Apple and AT&T Sued Over iPhone 4

First Class Action Lawsuit Filed

[incrediBILL]

Gizmodo reports that the iPhone 4 lawsuits [gizmodo.com] have started:

The first iPhone 4 class action suit against Apple and AT&T has been filed today in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland. The lawsuit focus on the antenna design problems, making several claims

This is rumored to be just one of several in the works.

Besides the antenna issues listed in this lawsuit, others are complaining the new glass design breaks if it falls out of your pocket or you drop it, and many complain the phone randomly says there's no sim card making people reboot over and over to get rid of that error among other things.

Did the QA team at Apple take a vacation when the iPhone 4 was in production?

[artek]

But it seems that as of today 98.3 percent of iphone4 owners decided that their phone does not need to be fixed.

OK, more serious note: Give them little time, peace, and quiet and they will fix it.

I do not know if it is even possible to achieve less than 1 percent of the returns due to technical defects in the electronic goods manufacturing.

[g1smd]

@BillyS The only way to "fix" the phone is to prevent the user from touching both the end of the metal aerial which is on the outside of the phone and the rest of the metallic band which runs round the rest of the outside of the phone. There's two ways it could be fixed.

1. Apple takes back every phone, undoes the phone's casing, takes out the circuitry and puts it all into a redesigned shell with the aerial now on the inside of the shell. This shell would be a bit bigger than the old one. Apple would probably be looking at at least half-a-million man hours to fix the problem for everyone; OR,

2. You put the phone inside a thin sleeve which does the same job of keeping your pinkies off the aerial. This does the same job as (1) without you being without your phone for a week or more while it is away being "fixed".

[andyll]

The only way to "fix" the phone is to prevent the user from touching both the end of the metal aerial which is on the outside of the phone and the rest of the metallic band which runs round the rest of the outside of the phone.

Jobs still hasn't admitted that the design has caused problems any worst then other phones.

I would guess Apple will modify the design as soon as they can.

But by not admitting a problem they have no reason to do anything more then they are for current purchasers.

In about 1 week the 30 days for return is up for the bulk of early adopters.

[maximillianos]

My wife's iPhone still has the problem even after adding a 3rd party case. My iPhone does not have the problem while using the official Apple bumper. Very interesting. Though my wife has never noticed a problem during usage. She is happy with the phone and had no interest in exchanging it when I offered.

Aside from all this negative press, hands down best device I have ever owned. This little sucker is amazingly fast and blows my last iPhone out of the water.

[BillyS]

@g1smd - I'm familiar with the problem and proposed solution. Here is the issue - the Apple customers are paying a premium for what they thought was the best product on the marketplace. This is what I think Apple should do:

1 - Suspend all sales of the current model
2 - Immediately issue covers to those that have already purchased a unit.
3 - Once developed, issue a redesigned phone to all current users free of charge

Not just step one or two, all three.

[maximillianos]

Somehow I don't think Apple will be taking your recommendation. ;-)

[Sierra_Dad]

Steve Job's message was pretty much the same as the YouTube Antenna song. If you don't like it, return it. He's calling the bluff.

You're unlikely to see a real fix for this issue till IPhone 5.

Bottom line, if you want Apple to take more drastic measures, you are going to have to raise the return rate above 1.7%. Vote with your receipt if you want to see changes.

And Steve Jobs may complain that the media is overblowing this story, but if Steve Jobs were to hint that the next IPhone *might* be available in purple, the media would be all over it. It would outrank bank failures as a major story.

It works both ways. You have an overhyped product that is vulnerable on a design flaw, it will make the news too. Even if it doesn't affect a large percentage of people, but is easily reproducible. It only adds more fuel if Steve Jobs tells them they are holding it wrong.