“Amid growing criticism from 3G iPhone customers, a class action complaint was filed against Apple Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Alabama,” Ashley Phillips and Ki Mae Heussner report for ABC News.com.
“The lawsuit alleges that despite aggressive marketing that the 3G iPhone is “twice as fast for half the price,” the much-hyped smartphone is actually much slower than advertised and prone to dropping calls,” Phillips and Heussner report.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple clearly states on their website (in multiple places):
Twice as fast. Half the price.*
*Comparisons between iPhone 3G (8GB) and first-generation iPhone (8GB) running on EDGE. Actual speeds vary by site conditions. Requires new two-year AT&T rate plan, sold separately to qualified customers.
Phillips and Heussner continue, “‘Apple sold these devices on the promise that they were twice as fast as the pre-existing phones and that they would function suitably, or properly, on the 3G network. But, thus far, Apple and the phone have failed to deliver on this promise,’ Jonathan Kudulis, an attorney with Birmingham, Ala.-based Trimmier Law Firm, told ABCNEWS.com. Trimmier is the firm representing the Ala.-based plaintiff, Jessica Alena Smith. But Kudulis says, because the complaint was only filed yesterday, Apple has not yet been officially served with the lawsuit.”
“Earlier this week, as customers complaints ran rampant, Apple released a software update for the 3G iPhone on iTunes. The software, called iPhone OS 2.0.2, is for “bug fixes,” but whether that includes the problems customers described to ABCNews.com is unclear. So far, Apple has not released a statement elaborating on the software update,” Phillips and Heussner report.
MacDailyNews Take: That is incorrect. USA Today’s Ed Baig reported yesterday, “Apple spokeswoman Jennifer Bowcock said on Tuesday, ‘The software update improves communication with 3G networks.'”
Phillips and Heussner continue, “Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg characterized the problem as a minor one. ‘Any product is going to exhibit a certain amount of problems. Well, I have reception problems with a variety of [carriers]. Reception in terms of cell phone really comes down to where you are,’ he said. ‘I’m not seeing anything that indicates that this [is] widespread. & If the Internet tends to magnify smaller problems, then the fact that it’s an Apple product tends to magnify it even more.'”
Full article, full of uninformed speculation, including a recycled “recall” FUD from quote-for-hire Rob Enderle, here.
A mere six weeks after initial release, Apple is perfectly within their rights to be fine-tuning and optimizing iPhone 3G software, if that – as we currently believe – is indeed what’s happening.
@ Mr. Peabody. Yes I live in the USA that’s why I have (despite my public school education) a familiarity with US history including the flags of the most significant period since the founding – the Civil War. Side Note – Australians may refer to their flag as the Southern Cross but in the US the Southern Cross is the Confederate Battle Flag (actually the Confederate Navy Jack since is usually presented in rectangular rather than square format).
So that’s what this was all about!
I bet some LOWyers hired some folks to start complaining and spreading rumours so they can sue
People have multitude of problems with other companies and phones, but it’s Apple that is getting sued.
Bastards
@Rob
“Bastards” – That’s exactly the word I wanted to use but my f@&#ing;literary ethics wouldn’t let me – Damn it!
Sue happy people are jumping the gun as usual trying to make a quick buck through the legal system. It’s not going to work, and Apple is working on all the issues and has proved that by releasing the firmware updates. There have already been two firmware updates in less than two months working on related issues. A third one may be on the way as soon as sometime in September according to other sites who have stated that Steve Jobs himself wrote them personally. I can’t say if that was really him but most of the articles claim it was and that is all I’m going to state about that.
I find there lack of patience annoying. If it was as easy as flipping a switch, Apple would have done so long ago. This is very complicated and when Apple does something, they usually will persist until it is finished that pleases most people. Maybe that’s why Apple was rated number one in customer satisfaction.
This seems to be a pattern that Apple is going the way of Microsoft. The new iPhone performance has been a dissapointment with the lagging OS and the signal quality. I never had to reboot a phone at least twice a day to get it to work properly, until the iPhone.
Sign me up for the lawsuit!
MDN, sometimes you guys really are too blindly loyal to see the light. You have to admit that once in a blue moon Apple does mess up. And this IS one of those times. I never heard the official statement from Apple that “The software update improves communication with 3G networks.'” So as an owner of the phone, the ONLY thing that has been communicated to me via the software update is that it was for “bug fixes.” I have been an Apple faithful user and evangelist since 1984, but as a new 3G owner, I have to say this baby is not what it is advertised to be. I have been running 3G/EDGE side by side speed tests all week and EDGE wins every time in every location against 3G when it comes to loading pages. Many times, like this morning, I couldn’t get a page to load at all. Then I switched over to EDGE and like magic my page loaded no problem. And I am not in the sticks. I live in the metropolitan Boston area and work in downtown Boston all areas which AT&T;”claims” are totally covered for 3G on their coverage map. Well, if the coverage map is accurate then the iPhone 3G has a problem. Or, to give Apple the benefit of the doubt, maybe AT&T;is not being truthful with their advertising of the coverage. Most of the time I can barely get 2 bars. I am not a big fan of class action suits but I really feel that I have been duped by one of the companies or both.
@silverwarloc
I found that you have to be very careful to have exactly the right mobileme and application settings on all computers being used to sync and push. After you double check, go to mobileme system preferences, and click on the Advance button in the Sync tab. Select “Reset Sync Data” and choose Calendar from from the choices offered. This finally got iCal working in push mode for me. Pretty cool to see all my calendars updated on four Macs + my iPhone. I posted a more complete step list in the Apple support forums.
Now, who’s going to sue Microsoft for “Play for sure”?
GOOD – They should be – Where do I sign up?????
I’m kind of with Nutcracker. Just release her from her contract and buy the phone back.
I’m assuming they are defining the class as all 3G iPhone buyers. Proving actual damages to every member of the class due to a slow connection or a dropped call would be really hard to do. If 3G is twice as fast as EDGE even most of the time it would seem like a fairly hopeless suit.
@Pete,
Exactly.
Impunity – Now there’s a word!
Why is it in America, that everyone wants you to fail?
Friends, family, new products.
If you get ahead, overcome adversity, and make something of yourself, people come after you like you murdered their child.
This is something I have never understood, and in my opinion it needs to end.
It sickens me to no end.
They has the intarweb in Alabamy? Who knew? I wonder if Jessica Alena Smith’s reception problems are only in her outhouse…
I’m gonna sue Honda… My Civic Hybrid is only getting an average of 43MPG, not the advertised 45!!!
Damn them! Damn them all to hell!!!
Buster says:
“The problem with getting switchers is that the ranks of Apple users swell with whiners…..”
Are you kidding me? Apple users have ALWAYS been the loudest whiners! This is my subjective, anecdotal-evidence-based opinion, of course.
Whoop-de-do, another class-action lawsuit. Five years from now, former owners of iPhone 3Gs will get $20 coupons for iTunes. Meanwhile, the lawyers pocket millions. Remind me again how this helps consumers?
——RM
@ Buster
Unfortunately, we had plenty of whiners prior to the increasing success of the ‘switch’ campaign. And let me state (before I get flamed by the overly sensitive) that there are legitimate gripes/criticism and there is whining. I support the concept of seeking for improved performance and functionality. But I get tired f the excessive expectations of perfections, and the egocentric viewpoints of those who feel that, if they have a problem, then it must be rampant and the result of incompetence at Apple.
I’m not defending lousy products. But there are a lot of them out there that do not seem to generate class action lawsuits or international outrage at the drop of a hat. Apple generally seems to try to rapidly and effectively address its problems. Steve/Apple has acknowledged the MobileMe issues and provided 90 days of free service as compensation, for instance, while also assigning top personnel to fix it. I say give Apple a break, for once.
@ Eric
And your MPG goes down even further when using gas with 10% ethanol, since ethanol contains about 66% of the energy of gas by volume.
MDN – “A mere six weeks after initial release, Apple is perfectly within their rights to be fine-tuning and optimizing iPhone 3G software, if that – as we currently believe – is indeed what’s happening.”
Uh, yeh, I think that’s called Beta-Testing on your customers.
Not that everyone doesn’t do it, they do……doesn’t make it right.
Try that crap with a pistol, or a chain saw….
Apple’s made a huge mistake sewing this up with ATT, MANY people I know won’t buy something they REALLY want (iPhone) because of ATT, including myself.
@LordRobin,
Your comment helps lend a large dose of perspective.
@MeanGuy,
As does yours, at least with regard to ATT [insert any cellular service provider here], and the mob tactics used by it and all of the big cellular providers via “contracts”, and etc.
I don’t believe for one moment that suing Apple is going to make them move any faster, in no small part because I believe that they are already in high gear because this is a premiere, top-of-the-line product for them.
And with regard to ATT culpability, uh, yeah, exactly – It’s a service that does and will always have a huge variability in quality of service based on where the end user is located [and without any regard whatsoever for what flag may be flying over the users outhouse]. For instance, I don’t even get the choice of whether or not I want to use the iPhone because ATT has no service where I live – at all.
And lest we all forget, at most, this is 50% Apple’s issue. Does anyone think for one moment that Apple is happy being stuck with a single service provider – hell no. They want to sell as many phones as possible, and I for one have little doubt that the iPhone was offered to more than one service provider before ATT, and once ATT gave the green light, and knowing what the potential of the iPhone was going to be if things went well [and they obviously have], they accepted the iPhone into their fleet of phones as long as Apple agreed not to keep shopping around for x-number of years. Duuuhhhh.
I work day in and day out with high end Apple hardware and software, and support it, and it ain’t perfect – but the alternative, at best, is no better, and my personal experience has been that it is decidedly worse, (the alternative that is). My personal experience also indicates that Apple always intends for it’s products to be the best, and to make its products function as close to perfect as humans can make computers function. My experience does not indicate this for Apple’s primary competitor.
Make no mistake, this suit is frivolous. At the same time, Apple should continue to keep the late night oil burning getting the bugs out, those that Apple is directly responsible for that is, [which is not all of them]. A law suit – what laugh.
What are the damages? The cost of the phone and the service plan? Big deal.
The first thing they should do is tie her tubes. Best way to limit further damage…
I installed Apple’s 2.0.2 update on Wednesday. Now, I’m getting 1 bar of signal strength in what once were 2-bar, 3G areas and half a dozen or more call fades and drops with each 3G network call. The iPhone doesn’t seem to roll over to 2.5G Edge at all. Before the update, I had similar problems, but they weren’t nearly this bad.
And this morning, I couldn’t had no 3G Internet access at all in Folsom, California — even though I was in a 2-bar (3G) and 5-bar (2.5G) area.
2.5G network calls work fine, and I’m also getting much better battery life than before. I think the previous software update was draining the battery in less than 4 hours each day.
Apple quality cntrol thesedays is awful.
Shame on you, Jobs!
“Dropped calls might be an issue with a small (~2%) of 3G models.”
Well it’s happening with 100% of the iPhones I own. So I really don’t care to much if you’re GUESSING that it’s 0.2% 2% 5% 50% or 100% of phones that have problems.
One way or another I expect Apple to fix this, software, new phone, whatever.
When are people going to realize that they can’t sue for this kind of thing first because the cell phone companies have fine print in all their contracts that cover them as does Apple with it’s software and hardware EULA’s. Take your unreasonable expectations and find a better alternative. Any lawyer that takes this case may just make the idiot of the year awards. The language of the user agreements and contracts are written so as to void expectations where circumstances are not optimum for operation. Don’t like the Iphone 3G, I understand RIM is introducing the curve via ATT in a couple of weeks.