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Judge Approves Settlement in iPod Suit

Posted by Zonk on from the shiny-white-money dept.

BabbaBooie writes "According to AppleInsider, on Thursday a San Mateo County judge granted final approval of a settlement in the iPod class action suit that affects as many as 1.3 million iPod owners who may have been victim to poor or defective batteries. Under the settlement, owners of either a first- or second-generation model are entitled to $25 cash or $50 credit at the Apple store. Owners of third-generation iPod models are entitled to a free replacement battery if the battery fails. The deadline for submitting a claim is September 30, 2005. Lawyers say the settlement could cost Apple as much as $15m."

19 of 293 comments (clear)

  1. That's cool! by Badflash · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Big corporations need to pay for THEIR mistakes. Not THEIR customers.

    1. Re:That's cool! by OmniVector · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm not necessarily trying to defend Apple here, but why are they at fault? Because they provided their customers "faulty" batteries? Apple provided the same lithium ion batteries as every other manufacturer. So because of the natural physical properties of the battery, it's going to diminish in charge capacity over time. There's no secret to this. Apple already remidied the situation: you can get your battery replaced for $50 by Apple. This lawsuit is stupid. I guess I should sue Sony and IBM for providing laptop batteries that fail after 2 years too?

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      - tristan
    2. Re:That's cool! by Tmack · · Score: 4, Insightful
      I think the problem was that the batteries are built in, and sending your ipod back to apple to get them replaced costabout the same as a new ipod, and their life expectancy was about one year of average use. Most other devices have easily replaceable Lion batteries. They got in trouble by advertising that the ipod is rechargable, but failing to state that it will only be rechargable for about a year without new batteries, and that new batteries cost the same as a new unit and were not (easily) user-replacable.

      tm

      --
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    3. Re:That's cool! by hawkbug · · Score: 4, Interesting
      I think the problem here is that you can't change the battery yourself. Try to name a product in the last 15 years that you can't change it yourself - I'm having a hard time coming up with one. Here's a short list of the products in which you can, it just makes sense:
      1. Laptops
      2. Cellphones
      3. Cars
      4. Walkmans & Discmans from the 80's and 90's
      5. Walkie Talkie's
      6. Flashlights
      7. Cordless phones
      And I could go on.... and it's no big deal that Apple uses batteries that recharge, I love that they do - but the fact that you can't change them just plain sucks. To this day, I can't figure out why they did that. I still bought one, but I'm dreading the day the battery fails on me. I know there are web pages that describe how to do it myself, but I'm leary about prying apart a $300 device.
    4. Re:That's cool! by learn+fast · · Score: 4, Informative

      Every manufacturer may use the same batteries, but they don't advertise them the same way. Apple promised a specific quality of battery life, which the product did not live up to.

    5. Re:That's cool! by FreeBSDbigot · · Score: 5, Informative

      Some Palm PDAs, like my IIIc, don't have user-replaceable batteries, though I've seen third-party batteries (complete with screwdriver!) on Ebay. So far, it still holds a charge. I've got my fingers crossed.

      --
      Orange whip? Orange whip? Three orange whips.
    6. Re:That's cool! by FLAGGR · · Score: 4, Informative

      Originally, back with my 2G, it was almost the same cost, they changed it though after complaints. So I think you should be the one S'ing TFU.

    7. Re:That's cool! by adpowers · · Score: 4, Informative

      I'll bite. One year of expected use? Umm, even the website that sparked this whole discussion claimed 18 months of use. Mine has been going for over two years and can still hold quite a bit of charge. It is less than when I bought it, but it still is quite usable.

    8. Re:That's cool! by nvrrobx · · Score: 4, Informative

      So much for using my mod points.

      I have a Braun 7000-series Synchro razor. It looks pretty damned sealed to me. I'm not going to go suing Braun when the battery dies.

      My laptop's battery *is* user replaceable (Dell Inspiron 4150), for $120. I think the $50 iPod battery replacement isn't THAT bad, in the long run.

    9. Re:That's cool! by holden+caufield · · Score: 5, Funny

      Pacemakers.

      Try to replace the batteries on one of those yourself. And yet, still no lawsuit.

      --
      I'll create an amusing sig when I have something meaningful to post.
  2. how much will it really cost them? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    it may cost them 15 million in coupons, but how much will it really cost them? after all, if everyone cashes in, it's that many more apple products out there in the hands of consumers.

  3. Probably wont hurt them much... by Iscariot_ · · Score: 4, Interesting

    As most people will never hear about this, or simply forget to get their cash in time.

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    Go here for teh [sic] funny.
  4. *Ahem* by jwinter1 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Why the judge was wearing an iPod suit is yet to be determined.

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    Anything you can do, I can do meta.
  5. Below the belt by rob_squared · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I can understand replacements on 3rd or 4th generation units. But by now, who would be able to tell if a 1st or 2nd generation iPod really had a defective battery, or if its just old?

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    I don't get it.
  6. Swappable & Death by Kynmore · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is why built in batteries are bad! Not only does it screw the customer, it screws the manuf. in the end. Not that $15m is alot Apple, but still, it's a big damn drop of water in that bucket. They should use cellphone-style batteries. Keep an extra charged, jus tincase you stuck in the desert and need a soundtrack to your death-martch to the next gas station. Oh no, your batteries died, but wait, you have an extra one. pop. more music to die by.

  7. Re:4G iPods out of luck? by MoneyT · · Score: 5, Informative

    Your 4G is still under waranty. Get it serviced.

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    T Money
    World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
  8. Costs Apple Money? by AvitarX · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I would think giving iPod hungry people $25-$50 credit will actually make Apple money.

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    Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
  9. Re:Fair Test? by sprouty76 · · Score: 5, Informative
    Shuffle won't make any difference to the HD usage - the order of the tracks is decided when the user hits play. Either way, the iPod knows well in advance which tracks it's going to play and can cache them accordingly.

    Skipping is the real killer for battery life in my experience. People who just play everything and skip through stuff they don't want probably get much worse battery life than people who create sensible playlists.

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    No, I don't want a free iPod

  10. Once again, the lawyers win by cpu_fusion · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Big surprise, the lawyers make a cool $2 million off this. That's right, they made $2m out of the $15m that "might" be collected by the deadline ONE MONTH FROM NOW.
    Quit tech, folks, and go into Law.