Thursday, August 21, 2008

Woman Sues Apple Over 3G iPhone Reception Issues

I am tempted to make all sorts of witty, snarky comments about this, but I'll try to stick to the facts. An Alabama woman has sued Apple, stating that the 3G iPhone -- which she can't use in her home because of the 3G reception issues -- doesn't live up to Apple's claims of "twice as fast". The lawsuit could go class action.

Apple will ever be a target for lawsuits. In fact, it has been quiet on the Apple lawsuit front lately, so the news of this new lawsuit feels like it is overdue.

The details are these: Jessica Smith, a woman living in Birmingham, Alabama, believed in Apple's "twice as fast, half the price" marketing claims. According to her, she has solid AT&T (NYSE: T) coverage in her home, yet she can only connect to AT&T's 3G network about 25% of the time. She also said that she has had a large number of dropped calls. The lawsuit specifically says that Apple is not living up to its warranty that the phone will "perform adequately" on AT&T's 3G network.

So what does Jessica Smith want? She wants Apple to "repair or replace all 'defective iPhone 3G' units, plus damages, interest on 'monetary relief' and attorney's fees." She estimates that tens of thousands of users are affected by the 3G iPhone's reception problems, which could push the lawsuit to class action status.

Um. Yeah.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has copped to the 3G iPhone's reception problems. Firmware updates 2.0.1 and 2.0.2 did not fix the issues, and el-Steve-o has promised that another update, timed for September, will resolve everything. Sorry, Steve, but I'll believe it when I see it.

No comments: