only 13-14GB of free space. You loose a few GB to the OS. Microsoft is doing the same thing, but there OS is not a skimpy mobile OS. It had big boy parts and takes up more space.

At the end of the day, if you get angry at one company for it, you should be angry at all of them for it. Either they all have to report useable space out of the box, or they all have to report total capacity so it is consistent in the industry.

 

[-Fran-]

I hope it wins, that way all of the Advertised products from Apple, Android and Windows will have the CORRECT free space for use.

I friggin hate when they say "16GB of space", but never say how much of that is used but the BLOATED OS. And yes, I'm looking directly at you, Samsung!

Cheers!

 

[chomlee]

Ok, so this guy just wants to make things right. Do you think the lawyer would settle out of court if Microsoft gave him a refund and then changed the wording of their advertising so that idiot Lawers could understand? Of course not, he want's a windfall of money. The actual issue has nothing to do with the memory. He just found a hole and now he wants to exploit it.

As you can see, I have no respect for lawyers. They create their own language just so they can appear inteligent. If all legal documents where written in plain english, we wouldn't need as many lawyers. Ever try to understand the amendments we vote for during the election? I always have to look up the translation to make sure I am not voting for the oposite direction.

 

[chomlee]

[citation][nom]southernshark[/nom]The legal field CAN be fixed. But it will require extensive human sacrifice.[/citation]


Great idea, you mean burn them at the stake? Throw them in a Volcano? Oh wait, I guess you didn't mean that literally .... sorry.

 

[MKBL]

Mr. S has just admitted that he doesn't belong to this age by stating that he believed he could get 32 GB free storage space on a 32 GB storage-specced computer. Get real. A class action for this frivolous lawsuit? I wouldn't trust anyone who participate in this lawsuit for any modern day task.

 

[emccalment]

I wouldn't say this is completely garbage. Depends on how Microsoft words their initial statements about the hard drive and how the court interprets it. Hard drive space or flash drive space could be viewed differentlyfrom storage space. I would personally consider storage space to not include the operating system. That's not storage, that's mandatory.

Of course it will probably get thrown out. But 16GB for preloaded stuff is massive for a tablet.

 

[therogerwilco]

Apple does the same thing, so they need to be sued too

 

[TeraMedia]

This guy isn't an idiot. To the contrary, he is exploiting the legal system, our society and one company and it's misguided marketing to make himself a killing. And what you all need to worry about is that it won't stop there. He probably waited on this opportunity and chose this particular case because it is easier to win over a jury and make a windfall with "they lied to you by 50%!" than "they lied to you by 10%!" If he wins, or even gets a settlement, his very next action will be to sue any manuf that has advertised storage space on computer equipment without having an * indicating that free space will be less due to X, Y, Z. He will start with the ones least able to fight and continue on to progressively larger and more profitable companies, probably hitting Apple when he believes there has been enough public mind-shift to win. For the rest of us, if 2 TB is worth about $100 (HDD) then 16 GB is worth about $0.80. That, times three, is about the absolute max that any of us might expect to see out of this class-action lawsuit and the subsequent lawsuits that are sure to follow. Meanwhile, this lawyer is likely going to ask the court for a paltry 10% of settlements plus legal expenses. 24 cents times a billion is still a very large amount. For PCs the amount will be larger (more SW / more bloatware). For Android and iOS devices the amount will be smaller. Either way, $250 m represents a nice retirement package. And what the jury won't grasp is that since lawsuits are all zero-sum games, all such settlements invariably derive from increased device prices paid by them. This lawyer is going to convince a jury to take dollars out of their very own pockets and line his with them. And they will do it thinking that they are somehow benefitting from the act (doing good for society against evil greedy corporations). What a mind-f***.

No, he's not stupid. Evil? Yes. A blood-sucker? Surely. An economic, moral and resource drain on society? Without a doubt. But stupid?

Stupid is the lawyer at MSFT who approved the marketing message for the surface, rather than rejecting it saying that it needed a strong disclaimer (or stronger than it has; I haven't looked at their marketing in detail).

 

[alxianthelast]

Or MS can comp this douche a 32 gig microSD card.
His argument isn't baseless or without merit simply because the OS can be expected to be embedded and the advertised available free space should be what the user can use right off the bat.

In the 32 gig model's case, you'll never have access to 32 gigs of store on the device. You can start with 16 gigs and then do updates and such and end up with even less.

End of lawsuit; list the storage space, and available space.

 

[TeraMedia]

@alxianthelast:

The lawyer doesn't actually want the 16 GB - or even 32 GB. He doesn't even give a $h17 about the storage. What he wants is to be chief counsel on a class-action lawsuit that nets him 10% of $1 or more per class member, that he can then easily replicate to other similar scenarios. Is the lawyer going to accept a single SD card, in lieu of a % of treble penalties for the entire class? I don't think so.

 

[lemlo]

Define near, 16GB android device out of the box likely has only 13-14GB of free space. You loose a few GB to the OS. Microsoft is doing the same thing, but there OS is not a skimpy mobile OS. It had big boy parts and takes up more space.

At the end of the day, if you get angry at one company for it, you should be angry at all of them for it. Either they all have to report useable space out of the box, or they all have to report total capacity so it is consistent in the industry.

You must not have read before you replied. I did indeed define my definition of "near" but I will repeat. My tf had about 28gb to play with out of the box bloatware and all. ipads are the same from what I hear. It is expected and acceptable to have some loss. The stock information has to sit somewhere. But someone shopping for this tablet would probably consider a 64 gb version knowing the 32gb is clogged. From all the reviews I've read there isn't anything missing from say my own personal tf and this surface tablet as far as usibility, especially to warrant half of it's space being usurped to stock files.

 

[Guest]

By: SoreFinger.

Surface, Its the Tab with the cracked keyboard, But there's more! Its the Tab with the software bloat, behind the M$ app store Moat! If you write apps! You'll have to pay, 30% to play, on the Surface!

 

[mstngs351]

[citation][nom]blakphoenix[/nom]I for one believe that companies should advertise the FREE space available on devices (that goes for all hdd's, ssd's, phones, tablets, etc). That way consumers can make a more informed choice about how much of their own data they can fit on it. On that basis I hope Microsoft looses and that they have to change their advertising (for all companies).[/citation]

Except that I can get a devise, remove certain features and have more space. Or if I wanted to I could swap the OS I'm running and, again, get more space. Or maybe less depending on what I chose. See what I'm getting at?

 

[hannibal]

As they said above. They can format his device in the court and he gets his 32 Gb... This is so ingredible stupid that this has to be a joke... But so are so many other technology related cases.

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

Why do so many posts keep saying, "So long as the device has close to the advertised amount, it's okay not to get the full size listed for storage?" How do you quantify "close" in a meaningful way to the court? Storage is storage, whether it's used or empty. 32 GB is still 32 GB even if half of it is used by stuff Microsoft thought might be beneficial to it's customers.

 

[infecthead]

[citation][nom]slabbo[/nom]i have a 2TB HDD, after being formatted i get ~1.81 TB usable, so I'm getting 90% of what's advertised, which isn't bad. I think the lawyers is just making the point that with the surface you're getting only 50% of usable space than what's advertised. Average consumers aren't going to know that the surface takes up 16GB and that you're only left with 16GB to use, which I see how people can see it as misleading.What if companies sold 2TB HDDs with 1TB of it being unusable. Do you think they should tell the consumers?[/citation]

Microsoft is selling a device, not a hard drive.

 

[r1Master]

You disgusting leech... Have you never purchased a computer or hard drive before... Get out of my site and stop bringing the world to its knees...