“A California woman accused Apple last year of using an underhanded trick to force iPhone users to buy a newer model,” Jeff Roberts reports for paidContent. “This week she struck out in court after a federal judge concluded that Apple’s software upgrades are free and do not qualify as a sale.”
“Bianca Wofford of San Diego sued Apple last year after downloading the company’s iOS 4 operating system to her iPhone. She claimed that this software upgrade was actually a “downgrade” for her and others using the company’s older model 3G phone,” Roberts reports. “In a colorful complaint, she accused Apple of deliberately turning consumers’ 3G iPhones into slow-running ‘iBricks’ in order to induce them to buy the newer iPhone 4.”
“Steve Jobs himself promised to issue a fix that Apple released a few weeks later,” Roberts reports. “Not satisfied with this solution, Wofford went forward with a lawsuit seeking $5,000 for every iPhone 3G owner in California who had been affected by the upgrade.”
Read more in the full article here.
Her 3 month stint as a receptionist at a law firm in 2003 exposed her to the big bucks in class action lawsuits but apparently didn’t expose her to conditions likely to result in a win.
During those 3 months I guess she forgot who really paid for all those office lunches — the clients! I bet the $5,000 proposed award looks small compared to her legal bill.
Some people’s kids…
iShe is full of bricks. Idiot.
Same Bianca Wofford at http://www.sparkpe.org/about-us/meet-the-staff/
Her email and phone number is there too…. Hmmmm….
I would never call her or send her an email….
I agree with this woman wholeheartedly. The only thing she lacked was mountains of money to tackle Apple’s high priced lawyers.
I own a 3G. Apple forced me to upgrade to iOS4 under threat of discontinuation of my MobileMe Sync services, turned my 3G into a delay ridden slug, then discontinued MobileMe anyway, and still offers no path to downgrade back to iOS 3.
I was perfectly happy with my iPhone until forced to upgrade to iOS 4. All I want is iOS3 back on my 3G iPhone *without* having to jailbreak. It *is* possible, they just won’t support it, for the sake of profit.
…and some how that entitles you to $5,000?
Ummm. Hello? Thought about going to get a free 3GS? Or would you consider that as Apple forcing you to upgrade for free, all for the sake of profit?
This is about iOS 3 to iOS 4. At that time the 3Gs was $100.
Oh boo hoo.
Just jailbreak it then. Apple’s money mountain lawyers were not able to stop that from becoming legally protected.
You can downgrade to 3.1.3 it’s pretty simple just google it or YouTube it
If 3G performance is good enough for you, then why not upgrade, at NO cost (with contract), to a 3GS?
Me thinks you be a complainer of most everything.
Um… Okay, I can see you being upset at the time. (Although the summary says Apple fixed the issue shortly after iOS 4 was released, so I still don’t see what your problem is.)
But today? Isn’t your iPhone 3G getting a little long in the tooth? It’s over 3 years old. Realistically, you’ve gotten your money out of it. Time to upgrade and move on.
——RM
It is very easy to down grade to an older IOS, without jail breaking
Just google it
Hell, buy my 3G. It’s on Craigslist for $130 — and is still running 3.1.2! No kidding. Never updated. Looks like new. Maybe I should raise the price to…. $5,000?
!!DING!! Your 15 minutes are up!
You lose. Quit whining, go home and think about all the time, effort and money you wasted ’cause you don’t understand technology.
Up the ass, you stupid bitch.
A breath of fresh judicial air.
Very fresh indeed. Glad to see that common sense does exist in our judicial system.
Perhaps what should be focused on is the big picture which is you update/upgrade, your brick it, your responsibility. No need for Apple nor any phone maker to fix it.
I think the issue the judge had with the lawsuit is that Apple did fix it, but it wasn’t good enough for the plaintiff. She had dollar signs in her eyes.
——RM
I hope her out-of-pocket legal expenses were at least $5000.
Unless she had a particularly thick lawyer… They were! They were. *sob*
They could have done it “for free” for a “big cut” of the final settlement.
Lol. Go buy an android phone. Then you will see what lag is all about. Then the iPhone 2g will look slick