Apple hit with lawsuit over storage consumed by iOS 8

[Himanshu Arora]

Apple's latest iOS update has earned the company a lawsuit. Filed by Miami residents Paul Orshan and Christopher Endara, the complaint alleges that Apple has failed to disclose the exact amount of storage the operating system will use.

According to the lawsuit, which focuses on 8 GB and 16 GB Apple devices, once installed the iOS 8 update can take up as much as 23% of the advertised storage capacity on these devices.

The complaint notes that there is a difference between the advertised amount of storage available for users on a device and the actual storage available. "Apple’s misrepresentations and omissions are deceptive and misleading because they omit material facts that an average consumer would consider in deciding whether to purchase its products," the complaint says.

In addition, the class action lawsuit claims that the iPhone maker exploited the space constraints by aggressively marketing its paid cloud storage service iCloud. "Using these sharp business tactics, defendant gives less storage capacity than advertised, only to offer to sell that capacity in a desperate moment, e.g., when a consumer is trying to record or take photos at a child or grandchild’s recital, basketball game or wedding."

Released back in September, iOS 8 takes up approximately 1.1 GB of space, while its over-the-air installation requires around 5.7GB of free space on your device -- the number varies depending on the device, shooting up to 7GB on certain iPad models.

This isn't the first time Apple has been sued over such concerns. Back in 2007, the company was slapped with a similar lawsuit alleging that it misrepresented the amount of storage space on the iPod nano. That lawsuit was ultimately dismissed, so it will be interesting to see whether this one holds up in court.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/59275-apple-hit-lawsuit-over-storage-consumed-ios-8.html

 

[stewi0001]

I wonder if Steve Jobs will testify from the grave again

 

[GhostRyder]

Good grief people will sue over anything in this day and age...

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

Good grief people will sue over anything in this day and age...

True, but lawyers only take the case if they think they can get something out of it. Apple isn't exactly known for being easy to sue so I'd guess there's something to this.

On another note - they've been scamming people for years on storage. They are STILL selling 16GB phones with no SD slot. Of course, if your phone has an SD Slot then the user will be paying Verbatim or another card maker for storage, but if it doesn't have a slot then you can sell them space on the Apple cloud. I get it, you can squeeze more money out of your customers if you make them pay for storage separately and rig it so they have to buy it from you.
Imagine the outrage if iPhones had an Apple proprietary card slot and you could buy the card ONLY from Apple. Full points to Apple to figuring out a model that's both legal and 'under the radar'. Not like that ebooks pricing model they got busted for.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Only 16GB? If people want a phone with 128GB local storage, the option should be made available to them.

This is nothing more than Apple pushing what they want on consumers, instead of allowing consumers to have what they want. As far as I can tell this is nothing new. Apple has always been this way. But yet the consumer still supports them no matter what.

 

[TorturedChaos]

"Apple’s misrepresentations and omissions are deceptive and misleading because they omit material facts that an average consumer would consider in deciding whether to purchase its products," the complaint says.

I think that line is total BS. The average consumer average consumer will look at the 'specs' and say "Bigger is better, right?"
Most consumers are who know what 8GB or 16GB means, should also know to look at how much space the OS takes up, and hopefully be smart enough not to buy a pieces of iCrap.

 

[Guest]

To me this is definitely a strategic and stealth like move towards getting people hooked into depending oncloud storage. Microsoft are doing the same with the xbox one. They have spent billions on setting up cloud because they know they can reap massive rewards from an unsuspecting and apathetic public. Office is a prime example. I've lost count of customers who have complained of 'missing documents' because they have saved them into one drive without realizing it and that's because one drive appears at the top of the list in "Save As" on new office installations. It's no accident!!

 

[SNGX1275]

Does this not fall into the same boat as "my phone/computer got slower with a new operating system"?

 

[Guest]

"Most consumers are who know what 8GB or 16GB means, should also know to look at how much space the OS takes up, and hopefully be smart enough not to buy a pieces of iCrap."

They're Apple users. They don't know how to do anything. They purchase iPhones because it does everything for them. Even then, no one is capable of calculating what Apples IOS update size would be. 8gb and 16gb owners were virtually screwed without even knowing it

 

[DelJo63]

Software development nightmare - - Feature Creep - - just keep adding until you run out of memory - - OMG, that's what happened to MS Windows isn't