Consumer Federation of California

Microsoft Corporation now faces a lawsuit filed by a California lawyer over claims about the company’s new Surface tablet. Court papers filed by Andrew Sokolowski say that the tablet was advertised as having 32 GB of storage space available for storing data, but it had only 16 GB left for storage after the operating system and all the apps for Microsoft Office were installed.

The papers request that the suit be given class-action status.

Sokolowski filed the suit in Los Angeles earlier this week. A spokesperson for Microsoft Corporation told the Associated Press that there’s no cause for the lawsuit, because those who purchase the tablet understand that it has an operating system and apps already installed on it when they purchase it and that they take up some of the storage space.

The Surface Tablet comes in either 32 GB or 64 GB, with the price for the 32 GB tablet starting at $499.

Information Week cites a source saying that sales representatives for Microsoft Corporation are also unhappy with the Surface tablet, because the business-friendly version, the Surface Pro, isn’t expected to be released for more than two more months.

The company is also faced with a shortage of new Clover Trail-powered tablets. Insider sources say Intel has not yet made large enough quantities of the chip, because it is still working on fixing some bugs. Designers of the Clover Trail chip claim it provides all-day battery life and a month of standby power.

Meanwhile Microsoft is also dealing with the fallout from the loss of key executive Steven Sinofsky, who was known for his efforts in working with the Windows franchise. According to sources, he was at odds with CEO Steve Ballmer and other top executives within the company.

A Microsoft spokesperson says Sinofsky’s leaving was decided mutually, although his departure did come about abruptly. The departure comes as a surprise to some, because Sinofsky was viewed by some Microsoft followers as a potential future CEO for the company.