“Well, get ready to hear about it a lot more in the months to come, as the judge in the case has officially certified the case as a class action, meaning it now officially includes anyone who’s ever bought an iPhone on AT&T,” Patel reports.
Patel reports, “If you’ll recall, the argument is that iPhone customers signed up for a two-year contract without being told that AT&T had an exclusive for five years — thus in reality being held to the carrier for an additional three years without recourse…”
Read more in the full article here.
This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. When a person’s original two year contract was up, they were free to go to any other carrier they chose, they just wouldn’t be able to have the iPhone with a new carrier. It’s crap like this that costs this country billions of dollars in wasted, useless litigation every year. Get a life people.
BTW, all these whiners should look at Japan for some idea of this kind of “terrible exclusivity”. Cell phone manufacturers make models exclusively for the different carriers. If you like the Sharp modelXXX or the Samsung model 123, then you have to go with the carrier that selsl that model.
Y’all oughta just shut and go play with yourself.
@Realtorben:
“Stan Sigman, CEO of wireless at AT&T;…
“I’m glad we have (the iPhone) in our bag,” he says. “Others will try to match it, but for a period of time, they’re going to be playing catch-up.”
-but for a period of time-
That’s the extent of any official statement. As I wrote, neither Apple nor ATT have ever confirmed the length of time for the exclusivity. There is something about five years in some court papers, but no official statement.
As for me, I have no problem signing a 2-year contract with ATT to get a subsidized price -I’m gonna be with *some* service for the next two years so I might as well get a break on the price of the phone. ATTs service works fine for me anyway. But after completing those two years, I just think I should be able to unlock my iPhone. I could put a prepaid local SIM card in my old iPhone 0G while traveling for example. Right now it’s just an iPod.
I love jewish lawyers!
But you DO have “recourse”… Don’t use the iPhone.Use another phone on another carrier.
@ Peter
Good to be an antisemitic idiot isn’t it?
Jiminy crap. People are so freakin’ stupid. There aren’t very many cellphone companies that they could take the phone to anyway. Can’t go to Verizon or Sprint, they’re different networks.
I get tired of people blaming their own stupidity and laziness on someone else.
I bought a car last year and paid more than I should have. Is that the dealers’ fault? No. Mine. Grow up America.
Leave it to the semites to be the only ones to create a word unto themselves. And no I am not anti semitic I love arabs!
after 2 years you can unlock the phone can’t you?
Nobody is holding a gun tonanyones head plus willnan atandt iPhone even work on verizon youmwill forced to buy a new phone anyway lame lawyers.
At the end of 2 years everyone had the option to sell their iPhone on EBay to anyone in practically any country in the world at a significant premium.
There was no mythical 5 year AT&T sentence with the first generation iPhone.
This is a bullshit class-action suit.
@REALTORben
“Apple announced during the original iPhone announcement that AT&T;had a 5 year exclusive deal.”
Prove it. Quoting USA Today, don’t mean squat. Specify the keynote (timecode would help). Otherwise you’re just adding to the rumors
@Ubermac
“The American legal system farce is the price to pay for freedom.”
That’s so precious. Aren’t they cute when they parrot lines like that?
1. The original iPhone was not subsidized. The user owned it from day 1. It should have been unlocked after the initial contract, every other cell phone can be. – down Apple
2. No other carrier was willing to go along with Apples vision of how the iPhone should work. No ATT deal, no iPhone +up Apple
3. The iPhone as we know it cannot work on Verizon (CDMA) or Sprint (CDMA) or T-Mobile, well sort of, (different frequencies) No legal requirement to offer that functionality. +up Apple
Looks like the + ups have it except for one point. Keeping the iPhone locked after the contract period. Seems like a simple fix, Apple and ATT must unlock off-contract iPhones. They won’t work very well, but that’s not Apples problem.
This site has gone downhill.
Forget whether it was 3 year, 5 year or 7 year exclusivity. This needs to be looked at as a legal contract between Apple and AT&T;. I’m sure both companies had mega paid lawyers on both sides writing up the contract making sure everything was legit.
I’ll also bet more people out in the hinterlands knew more about some exclusivity deal between the two companies regarding the iPhone, then they know who their Representative or Senator is! If you were unaware, you must have been living under a rock. That said, no one was forced to purchase an iPhone and utilize AT&T;’s service AND if you did and once your service contract is up with AT&T;does not null and void the legal EXCLUSIVITY contract between Apple and AT&T;.
If this contract of exclusivity was not legal or if it were not properly notified to the third party ie “users”, then what were the ‘Regulators’ in our government who oversee such things doing? Watching more porn?!
This is a stupid and pointless lawsuit. One word GSM. Well that not a word, but you get the point. AT&T;is only one of two carriers who support it in the US.. So what is the remedy should they win? Force Apple to make a CDMA phone? Give me a break.
I want to start a class action suit on lawyers that specialize in class action suits. Their actions and often ridiculous lawsuits have harmed citizens, increasing product costs and enriching themselves while doing little or nothing for the “class” they allegedly represent.
Every once in a great while a class action lawsuit has merit. In those cases, the joint power of the masses that are represented in the lawsuit may be the only way to force a big company to stop abusing their power and position to the detriment of society. But most of them are frivolous, meaningless wastes of time.
@Ampar
This site headed downhill a long time ago. We hit the edge of the continental shelf about two months ago, and the deep water is on the horizon.
Apple went to Verizon FIRST to offer them the exclusive carrier rights to the iPhone, but Verizon wouldn’t accept it unless they could nickel and dime their customers to death. Steve Jobs wouldn’t have their stupid policies of disabling features and so he took it to Cingular, later bought out by AT&T;.
I may be late to the party but I brought a case of Bud Light Lime… yay! I know, I know, not great but…
the perfect beverage for a room full of F*CK1NG MOR0NS.
a class action suit that will end in nothing to do with anything you’ll ever know about and we’re talking about Republicans and Democrats?!?!?!? if only there were a Mega Church large enough? maybe that’s the answer! more God!! what the FUCK is wrong with you people? you make me sick.
MDN Magic Word: “written” …for it is written
“This site has gone downhill.”
@Ampar & King Mel, are you both referring to those days of yesteryear when MDN used to be about Macs? Or do you have some other points on the timeline in mind.
Gota love the US!
You guys sue people for anything, thank god I’m in the UK and we don’t get this total blame culture thing (though it is getting worse).
My thoughts… Apple shouldn’t be sued, whereas AT&T;should be!
I hope Apple and AT&T;loses that lawsuit. I bought my iPhone more tha 2 years ago and now want to use it on another carrier. IT’S MY PHONE, IT’S MY RIGHTS
MDN Please do something about the racist comments above.
Thank you