Microsoft Sued for Lying About Surface Storage Space

Microsoft is again sent to court, this time because of the storage space offered by the first tablet in its history.

A California lawyer is accusing Microsoft of false advertising and unfair business practices, claiming that his 32 GB Surface doesn’t provide… uhm… 32 GB of storage space.

Only 16 GB was available, just like for any other Surface buyer that opts for one of the two most affordable versions, mostly because Windows RT and Office RT eat up a lot of the space.

Microsoft has already said in a statement last month that its 32 GB Surface offers only 16 GB of storage space because of the installed software, while the 64 GB version comes with 45 GB of free space.

But that’s not enough for Andrew Sokolowski, who hopes not only to get back the money he spent on the Surface, but also to force Microsoft to adopt a different marketing strategy.

Microsoft has already learned about the lawsuit, but it claims that Sokolowski’s complaints are unfounded.

“Customers understand the operating system and pre-installed applications reside on the device's internal storage thereby reducing the total free space,” the company was quoted as saying by the Seattle Times.

According to a dedicated page published by Microsoft on its corporate website, 5 GB of the total storage space offered by the Surface are reserved for Windows recovery tools, while Windows RT, Microsoft Office and the other built-in apps take up to 8 GB of space.

The Surface also comes with a USB port that allows buyers to increase the available storage space by connecting an external storage device. There are three ways to add more storage space, Microsoft says on its website: cloud storage using SkyDrive, microSD cards up to 64 GB and USB flash drives or hard drives.