Slashdot Mirror
Apple Sued Over iPhone Bricking
An anonymous reader writes "The week's debate over the iPhone 1.1.1 has finally resulted in legal action. InfoWeek reports that on Friday, California resident Timothy Smith sued Apple in a class-action case in Santa Clara County Superior court. The suit was filed by Damian Fernandez, the lawyer who's been soliciting plaintiffs all week for a case against Apple. The suit doesn't ask for a specific dollar amount, but seeks an injunction against Apple, which prevents it from selling the iPhone with any software lock. It also asks that Apple be enjoined from denying warranty service to users of unlocked iPhone, and from requiring iPhone users to get their phone service through AT&T."
It's pretty clear, Apple is the new Microsoft. They're so freaking successful that everybody figures they must be cheating. They're starting to leverage their proprietary assets. And they're becoming the company everybody loves to hate, just like MS in the '90's.
The difference is, Apple is making some f'ing awesome products, and people are falling over each other to buy them. Compare products: iPhone or Windows 98? Ever see somebody show off their Windows upgrade to a girl at a bar?
Some people just hate success. The fuss over locked iPhones has just taken this crowd to a new low of childishness. Where were you losers the last ten years when the practice became commonplace? Clue alert: Verizon sells Verizon-branded phones that.. surprise... only work on Verizon's network!!! OMG!!! Where's the outrage? Instead, the losers wait until there's a phone they actually want and suddenly discover a heretofore unknown principle to stand on.
Apple/ATT bundling (if it's even a bad thing) is a rich country's problem, and the whining over the iPhone is truly pathetic, like a rich girl who wanted a different color BMW for her birthday. This used to be a country that valued freedom, now people go whining to Big Brother to fix every little problem in their lives. Pathetic. At the rate we're going, in 100 years Americans will all be working on assembly lines making electronic doodahs for the wealthy Chinese.
I must have missed the crucial part where the guy described Apple putting a gun to his head and forcing him to buy an iPhone.
What is with all of these people getting pissed and suing (or bitching about) Apple over the iPhone locking? You were a dumbass and voided your warranty. Now you're paying the consequences. End of story. Nobody is forcing you to buy an iPhone. If you don't like the terms and conditions, DON'T FUCKING BUY IT!
A grudge against whom? I've never bought an Apple product in my life. Never will, most likely. They're almost invariably overpriced compared to competing products.
I know they are a litigious bunch of asshats, but lately it's like some put crazy in the water.
Fiat Homos et Pereat Theos
Anyone who believes Apple did not deliberately lock/brick the iPhone is either blind or naive.
No, lawsuits are subsidies for the lawyer class in this country... (that would be the United States)
Nothing gets accomplished, unless what you had in mind was to make lawyers rich... then the system works perfectly.
It's the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.
Microsoft has been in negative stories on Slashdot since 1997, and this has not resulted in any problem for the company. Don't overestimate the power of whining.
As for the iPhone, there are no major US carriers who lack a "very bad reputation." Sprint, TMobile, and Verizon are equally horrific compared to Cingular/AT&T. I've used them all. They all have horrible customer service. They all sell garbage-DRM media services, overpriced ringtones, and cheat customers with one-sided contracts and high fees while offering nothing really novel in terms of service.
Apple used its leverage to force one of them (logically the largest GSM carrier by far) to force it to deliver its Visual Voicemail, lower service prices significantly, and block all the unnecessary garbage services, allowing Apple to let users load their own music and video content. So the RIAA won't let Apple copy ringtones for free; pffft - I'd rather pick my own content than ringtones. When you deal with the devil, you can't win every concession at version 1.0.
Apple had to hold its nose to partner with AT&T just as it does in partnering with the RIAA labels, the studios, and Microsoft. In each case, Apple has pushed for its own interests, lowered prices and provided better products for consumers. Without Apple, pop music wouldn't be 99 cents, and Microsoft wouldn't have to keep cutting its prices on the Zune. We wouldn't have an iPhone, and Motorola and Nokia would be touting its basic phones that do nothing interesting at fake subsidy prices.
You can have the opinion that the iPhone doesn't do what you'd like, but it just isn't true to suggest that Apple found a bad mobile partner to lock their phone to so you would be upset.
The iPhone costs less to own for two years than really any other smartphone on the market from Verizon or Sprint. As I like to point out, the $99 Motorola Q cost around $200 more than the iPhone over two years of service... and since then Apple has dropped the iPhone's price $200. So stop harping that the iPhone is so terribly expensive. Most of the people whining about the iPhone's price tout features of the TyTn and N95, both of which retail for around $800, and are clunky piles of crap.
Apple (and every other company) is involved in lawsuits from a variety of moron customers who insist that they don't understand that their products couldn't be used underwater or swallowed or whatever. It is mostly Apple who has its frivolous ambulance chaser lawsuits paraded through the headlines, because those writers are desperate to find something scare-worthy about the company. Show me a lawsuit that has done anything but enrich lawyers. Even the states' lawsuits against Microsoft for cheating customers--while resulting in billion dollar settlements--have done very little for consumers. Some people got back a $100 or so on their purchases of thousands. It's only attorneys who make any money on the vast majority of these class action cases.
Do you really think that the woman suing Apple for a million dollars because "her market for reselling the iPhone doesn't exist anymore" will prevail? Why not sue the car makers for making a product that devalues by 50% when you drive it off the lot? It's all tripe and you know it, you're just fostering false information. Like Mike Elgan.
Arrogance Unleashed: The Foul Stench of Computerworld's Mike ElganMike Elgan, a former editor of Windows Magazine, has recently gone on an anti-Apple rampage, posting countless articles on why users should torment themselves with fear, doubt, and uncertainty about Apple. Elgan's desperation is so overreaching that it is, like Rob Enderle, an embarrassment even to Windows Enthusiasts.