Apple is hit with a lawsuit in the United States, from a woman who is alleging that the iPhone 3G’s performance and reliability has been subpar. (source: Ars Technica)
According the widely reported story, Alabama resident Jessica Smith bought her phone after being bombarded with iPhone ads on TV, radio and print, and is less than happy with Apple’s aggressive marketing campaign.
“One could barely turn on the television without hearing that the new iPhone 3G was ‘twice as fast for half the price,” went the complaint.
However, when she got her wonder-gizmo, she realised her data link, e-mail, SMS and other stuff were slower than expected. She even said there was an “inordinate amount of dropped calls”.
The woman is reportedly hoping that her lawsuit will bring about a class-action complaint. If she succeeds, it won’t be the first time that Steve Jobs and Co. will be facing up to consumers (remember the iPod complaints?)
To make things worse, Apple’s expected fix for these well-publicised 3G problems did not appear to fix things. CNet reported that the version 2.02 software update did not solve the poor 3G reception issues. Some other sites also cite that it ends up not being able to make calls on a 3G network.
The hype may be unending here in Singapore, as the iPhone 3G went on sale here to much fanfare on Friday. But if you are thinking of buying one of these gizmos, it’d be smarter to wait until a real fix is out.
Unless of course, you just wanna show off the phone… in which case, you can do so even if there is no 3G reception!
Said,
The strange thing is that if the iPhone didn’t have that much of a cult status — e.g. recent coverage in the Singapore mainstream papers thanks to the powers that just love Apple — it wouldn’t have drawn that much irritation from folks.
Many journalists (and ex-journalists) love the underdog — I’m one of them — and when the hype of something grows too big, the pendulum swings in the other direction. They try to tear the “hyped” leader down.
This string of anti-iPhone comments is a good example of that.
I will have to state upfront that I’m definitely not the target demographic audience who will buy an iPhone so the comments below can be taken with that context.
So does iPhone deserves its hype? Of course not all of it. Is it a good product — in terms of sleek interface and design that brand and design conscious people will love? Yup. Is Apple a pioneer in touch screen interfaces that everyone else copies? Yup, and this one kudos must be given to them. Are they overpriced and the technology specs for what you pay for not worth it? Absolutely.
The thing that gets me is that too many people have written about the iPhone, both the good and bad. It is just ONE phone in a universe of phones in a fast changing industry. Enough already from all the media — as a reader I’m sick off hearing about the iPhone.
Hmmm. Curious. What do the rest of you folks think?