Published in Mobiles

Apple and Google accused of ripping off customers

by on20 November 2013



1000 per cent mark up for tablet storage

The fruity cargo cult, Apple and its rival, the search engine Google have been accused of ripping off consumers by charging a 1000 per cent mark-up for extra storage on tablets.

According to consumer group Which, tablet manufacturers can buy Flash storage at a market price of £5.95 for 16GB. However, consumers who purchase a 32GB iPad Air will have to pay £80 more than they would for the 16GB version. Google charges an extra £70 to increase the memory on its Nexus 10 from 16GB to 32GB, and Amazon charges £40 for the same storage increase on its Kindle Fire HDX 8.9.

Which? described the markups as 'outrageous' and advised potential customers to buy a tablet with an SD or microSD slot and add a memory card for a fraction of the cost. Which? complained that the amount of storage space advertised is often not representative of the amount of space available for the customer's songs, apps and photos.

A 16GB Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 only left 10GB is left for a user’s files after the operating systems and built-in apps are taken into account.

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