“To goose sales of its new iPhone 4, Apple told owners of its third-generation iPhone to download an operating system that the company knew would turn the 3G phones into a ‘device with little more use than that of a paper weight,’ irate customers say in a Superior Court class action,” Tim Hull reports for Courthouse News Service. “The lead plaintiff claims Apple’s ‘upgrade’ turned her phone into an ‘iBrick.'”
“Lead plaintiff Bianca Wofford says Apple told owners of its 3G and 3GS iPhones that the new iOS4 operating system was an upgrade,” Hull reports. “But she says the ‘upgrade’ made her phone slow and susceptible to crashes, turning an iPhone into an ‘iBrick.'”
Hull reports, “Wofford says there is no way to restore the third-generation phones’ operating system without using ‘hacker tactics.’ She claims that Apple intentionally created a ‘consumer Catch 22’ to get 3G users to switch to the new iPhone 4.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Hyperbole. Install iOS 4.1 already; it’s been available for nearly two months now. There you go. Case closed.
It sure turned my 3G into a freaking brick. But I see Apple’s strategy… it gave me just enough of a taste of the new OS to upgrade to an iphone4 two months later.
That’s funny, ios4 works just dandy on my 3gs… has from day one.
3G not 3Gs ytseman3.
Huge difference.
Only in America!!! That’s one thing that’s never going to change in this country, stupid lawsuits for an easy $1. and you wonder why so many items are over priced, thank you lawyers.
I can agree, my 3g also work real bad. I just upgraded my phone to a 4g.
Just upgrade, cased closed!
If this so then it would have happened to everyond
Upgrading my 3GS to 4.1 worked like a charm. Do I understand correctly that it DOESN’T fix the 3g?
The upgrade works fine on my 3gs, but it significantly slowed down my wife and friend’s 3g iPhones. I have followed all the tips to remedy the situation on my wife’s phone to no avail. Some tips work, other do not, but it always returns to it’s sluggish state.
I’m a huge Apple fan, but they screwed this one up. They should at least make it easier for users to downgrade.
I agrre with Bill. They should offer a way to downgrade to 3.0 version
It slowed my old 3G some, certainly not a “brick.” I would have moved to the iPhone4 anyway, and I thought they fixed the 3G issue. I let my 5-year old use the 3G as a game iPod touch and it works great.
It works, it just sucks the bejeesus out of the battery life. I think Apple IS in the wrong here and should get a smart rap on the knuckles.
@blah blah blah
The article describes the problem as being both 3G and 3GS.
Sorry, not a “huge difference”.
I’m sorry, but Apple simply doesn’t play this way. Their money making strategy is to entice consumers with goodness, not force their hand by bricking hardware. That does not breed customer loyalty. If they wanted to force consumers to migrate to 4, they would have not let 3G and 3GS users upgrade to iOS4.
That doesn’t absolve Apple of any blame here – the upgrade shouldn’t have bricked any phones. However, “thousands of phones” bricked when millions are deployed could easily be a very small percentage of units. The fact that the vast majority of 3G and 3GS were unaffected indicates that Apple was not using this as a strategy to force migration to iPhone 4. Either that or Apple is very bad at bricking their own phones, which we know is not the case.
Ridiculous. Apple does not need to brick your iPhone to make you want to upgrade. Especially when they can’t fill back orders much less have stock on hand. STUPID!!!
They really did mess up. They haven’t completely fixed it with 4.1 either, they are still slower than they are with iOS 3. Had to hack mine to get it to be more responsive.
Geesh… At least get the facts straight. 3G was the second generation iPhone. Not that it changes the claim, but it makes the claimant look ignorant.
4.0 WAS really awful on my 3g. I was going to upgrade anyway to an iPhone 4 but I would’ve been REALLY pissed if i had planned to keep my 3G. That being said, I highly doubt Apple did it on purpose to entice buyers to the iPhone 4. That’s just not Apple’s MO.
My wife upgraded her 3G to iOS 4 and, although there was a bit of a slowdown and the battery drained a bit more quickly, everything worked as advertised. The update to 4.1 fixed any issues she had with the performance & battery.
To suggest that an iPhone 3G running iOS 4 is barely more useful than a paperweight is disingenuous. It is more useful than just about any other phone, only beaten by later iPhone models.
Why the hell do people still have iPhone 3Gs when the iPhone 3GS & iPhone 4 is WAY better?!
I use a cheap cell phone and an iPad 3G. As usual, I’ll upgrade the iPad to iOS 4.2 a couple of weeks after it is available, just in case. I avoid Early Adopter Syndrome™.
Welcome to Stevie land. The last upgrade to my iPhone (first gen) turned it into an iPOS. When they want you to replace your iP 4 they will brick it also. I use a cheap trakphone for calling and computers for everything else. I hope that this lawsuit gives Appel the “incentive” to allow backing out of the deadly upgrades.
If Apple did it on purpose why would they bother to release 4.1 and fix the issue. Pee pee cocka is what I say. Just another lawyer looking for big money, which he will NOT SEE!!!!
The issue has been resolved for months already, install 4.1 and your done, the 3G works fine.
“Wofford says there is no way to restore the third-generation phones’ operating system without using ‘hacker tactics.’ “
Ummmm……no. It’s actually quite straight forward. To say this means she is a complete techno idiot.
I waited for iOS 4.1 before upgrading my 3G and had no problems at all. Maybe it’s a little slower but not bad. Gave it to my wife to replace what was once my original iPhone and it’s been fine. Bought an iP4 for myself (loooove it!).
Wife wanted the white iP4 but NOW will wait for iP5 next year.
@Buster,
Yes, 4.1 fixed the slowdown issue. See MDN’s link above.
Installed 4.0 on my 3G on day one and while a tiny bit slower, was perfectly useable. Crashes that happened were because I needed app updates, which was a quick fix.
Next there will be a class suit by PC users saying they installed windows 7 and now their computer is running slow… give me a break