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As the year draws to a close, Microsoft wants to make amends for breaking promises and causing headaches for buyers who gambled on its flagship Windows 10 hardware.

Microsoft didn't win any new fans when it blamed greedy OneDrive users for its decision to cancel 'unlimited storage'. The company on Friday acknowledged the disappointment and said it was "truly sorry" for appearing to blame customers for using its product.

The other group of people to whom it has apologised are owners of the Surface Book and Surface Pro 4. In a post by Microsoft's Surface Team, the company acknowledged customers have had a "less-than-perfect experience".

"We're sorry for any frustration this has caused," said Microsoft's Josh_F on its customer forum.

A steady stream of complaints about flickering screens, random crashing, and battery problems have buffeted both pieces of hardware since launching in October.

A November update fixed a swathe of problems affecting the flagships, only to be followed by new complaints that devices were chewing through battery reserves in sleep mode so quickly they were unreliable as a primary work device.

Microsoft's communication problems shone through again, with a support staffer telling a Surface Pro 4 owner that it was aware of the sleep-mode battery issue before it released the device and that power management is a "very hard computer science problem to solve especially with new silicon".

The explanation offered little comfort to consumers who'd spent a good part of a monthly wage on a product with known bugs that were judged by Microsoft too hard to fix before selling it.

Customers have been complaining about the sleep-mode, battery-drain issue since October, but it missed the November and December updates and Microsoft doesn't expect to resolve the shortcoming until early next year.

Microsoft's John_F assured customers that the company is listening to complaints.

"Please know that we're reading your comments and hearing you loud and clear," he noted.

"We have already issued a number of updates via Windows Update and are working to issue additional updates and fixes as soon as possible to further improve the overall Surface experience."

Read more about Microsoft's Surface Pro 4