Apple Settles Class Action Suit Regarding iPhone 4 Antenna

[WiiDSmoker]

I find it funny how this was the biggest, blown out of proportion thing when the iPhone 4 was first released, but somehow NO ONE is complaining of this issue anymore, and they're still selling like hot cakes.

(I never even had the issue, go figure)

Maybe because most people are getting a case and therefor it band-aids the problem.

 

[beg_ne]

Read Steve Jobs book and you will see that he would choose design and looking pretty over good engineering time and time again. Hell he would go against them completely on their recommendation saying it was a bad bad idea and multiple times it blew up. He got worse the more power he got.

Yes because Apple products in general are just horribly engineered. No wonder they are about to go out of business. Oh wait, no it's just the opposite.

Engineers tend to take the easy, or most obvious route. The lazy way if you will. Steve forced them to be better engineers by making them try again and iterate and become better engineers.

It's really pathetic some people can't do any critical thinking, and instead think Steve was just some *******.

I guess the true measure of things is Steve created a company valued at just about $500 Billion today. That makes products where all their competitors desperately try to copy,unsuccessfully. And that hundreds of millions of people love to use.

While certain other people spend their time on online forums bitching about what a horrible person he was.

 

[gco212]

I wonder how high the salary of an apple lawyer is?

And i think unless you really had a problem it would feel wrong to me to take the money.

I agree that it would be wrong for you to take the money if I had a problem.

Apple agreed to settle this case with everyone, even though some people may have been greater hurt than others. That's what happens in a class-action, it's made for a bunch of people with small claims to be able to afford the legal help they wouldn't otherwise be able to afford. It's not economically feasible to check each phone, so while some people might have been able to get $25 at trial, and you might not have cared enough to sue at all, this is a good deal on average for Apple.

Plus, even if you don't hold the phone such that this problem affects you, the design flaw hurt the re-sale value of your iPhone, or if you give it to someone, it might hurt their ability to use it.

 

[Ieo]

I'm sure Apple settled to be done with it and move on.

What a waste of a class action lawsuit.

1.There was never anything wrong with the antenna.
2. Gizmodo fabricated the story to get back at Apple, knowing full well they could take advantage of the "bars dropping" illusion that occurs if you hold any GSM phone a particular way, and the coincidence of poor AT&T service in certain areas.
3. Typical internet whiners bought it hook line and sinker and added their "voice" to problem, creating further illusion that there were millions of people with defective antennas.

The whole thing was a fantasy, and if Gizmodo had never lied and created that video blog post, like I said, to punish Apple for taking legal action against their previous criminal activity, there never would have been anything.

I OWN one of the early GSM iPhone 4's. Before the software update, I could place my case-less phone on a table, observe 3 bars, then place a single fingertip at the bottom left corner to bridge the antennas and within moments drop the phone down to no signal. When I removed my fingertip, the bars come back.

After the software update, I go from 3 bars to 1 bar....but it will drop a call if one is active.

I just lived with it because I use a case regardless and I live out in the middle of nowhere with no other phone. Driving somewhere to get it swapped/repaired or sending it away would be extremely inconvenient.

So.....I'll take my $15, thank you.

 

[organerito]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)



Are you grabbing the $15 rightfully and in clear conscience that your phone dropped calls because of the way you were holding it?

I refuse to accept this money out of principal:

1. They already gave a free bumper

2. I had plenty of time to return it (just like everybody else)

3. I never had a dropped call or no signal because of that stupid antenna design. Not once.

I don't feel right taking this money...

His Holiness,

Thanks a lot for the sermon, but let others do what they want with their filthy conscience.

 

[Mr. Gates]

No. You would see that a book author _claims_ these things. Not the same thing.

Oh .... ! and you have further knowledge ?

You care to dispute the claims of the Author who was HAND PICKED by Steve Jobs Himself.....?

And I would ask : "On What basis ?"

 

[organerito]

Yes because Apple products in general are just horribly engineered. No wonder they are about to go out of business. Oh wait, no it's just the opposite.

Engineers tend to take the easy, or most obvious route. The lazy way if you will. Steve forced them to be better engineers by making them try again and iterate and become better engineers.

It's really pathetic some people can't do any critical thinking, and instead think Steve was just some *******.

I guess the true measure of things is Steve created a company valued at just about $500 Billion today. That makes products where all their competitors desperately try to copy,unsuccessfully. And that hundreds of millions of people love to use.

While certain other people spend their time on online forums bitching about what a horrible person he was.

-Is that you LTD?
-Perhaps, it is just a clone!

 

[DroidRules]

Shame its only US consumers. I wouldn't have minded $15 for doing nothing...

Pretty much sums up the attitude of a lot of Americans..... wanting something for nothing.

 

[Rossmg]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

That's right, the main question here is how much those parasites lawyers got. All this contingent litigation is a tremendous burden to business and us, end customers, and should be banned.
Open your eyes, people:15 bucks per iPhone and 15 million per each law firm that is involved? They are indirectly sucking our blood and are paying for it eventually in higher premiums, etc. etc.

 

[pmz]

I OWN one of the early GSM iPhone 4's. Before the software update, I could place my case-less phone on a table, observe 3 bars, then place a single fingertip at the bottom left corner to bridge the antennas and within moments drop the phone down to no signal. When I removed my fingertip, the bars come back.

After the software update, I go from 3 bars to 1 bar....but it will drop a call if one is active.

I just lived with it because I use a case regardless and I live out in the middle of nowhere with no other phone. Driving somewhere to get it swapped/repaired or sending it away would be extremely inconvenient.

So.....I'll take my $15, thank you.

And I rest my case. Amazing how a little public influence can make you ignore reality.

 

[Repo]

Business as usual.

 

[Ibjr]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

That's right, the main question here is how much those parasites lawyers got. All this contingent litigation is a tremendous burden to business and us, end customers, and should be banned.
Open your eyes, people:15 bucks per iPhone and 15 million per each law firm that is involved? They are indirectly sucking our blood and are paying for it eventually in higher premiums, etc. etc.

This is getting out of hand. In my work, I regularly deal with the plaintiffs’ bar and I’m not on their side of the table. In fact, in the last six months my group has easily cost them tens of millions in settlements and fees that federal courts were willing to approve. Still, I recognize that contingent fee litigation is a very important part of our system.

BTW: If you have problems with this settlement write your state attorney's general CAFA unit.

CAFA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_Action_Fairness_Act_of_2005

 

[kalsta]

Are you grabbing the $15 rightfully and in clear conscience that your phone dropped calls because of the way you were holding it?

I refuse to accept this money out of principal:

1. They already gave a free bumper

2. I had plenty of time to return it (just like everybody else)

3. I never had a dropped call or no signal because of that stupid antenna design. Not once.

I don't feel right taking this money...

Seriously disgusting to read comments from people who have zero problems with their phone gladly accepting $15 from Apple.

If I actually had a dropped call, this would be more tempting, but I never have. As much as I love the company, anyone who's honest with themselves knows Apple has charged ridiculous amounts for mundane things like USB chargers, earbuds, and Lion's USB recovery stick. Perhaps it's a little karma kicking them, but again, I don't see the justification for my accepting this "free money" or a case if I've never had said issue with the phone.

And i think unless you really had a problem it would feel wrong to me to take the money.

People, take the money. The problem may not have affected you if you live in a strong signal area or keep your phone in a case, but the fact remains, the iPhone 4 (not the 4S) antenna had a defect which was not the same as other phones. There is so much evidence for this floating around if you care to do the research.

So I say, take the money. Not because you hate Apple. Not because you're a greedy consumer without a conscience. Take the money for one reason and one reason only: because you hold Apple to a higher standard than this. They released a faulty product, and then put a marketing spin on things to try and minimise the damages. The behaviour is understandable from a corporate perspective. Pick any other phone manufacturer, and they probably would have done the same thing. But Apple has always positioned itself as a company which actually cares about excellence and the customer experience—more than it cares about the bottom line. Let this whole chapter in Apple's history serve as a painful reminder of this.

The apologists are hilarious...

Per Anandtech...

FACTS:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4971/apple-iphone-4s-review-att-verizon/2

Chart at the bottom of the page.... iPhone 4 has massive signal attenuation while being held naturally, many cases, worse than other phones being cupped tightly. "Deathgrip" was the wrong term that many people did not understand.

Exactly.

 

[el-John-o]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)



Are you grabbing the $15 rightfully and in clear conscience that your phone dropped calls because of the way you were holding it?

I refuse to accept this money out of principal:

1. They already gave a free bumper

2. I had plenty of time to return it (just like everybody else)

3. I never had a dropped call or no signal because of that stupid antenna design. Not once.

I don't feel right taking this money...

I agree. At first I was thinking, "Hey neat, free case" but you know, it wouldn't have been because of dropped calls.. because I've NEVER had a signal issue with my iPhone. My old Windows CE phones from years ago had an issue where I couldn't touch the bottom back. And you know what? I didn't whine about it then either. It was just part of owning a smartphone. No big deal. But, like I said, the iPhone didn't even do that. And if it was such a big issue that I needed to SUE a company over it? Heck, there's a 30 day return policy, one that, in fact, the Apple stores out here have been known to 'extend'. AT&T backs up those policies for 30 days by allowing you to go back on your contract, and get a different phone. I know because I got a phone once that I just HATED, and AT&T gave me no problems returning it for a refund and buying another, while still getting the 2 year contract discount.

So yeah... opportunities were had. Plus... the legal costs? Bumpers aren't that expensive..

 

[Agent OrangeZ]

Cool. In the past I have activated 2 new iPhones. I'll put that $30 toward an iPad 3. Apple is still going to make money from me!

 

[Rossmg]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

That's right, the main question here is how much those parasites lawyers got. All this contingent litigation is a tremendous burden to business and us, end customers, and should be banned.
Open your eyes, people:15 bucks per iPhone and 15 million per each law firm that is involved? They are indirectly sucking our blood and are paying for it eventually in higher premiums, etc. etc.

This is getting out of hand. In my work, I regularly deal with the plaintiffs’ bar and I’m not on their side of the table. In fact, in the last six months my group has easily cost them tens of millions in settlements and fees that federal courts were willing to approve. Still, I recognize that contingent fee litigation is a very important part of our system.

BTW: If you have problems with this settlement write your state attorney's general CAFA unit.

CAFA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_Action_Fairness_Act_of_2005

Just for the sake of an argument: contingent fee litigation is not allowed in most of Europe and they do just fine without it.
It is not important "for our system" either. But it is very important for the legions of lawyers that feed on it. The rest of "our system" is paying the price in the form of mandatory insurance premiums and higher cost of everything, including groceries.
Just try to see a forest behind a tree.

 

[Mackan]

Seriously disgusting to read comments from people who have zero problems with their phone gladly accepting $15 from Apple.

Apple overcharge for the phone anyways. That's the real disgusting part.

 

[komodrone]

wtf just take the $15.

Apple has TOO much money. you aren't doing Apple a favor by NOT taking the money.

better yet, just take that $15 and donate it to Red Cross or something.

 

[Rogifan]

Jesus, it's right there in the press release. At this point, what does it matter what kind of issue it was ? It was an issue, Apple revamped the tech a bit to make the antenna auto-switching and now it's not an issue for those of us with the iPhone 4S.

Some here are claiming this problem was the result of designers having too much power/control. My point was, we don't know if it was a design issue or a hardware engineering issue. Since they were able to fix it and keep pretty much the exact same design it seems to me the overall design concept wasn't faulty.

 

[blow45]

An idiotic antennae design which embarrassed apple, still they got out lightly.... Very lightly... They should stop embarrassing themselves by whitewashing via pr peop
E instead of finally owning up to this

 

[doctor-don]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)



Are you grabbing the $15 rightfully and in clear conscience that your phone dropped calls because of the way you were holding it?

I refuse to accept this money out of principal:

1. They already gave a free bumper

2. I had plenty of time to return it (just like everybody else)

3. I never had a dropped call or no signal because of that stupid antenna design. Not once.

I don't feel right taking this money...

principle?

----------

What's a thousand lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?

 

[Rodimus Prime]

Some here are claiming this problem was the result of designers having too much power/control. My point was, we don't know if it was a design issue or a hardware engineering issue. Since they were able to fix it and keep pretty much the exact same design it seems to me the overall design concept wasn't faulty.

Noticed how they made the changes. It took them being embarrassed for them to listen to the engineers. It would of have not been the first time Jobs would of over ruled the engineers because it put an extra mark on the phone even though engineering design wise it was much better. Jobs was famous for telling them to redesign circuit boards because it looked "ugly" and a mess even though those chips were laid out in a very logical manner. efficiency would suffer to do the changes jobs demanded to circuit boards would look prettier.

It also safe to assume the iPhone 4 over ruling the engineers was not his last time to do it.
They still had to make changes and add extra marks to the phone so it would work better. The marks being those break points in the metal band. Jobs was very picky on how things look at very exacting. He would sacrifice engineering and functionally to look prettier. Some times that was fine and great. Examples of some of this would be like the original all in one iMacs and even the iMacs which for a while was using laptop parts just to work. While weaker for most people it was just fine so that weakness never really was a large issue.

An example of it kind of backfiring was you originally iPhone with its metal back. It had signal problems which is why they went with the plastic back for the 3G and 3GS. 4 goes to the more classical Apple design style and they paid for it in the mess. 4S they give up some of the looking pretty and it took the signal problems of the iPhone 4 for Jobs to give and allow them to make the required change.

 

[dukebound85]

So how does one redeem this?

 

[Ieo]

And I rest my case. Amazing how a little public influence can make you ignore reality.

No, you don't. Your case was that all GSM phones will have signal degradation if you hold it a certain way. I have yet to see another GSM phone that will completely lose signal (No matter how weak) with a simple fingertip placed in the correct spot.

 

[carbonmotion]

Once again, only the lawyers gets the real money and the consumers get $15. That's after you filled out bunch of paper and find your proof of purchase.

$15 for 5 minutes worth of work? Doesn't sound too bad.
I think $15 is fair compensation for the damages caused by Antenne gate. Cost of a new iPhone was $300, the court decided that a 9.5% markdown from the sale price was fair compensation. I don't see how that is unfair, the plaintiffs received a markdown post purchase for doing virtually nothing. If believe that your damages were so severe that it warranted more compensation, you could have opted out assuming you weren't joined as a necessary party under Rule 19 of the FRCP. It is true that the law firm made a couple of hundred thousand in profit at least on this case, but they also did most of the work. The lawyers have to pay their staff, pay experts, and their own time. Everybody wins, including -arguably- Apple, b/c it will learn to be more careful in designing its products next time and not release a phone half cocked. That's my 2 cents worth.