Consumers sue Apple

Filed in archive litigation on July 2, 2010

Surprise surprise. Now we have reports that US customers have hit Apple with a lawsuit over problems with the signal strength of its much ballyhooed iPhone4. Gizomodo, has a copy of the lawsuit which, among other things, alleges negligence , deceptive trade practices, intentional misrepresentation, negligent misrepresentation, fraud by concealment, defects in design, manufacture, and assembly, breach of express warranty, breach of implied warranty for merchantability and breach of implied warranty of fitness for a particular purpose.

IPhone4 users have claimed that the phone loses its signal when they touch the seams and hold the phone in their bare left hands. The answer is to use nail polish or duct tape.

Steve Jobs pathetic response: don't hold it that way, failing to realize that if people have paid good money for the phone, they can hold it any bloody way they want. Apple's solution to the problem is to sell bumper frames for $29.

And just to confirm how badly Apple has handled this, the company's web site confirms that Apple is now looking to hire engineers who specialize in fixing antennas.

Which makes you wonder why they didn't think of that before they launched the iPhone4. Obviously, they were so keen to get it out into the market that they forgot to check whether it worked. For Apple, it was all about greed and to hell with consumers. The courts will now determine whether Apple will pay the price.

And who knows. Maybe Apple might be hit with another lawsuit over its latest software package, the IOS4. As reported here, the IOS4 bugs are running rampant. I myself had problems with installing the software last night and had to restore everything.

It hasn't been a good week for Apple and it's likely to get worse. Time for Steve Jobs should refocus on the customers.