The iPad"s internal memory sells with 1000% mark-up
Techies and informed consumers usually know that what you’re paying for in a product isn’t necessarily what you’re getting. Nowhere is this more apparent than when you buy a device with non-expandable internal memory.
As many of us know, the big sticker on the box that says "16GB of storage" tends to omit any mention that a big chunk of that is already taken up by the OS, pre-installed apps and so on an so forth, leaving consumers with a fraction of what they thought they had. You might remember we even had some major controversy with Microsoft’s Surface tablets, on exactly this issue.
A major UK consumer group, called "Which?" is trying to raise awareness among consumers of this fact. They’re also raising awareness of the fact that upgrading internal storage on devices is up to twenty times more expensive than the prices paid by the manufacturers.
In their report, Which? focused on tablets from Apple and Google, noting that upgrading from a 16GB model to 32GB costs around £80. Compare that price with the actual price of the extended memory that’s less than £6. As the report mentions that’s a mark-up of 1,000 percent.
The group calls this situation “scandalous” and recommends consumers look towards tablets and devices that offer expandable external storage, such as Microsoft’s Surface with its MicroSD support. Which? explains that this approach ends up adding the same amount of storage “for a fraction of the cost”.
However, it is worth noting that even on certain devices that offer microSD support, it is not possible to install apps to the storage card - a situation that prompts many buyers to pay the premium and get a more expensive device with increased on-board storage anyway.
Source: Metro UK