Apple Sued For iPhone Bugs

[Charlyee]

Apple Sued For iPhone Bugs
By Evan Koblentz
WirelessWeek - August 21, 2008


Mac guy, meet lawyer guy. An angry iPhone customer, Jessica Alena Smith, is suing Apple because of problems with her phone’s reception. She seeks a court order forcing Apple to repair or replace any parts that aren’t working as advertised plus unspecified monetary damages.

A copy of the lawsuit is posted on Justia.com. In it, Smith notes that many other iPhone 3G users are reportedly having similar problems. The case deserves class-action status, she argues.

Some reports indicate that the iPhone’s problems are because of its Infineon chips or issues related to AT&T’s network, but those companies are not part of the suit.

Apple released multiple firmware updates for the phone, the most recent coming last weekend, which some customers said actually caused more problems. The company at first not did say what bugs the updates fix but finally confirmed 3G reception as one of the issues to the Associated Press.

Apple has not made any other public comments about the ongoing problems and could not be reached this morning about Smith’s lawsuit.

Wireless Week

[WumpusVA]

Oh boy... here we go.

Every phone always has a few issues... some more than others. The amount of iPhone chatter in the media and on the internet has just been incredible.

Sue your hearts out... I'll just be here... content with my reliable Palm/Rim devices

[Mobile Mike]

Wow...Apple's becoming as buggy as Microsoft.

Boy am I glad I didn't get the 3G model. My non-3G iPhone is running beautifully.

[Ddeere2]

What a stupid case. I hope this one gets shot down. People sue for the stupidest things now days. Like you said WumpusVA, any phone when it comes out will have defects, just about anything new does, get over it.

[viewfly]

I don' t think this women has much of chance of winning or even making it to court.

The main basis of her claim is that the phone was advertised as 'twice as fast' on the 3g network. She claims that was false advertising and that she has problems getting the 3G network everywhere.

Even in the days of high traffic during the launch people were getting 2x of EDGE, ie 300 kps at least. Most where complaining that the were not getting the upper limit near 1000 or 1400kps. Whether her dropped calls or inability to connect to 3G everywhere may imply the att 3G coverage and not the phone.

Plus given that she had a 30 day period to return the phone and a 1 year warranty from Apple, she still has a opportunity to have the phone fixed or replaced. Considering that the majority of iPhone users are satisfied,she does not have much of a case, IMHO. She suffered no monetary loss, if she still could use EDGE or have the phone replaced with a working one.

What a waste of time and only large money for her and her lawyers.

[Steve B]

I also think that the case will not go anywhere...mainly because what exactly she is suing for. Your standard disclaimer should protect Apple on this front. She probably should've sued Apple for releasing an obviously defective product yet failing to recall and repair....if she could do such a thing. There is just too many defective iPhone 3Gs out there and Apple needs to be slapped around a bit. There is an obvious problem with the iPhone 3G whether it be firmware or hardware, especially if users located around the world are having the same problem. I just wish Apple would fix the damned thing, lol because I'm tired of reading about it. LOL

[bobolito]

Originally Posted by Mobile Mike

Wow...Apple's becoming as buggy as Microsoft.

Boy am I glad I didn't get the 3G model. My non-3G iPhone is running beautifully.

It's not that bad really. A few rotten apples doesn't mean that the millions that bought iPhones are experiencing the same problem. I think many people are just crying too much and overinflating their claims. Yes, the iPhone 3G has some problems but it's not like everyone is having them. I know many people that are happy with their iPhones. So I am not going to be afraid to buy the iPhone 3G just because a small percentage of users around the world are having bad iPhones. It happens to EVERY electronic product that I know of. There's always a small percentage that have problems. But because it is the iPhone, people are crying like it's the end of the world.

All this noise people make is just a ripple effect product of the paranoia of some, and because of the highly spread publicity of everything that has to do with the iPhone. Blogs, forums, podcasts, etc, just help overamplify small problems to a large scale.

[blueeyeleo]

Heck everything electronic now days has it glitches. I can understand asking for a refund if for extended periods of time a product is completely unusable. And just a refund for the percentage of usage loss. Like they use to do when cells had tower troubles I think it was verizon that gave their customers a cut over network loss and dropped calls. But I say if she doesnt like the thing she had 30 days to return it and try another option. Sounds like just another reason for someone to try to bleed money out of a company for their own gain. So then in the end the rest of us that buy their products end up paying more to make up for the loss to the company.