iPhone: class-action battery lawsuit, mass AC adapter failures
A suit against Apple charges the iPhone maker with forcing owners to depend on the company for frequent battery replacements. Also, new reports reveal problems with the cellphone's AC power brick.
Lawsuit grills Apple over built-in iPhone battery
Represented by lead plaintiff Jose Trujillo, the Illinois-based suit alleges that the handset's lithium-ion battery will exhaust itself in just 300 charges, which Trujillo claims will last only a year — guaranteeing that customers will need to swap the battery on a yearly basis. Omitting an easily accessible compartment only worsens the situation, he says.
"Unknown to the Plaintiff, and undisclosed to the public prior to purchase, the iPhone is a sealed unit with it's [sic] battery soldered on the inside of the device so that it cannot be changed by the owner," the suit notes.
The replacement locks customers into purchasing an $86 replacement from Apple alone and brings a $29 surcharge for customers who want a temporary unit, which could be avoided through an easy-access, removable battery pack. AT&T is also named in the suit and is jointly accused of hiding battery replacement terms until after the iPhone had been listed for sale.
A victory in the complaint would have both Apple and AT&T pay actual losses as well as punitive damages to customers who weren't properly warned in advance of the long-term costs of maintaining a working battery in the phone.
Apple has not commented on the suit but states that the battery lasts for far longer, delivering up to 400 charges at peak efficiency and only then gradually losing power capacity rather than dying altogether.
AC adapter glitches plaguing Apple
Complaints are steadily growing in number that the iPhone's AC adapter has proven unreliable for early buyers.
A discussion thread on Apple's support website contains a large number of reports of the stand-alone power unit permanently losing its ability to recharge the phone. Plugging the iPhone directly into a USB port charges the device without problems, according to the anecdotes. Other testers have tried replacing the dock-to-USB cable and different wall outlets, ruling out other factors that could prevent a steady power supply.
Apple has yet to formally recognize any widespread issues but can replace the adapter for free as part of the iPhone's hardware warranty.
109 Comments
Craptastic! Just kill us all at once why don'tcha?
There is already a company offering to do iPhone battery replacements at a lower cost than Apple and of course this twit hasn't factored in battery life and battery weight and size to keep the iPhone in its current physical configurations. These ar$eholes see Apple as a bank and can't wait to rob it. All it does is make a law firm rich (or not) and perhaps the public will get a useless 47c cheque someday. Doncha LOVE lawyers???
This is ultimately what screws free enterprise.
There is already a company offering to do iPhone battery replacements at a lower cost than Apple and of course this twit hasn't factored in battery life and battery weight and size to keep the iPhone in its current physical configurations. These ar$eholes see Apple as a bank and can't wait to rob it. All it does is make a law firm rich (or not) and perhaps the public will get a useless 47c cheque someday. Doncha LOVE lawyers???
This is ultimately what screws free enterprise.
All things considered, you'd think that Apple would be a little more forthcoming about disclosures of this kind? These class-action lawsuits are very expensive. Apple's legal team should be as involved in the product development cycle as their engineers, so they can get involved in making sure that marketing provides consumers with the sticky disclosures and information up front.
I'm not saying that this lawsuit will amount to anything, but I kinda think it will result in a win for the offending law firm.
My take: absolutely moronic lawsuit that the plaintiffs will lose.
On the topic of iPhone batteries, here's one of the better articles I have come across:
http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/macw...iphonebattery/
My AC adaptor stopped working in the first couple of days. They swapped it out for me early last week; I didn't even have to see a genius -- it took about 3 minutes of waiting while he went and fetched one.
I didn't realize others had talked about similar problems.