A recent suit against Apple complains that the advertised storage capacity of the new phones were overstated. Seems pretty silly. The advertised storage capacity of any device has to my knowledge never been reported minus the part given over to the OS and other software installed by the seller.
However silly, this suit did get me thinking about changes in storage. The advantages of online storage in combination with the design approaches that seem to attract our dollars mean the storage available on the device is less important. Chromebooks are regarded by some as less functional, but to be accurate my Chromebook Pixel and my new Apple Air are very similar devices. Neither has a hard drive and rely on flash storage. The Air has the option to do more things off-line, but I can continue to do much of what I normally do on my Chromebook when offline as well.
Our interest in design issues may be as big a factor in this trend. We prefer light and thin. The hardware companies also seem to be moving toward the sealed box. Apple started this trend, but most new phones also cannot be opened by the consumer. My personal work computer, a five-year old iMac recently crashed. The folks at the Apple store tell me it is the harddrive and Apple no longer stocks the drives for a machine of this age. I must admit this is frustrating. My data are online. I no longer backup my “programs” because I can usually download what I have previously purchased at no additional cost. It just seems that the power in the machine is becoming less and less important so other means must be found to encourage us to make another purchase.