So Apple admits that it's wrong, offers refunds, and will modify its packaging and advertising.
It seems that Apple is admitting that "4Ggate" was real....
In Australia, 4G = LTE in the eyes of all Australian consumers. There is no confusion about this over here.
There is only one 4G service available in Australia currently:
http://www.telstra.com.au/mobile-phones/coverage-networks/network-information/4g/
IT IS run by idiots, unfortunately.
ALL politicians are idiots to some degree, hell they gave us a 'CARBON TAX' FFS.
4G or no 4G, the new Ipad gets better speeds than my ipad 2 and Iphone 4S so it's an improvement.
How is it not necessarily enough? This is what I said about being spoonfed earlier hehe. If that sticker is on every box, then this "investigation" is a bigger joke then I originally thought hehe![]()
I call bull***.
From the iFixit teardown done on an Aussie iPad sold the day they were released:
Image
Not one of the Aussie crew here on MR copped to it, but it turns out every "4G" iPad sold downunder has that label attached.
Every. Single. Box.
Just to clear things up (as others have previously) for the non-Aussie's commenting here:
Australia has 3 x "serious" mobile phone carriers - Telstra, Optus & Vodafone. None of these carriers have ever attempted to market HSPA+ services (or anything else other than LTE) as "4G" as they did in the US - so this is not an issue in Australia.
In Australia, 4G = LTE in the eyes of all Australian consumers. There is no confusion about this over here.
There is only one 4G service available in Australia currently:
http://www.telstra.com.au/mobile-phones/coverage-networks/network-information/4g/
It is not unreasonable that if an Australian consumer purchases a "Wifi + 4G" iPad in from an Apple store in Australia, that they be compatible with Australian 4G networks.
It is completely unreasonable to expect that an average consumer should have to be an expert on exact country-specific carrier-specific LTE transmission ranges in GHz so that they can make an informed purchasing decision.
As an Australian consumer, if you are sold a "Wifi + 4G" iPad within Australia, you should expect compatibility with Australian 4G neworks. End of story.
In my opinion, Apple has made a pretty large mistake here. They should have either:
1. On a world-wide level, called the device "Wifi + Mobile" rather than "Wifi + 4G" or:
2. Marketed the producted differently in different countries, based on local LTE compatibility.
I don't think a refund program will fix this. This is not a situation of consumers returning a faulty product. This is a pretty clear-cut case of misleading advertising, and the ACCC has every right to protect Australian consumers from this by making Apple change their advertising going forward.
Don't get me wrong, I love my Apple products and admire them as a company, but they have made a mistake here.
I call bull***.
From the iFixit teardown done on an Aussie iPad sold the day they were released:
Image
Not one of the Aussie crew here on MR copped to it, but it turns out every "4G" iPad sold downunder has that label attached.
Every. Single. Box.
I call bull***.
From the iFixit teardown done on an Aussie iPad sold the day they were released:
Image
Not one of the Aussie crew here on MR copped to it, but it turns out every "4G" iPad sold downunder has that label attached.
Every. Single. Box.
Wrong. Apple maintains it did not mislead the public (look at my second link), and they offer refunds to avoid some long legal battle (settling).
of course if you think that everytime a company settles that means they did wrong you might not understand how it works hehe
4g gate was an overblown non issue. we're upto 4 now: the no demand because of lack of lines gate, the heatgate, the batterygate, and the 4G gate. can't wait to see tomorrow's developments hehe
Shockingly....the world has still not ended!
Wrong. Apple maintains it did not mislead the public (look at my second link), and they offer refunds to avoid some long legal battle (settling).
Assuming that I'm in complete agreement with you about everything in your post, I wouldn't be welcoming all these "gates". (As a side note, is it just me or are the people defending Apple at every turn just as responsible for labeling all these events as "-gates" as the people criticizing the company?).
Anyways, all of this is negative publicly and even if we were to assume that these are all "non-issues" they still hurt the image of Apple as a company. So don't be too eager to break out that "" emoticon just yet
Out of curiosity, did this many articles about several parts of Apple's product pop up with past launches?
But Apple is modifying its marketing for the device to remove the misleading claims....
If Apple "maintains" that it has not been misleading, why would they modify the marketing?
Of course, it's because admitting that it was misleading would leave them liable for any number of lawsuits.
the "gates" have all been jokes.
no demand? naw we sold 3 million in 3 days
heat? naw, same or better then most tablets out there
battery? naw, its been like that since the iphone 3gs
real 4g? we didn't mislead you, but since you need to be coddled, here have some refunds
like i always say...apple will be fine these silly "gates" wont affect their bottom line, their sales, their reputation or their customer satisfaction ratings. these are just overblown issues that get a lot of press because its apple, the most successful company in the world
believe me, there will be more. stay tuned hehe
to avoid spending millions to defend something why else?
if you ran apple youd opt to spend millions on legal fees on such an overblown and silly issue or would you just change your marketing materials?
if your answer is the former, we know why you don't run apple hehe![]()
I call bull***.
From the iFixit teardown done on an Aussie iPad sold the day they were released:
Image
Not one of the Aussie crew here on MR copped to it, but it turns out every "4G" iPad sold downunder has that label attached.
Every. Single. Box.
Those words are what should be appearing in, and made clear in, the product's advertising, not only on a tiny label on the side of the box (4G should not even appear on the Australian packaging). And no, mentioning it in the tiny fine print on the website is not good enough.Wow, really? At first I was giving these Aussies the benefit of the doubt, but come on if its plainly written on the box like that, then they bought it and still whine, they are truly fools
This is a non-issue...
You're clearly new to this. Believe it or not, we're not all Fandroids clamouring for every single mistake to be the death toll for Apple. As you've correctly pointed out, Apple is more than capable of seeing itself through these sort of things. However, that doesn't mean that they are infallible nor that they, like any other company, shouldn't be pulled up when they overstep the mark.
i never said anything about fandroids not in this thread and i dont think ever since i joined this site! its not about fandroids. its about the fact that if you're the most successful company in the world, which apple is, people are going to nitpick, whine, overanalyze, and overblow every little issue they come across.
this is nothing new. its not the end either. tomorrow we'll hear some other issue.
apple offered to settle to put this headache behind them, and thats it hehe. 4g gate is over!!! OMG.
its such a minor and silly issue that it simply will not have any negative effect on apple. i know they are not infallible, and if they actually make a huge mistake, they will fall and fall hard.
however, these silly "mistakes" that we've seen since the ipad launch are not going to be the things that makes them fallthis is just the haters getting their kicks in while they can. because once all this overblown stuff blows over hehe, they have to wait an entire year for the next iPad to hate on!
Ok, fine. Sprint offers a 2.5G network for their iPhone. That's fair is it not?
If Pluto can be demoted from a planet to a non-planet then Sprint can be demoted to having 2.5G for the iPhone 4S.
IF you aussies would take a moment and put down that shrimp you cooked on the barbie then you would notice that most people are getting less than 14.4Mbits/sec on their "4G LTE" networks using their "4G LTE iPads".
Also, speed tests on the 4S in some regions have offered up speeds in actual use that intersect the range of speeds experienced on an LTE iPad.
You cannot have it both ways. Either EVDO is demoted to less than 3G or HSPA+ of 14.4 Mbits/sec or faster is promoted to 4G.
Theoretical maximums really mean absolutely nothing. If some HSPA+ networks offer speeds into the typical 4G LTE range then HSPA+ has to logically be called "de facto" 4G.
the "gates" have all been jokes.
no demand? naw we sold 3 million in 3 days
heat? naw, same or better then most tablets out there
battery? naw, its been like that since the iphone 3gs
real 4g? we didn't mislead you, but since you need to be coddled, here have some refunds
like i always say...apple will be fine these silly "gates" wont affect their bottom line, their sales, their reputation or their customer satisfaction ratings. these are just overblown issues that get a lot of press because its apple, the most successful company in the world
believe me, there will be more. stay tuned hehe
Dude I'm quoting u in sigThe Prius runs on petrol, it does not have a charging connector.
Fail.
Apple produced many misleading adverts during the reign of the turtlenecked overlord, for example "first 64-bit desktop".
But Every. Single. Ad. says 4G - even the name of the product says 4G.
It's "misleading" to say one thing in the title font, and then to have a fine-print footnote or sticker on the back of the box that completely reverses the bold message.
The SC representing Apple raises one point that I think is difficult to refute - that there was significant press prior to the release of the iPad noting its incompatibility with Telstra's '4G' network.
I call bull***.
....
Not one of the Aussie crew here on MR copped to it, but it turns out every "4G" iPad sold downunder has that label attached.
Every. Single. Box.
Dude I'm quoting u in sig
From memory, there was coverage of Telstra incompatibility in the tech press prior to the iPad's release, but I didn't really see anything much in the mainstream media until well after the iPad was available for purchase.
However the thing is, the onus here is not on the consumer - it is on the producer.
It should not be up to the consumer to have to follow press reports about the iPad. The onus is on Apple to be upfront and truthful in their product advertising, so that their customers do not make ill-informed decisions.