Apple sued over reduced storage space on iOS 8 devices

New OS takes up one fifth of space and users are angry…

Apple is being sued by users angry about the amount of space iOS 8 takes up on devices.

Users of Apple devices, particularly those at the lower end of the space spectrum - such as 8GB models of iPhones and iPads - argue that advertised space is vastly different to available space.

Complainant Paul Orshan, who is a bankruptcy lawyer, said Apple "fail[ed] to disclose to customers that as much as 23.1 per cent of the advertised storage capacity of the devices will be consumed by iOS 8 and unavailable for consumers".

The complainant are also unhappy about the "aggressive" marketing of paid iCloud subscriptions.

"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," said Orshan.

The complaint highlights a problem that's vexed users of a range of operating systems, including Windows. We can still remember our collective horror when sitting down with the first Win32-based 8-inch tablet - the Acer Iconia W3 - back in 2013 and realising that the recently-released Windows 8.1 Preview OS would take up a gargantuan 49GB of the machine's 64GB storage space.

This wasn't acceptable then, and still isn't now, but at least third-party Windows hardware tends to include expandable storage.

As iOS devices fill up with the company's own store content and curated collection of apps, not to mention downloadable content from the likes of Spotify, it may be necessary for Apple to start offering storage-based contingency plans for those still unable (or unwilling) to fully embrace the cloud.