Microsoft’s forthcoming Surface Pro Tablet—the one that is supposed to save Windows—will ship with only 38% of its total storage (23 of 64GB) available to the user for apps or media, reports The Verge. Compare that with the latest 64GB iPad, which comes out of the box with 89% (57GB) of its storage available.
This is a problem for Microsoft, for a number of reasons. First, there’s the simple matter that most consumers are going to be shocked that less than half of the amount of storage that Microsoft is advertising for the Surface Pro is actually available to them. Then there are the secondary effects this could have on Microsoft’s app and media stores. Users who fill up their tablets fast are users who are less likely to continue buying apps and supporting the Windows 8 developers that Microsoft desperately needs to cultivate.
Sure, maybe we live in an age in which we can just store everything on the cloud. But in that case, why not just buy an Android tablet or a Chromebook, both powered by the cloud specialist, Google?