MacDailyNews Take: Nine days before Christmas? Whatever damage, if any, will already be done.
AP continues, “AT&T filed the lawsuit in federal court in Atlanta earlier this month and asked for a temporary restraining order and a permanent injunction to stop the ads. It contends they are misleading and amount to deceptive trade practices.”
“The ads show maps of the United States with areas highlighted to depict where third generation — or ‘3G’ — network coverage is available. A map of the country nearly covered with red dots is shown to depict Verizon’s coverage, while a map with some blue areas and a lot of blank space is shown to ostensibly display AT&T’s 3G coverage,” AP reports. “AT&T says those maps are misleading because there is still regular coverage in areas where 3G service is not offered.”
Full article here.
Brian Garner reports for AppleInsider, “The judge ruled Wednesday that while the ads may be ‘sneaky,’ they are not misleading, and do not justify any action to take them off the air. The judge did state however, that most TV watchers are ‘semi-catatonic’ and therefore can easily misinterpret information presented.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Why, oh, why is all of this craziness happening?! iPhone, bitch.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Edward W.” for the heads up.]
In the immortal words of Nelson: “Ha Hah!”
Wake up, all you semi-catatonic TV watchers!
The courts are nice, but ATT needs run LOT’S of adds, like the one they introduced tonight but a little more hard hitting.
“I’ll call you right back”
Show people talking on the phone saying “yes I can look that up, I’ll call you right back!” Then when he calls back he says, “Sorry that took so long, oh, okay, right, sure, I’ll call you right back.
One of my favorite quotes from the AppleInsider version of this story:
The judge did state however, that most TV watchers are “semi-catatonic” and therefore can easily misinterpret information presented.
OUCH. Major diss on TV-watchers! (And if this is considered a legally valid position, almost guaranteed to force TV ads to be even more dumbed-down than they already are, to avoid other lawsuits like this in future.)
ATnT simply doesn’t have a case. It’s really shameful that they are wasting taxpayer dollars over this. They should have simply come back and hit back at Verizon with their own attack ads. Honestly… how many people realize that you can’t use Verizon’s voice and data network simultaneously? A LOT of people don’t. Hell… my wife’s friend works at Verizon, and even she is insisting that the Droid can use their voice/data network at once (we “tested” it at the office). If Verizon’s own damned employees don’t understand it, the customers sure as shit don’t. Those that do probably think the problem is the phone, not Verizon.
@ Fat Basterd
It’s really shameful that they are wasting taxpayer dollars over this.
…I hope you’re not suggesting Verizon and AT&T are using court-appointed lawyers in this case?
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@Gabriel
If they could actually find a way to get the taxpayers to foot the bill for their lawyers, I’m sure they would. Anywho… I’m pretty sure the judge in the case (and court staff) is on the government’s payroll at least.
I have the iPhone 3GS, had the iPhone 3G, and I had the iPhone 2G. Sadly the AT&T;network is getting worst with growth. Experienced it, I can compare it. The places I go to the most is Los Angeles where I live, San Francisco and New York. New York is the absolute worst. Not only do not get data I can’t even get service to make a call. It’s so bad I thought my iPhone was flawed., but was is flawed is the weak infrastructure support for iPhones success. Now Apple in order to save face and keep quality high more than ever need to move off of AT&T;. Bad experiences lead to bad REP. I don’t want dropped calls daily, lack of service or if I am in an area with a lot of iPhones users I don’t want my service to stop. Come on AT&T;its not like you knew this wasn’t going to happen. GEEZ!! Upgrade your DAM network!!!
What I don’t get with AT&T;is why are they bringing this to court? Verizon is actually showing what is true. Their 3G coverage vastly drawfs AT&T;. Nothing false about it. It sucks compared to Verizon’s network. Its clear Verizon is out spending AT&T;on providing a better network. Verizon’s winning.
What do you want to bet that AT&T;had crap luck and got a Judge that has an iPhone. “Oh, hey, AT&T;, I was trying to dictate an Order in your favor over my iPhone, but it kept dropping my call and by the time I got back my chambers I’d reconsidered. Just think, if I had service with Verizon you might have won!”
the fact is that AT&T;’s coverage is pathetic. if you don’t live in a large city, then you have no 3G and there are still large parts of the country that have no coverage.
going to AT&T;’s own maps, i can see 4 states that have no 3G at all, and about 10 more that probably have less than 2% of the state with 3G coverage.
the facts are that AT&T;is fucked the moment they lose their exclusive deal with apple.