iPhone ad rapped as 'misleading'

[macgruder]

Of course, there is another way of looking at it.

This thread is discussing the Web rather than the Internet. It would seem rather weird for Apple to use the word internet rather than web if they were really just referring to browsing.

If on the other hand they mean all parts of the internet: Chat, SSH, the Web, email etc. what would we make of that claim? Can Apps, web apps on the iPhone, or the web itself access these? There's already an AIM app of course. Obviously we don't expect them to access every part of all these technologies, but is it possible to access all these technologies in the present iPhone?

For example to get SSH, something like

http://www.serfish.com/console/

(or something similar).

 

[pointycollars]

To paraphrase Obi-Wan Kenobi:

What Apple told you (in the ad) was true, from a certain point of view.

That's a pretty good assessment of almost all advertising.

My two cents: Flash is hardly a "random 3rd party technology", it's a standard on every browser and a standard part of the internet. In the past, maybe it was a nuisance and used only for random animations that were mostly skipped, but it has grown beyond that and is now used for creating web-based applications and has its own OOPL. Granted, I do some Flash development so I'm a little biased on this one, haha. But the fact remains, it -is- an internet standard these days, and with most other smartphones supporting it, Apple would do well to cull all those criticisms of their devices as being "crippled" or "outdated" by making Flash support a priority.

 

[BaldiMac]

with most other smartphones supporting it, Apple would do well to cull all those criticisms of their devices as being "crippled" or "outdated" by making Flash support a priority.

That seems to be a common assumption that "most" smartphones "support" flash. I've never even seen one that does. From what I've read, none "support" it to the point that it is comparable to a desktop experience, or even useful.

 

[JGowan]

Hmmm....

"The innovation of Nokia"...? Um... Ericsson and Nokia are The Beatles and the Rolling Stones of mobile telephony. Anyone who came after (such as Apple, the Jonas Brothers of mobile telephony) owes them bigtime.

More like George Michael.

 

[macgruder]

My two cents: Flash is hardly a "random 3rd party technology", it's a standard on every browser and a standard part of the internet.

No, it's not. It's a plugin. No browser comes with Flash built in. I don't think you can install it on WebbIE
http://www.webbie.org.uk/

You're confusing the meaning of standard here.

And if 'supporting Flash' means, 'we have a crippled version of Flash, but it's pretty much unusable' then I'll stick with the iPhone version.

 

[GorillaPaws]

If the advert had said "All of the internet with the exception of sites requiring Flash are on the iPhone"

By this statement you're implying that Flash is part of the internet and yet earlier you were saying flash wasn't part of the internet. Like I said earlier, I think it's a reasonable argument to say that Flash/Java are actually part of the internet, but I don't see how you can claim that Flash/Java are external to the internet (as in not part of) and then also claim Apple was misleading.

 

[BoyBach]

By this statement you're implying that Flash is part of the internet and yet earlier you were saying flash wasn't part of the internet. Like I said earlier, I think it's a reasonable argument to say that Flash/Java are actually part of the internet, but I don't see how you can claim that Flash/Java are external to the internet (as in not part of) and then also claim Apple was misleading.

I'm sorry, but you've completely lost me here!

 

[The Tall One]

It is misleading

They should have focused on what they could do when compared to every other mobile phone. However, the internet is pretty limited if you can't decode flash or java. In fact...the number of websites not relying on fancy java or flash is quite enormous. But you'd really have to think about what websites you visit these days? Macrumours.com, Google, google maps, facebook... what else? I don't get the impression that peopl are "surfing" the web anymore, especially not on a cell phone.

 

[oldwatery]

This is just another example of Apple making false claims about their products.
They have a long history of this type of misleading information.
Years ago it was the...."twice as fast as the old one" crap.
Then more recently the "millions of colors" on your laptop lie.
Now this.
Good on you Brits for taking them to task.
The iPhone is a great piece of gear and there is no reason to lie and overstate facts to sell it.

 

[JGowan]

I am no longer taking part in this argument. You are obviously an immature, arrogant stupid american, the type who drives around in his red pickup whooping whilst waving his shotgun over his head, with no regard for anyone who lives overseas or who has differing opinions. You sir, are an idiot and your fellow countrymen should be ashamed of you.

You forgot: "And I fart in your general direction."

I'm a Brit and in fact I'm ashamed of you. Please don't use terms like 'arrogant stupid American' as if to imply the terms naturally go together - I don't live in the States btw.

Im sorry mate, but you want to check out this guy and his comments. Then I'm sure you will agree. I've been biting my tongue for about half an hour. Im not by any means saying that this is true of all americans, not at all - but this guy is truly the type of person who gives americans a bad name.

Tucker -- you are 100% ACCURATE. MOST of this country (USA) ARE the redneck, clueless idiots you're talking about. I don't want to think that I'm something special, but I'll say this: I'm amazed EVERY TIME I GO OUT OF DOORS at the idiots that surround me. Honestly. Go to a Wal-Mart sometime here in Texas… you'll most likely be the smartest guy in whole 150,000 sq. ft. place.

I'd move, but Stupid's everywhere.

 

[GorillaPaws]

I'm sorry, but you've completely lost me here!

"all parts of the internet are on the iPhone" implied users would be able to access all websites and see them in their entirety

Perhaps a hypothetical example would work a bit better: I have a Mac for sale but it doesn't have a mouse. My ad reads:

I have all of the parts of a Mac for sale.

Now, we could object to this ad saying that a mouse is indeed part of a Mac, and that not mentioning its absence is misleading, but you can't say that a mouse is not part of a Mac and then say the ad is misleading.

 

[macUser2007]

No, it's not. It's a plugin....

You're confusing the meaning of standard here.
...)

Er, he is not confusing anything. Flash IS an Internet standard, whether Apple likes it or not.

There are a large number of great sites built entirely in Flash, including sites in which Apple is a partner (e.g. the Nike+ sites, which push iPod integration.) And there will be more and more, since Flash really does help the way the Internet looks.

It's ironic, that the fanboys of the company which popularized Graphical UI for PCs (which hardcore nerds still refer to as "eye-candy,") now try to slam a great visual asset of the Web.

The ad is misleading, and that's a fact. Whether some nerd claims that he doesn't need it, Flash is a fact of life, and is here to stay.

BTW, while Safari is still the best mobile browser, IMO, Opera 9.5's new betas are getting really close, and in fact surpass Safari in some areas. They are adding pretty robust Flash support, so if the final version of Opera implements it reasonably well, Opera WILL be the best browser out there.

P.S. Here is a video of Opera with Flash: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cmbdu-YLZsM

 

[Stephen123]

And they are also being held to account by the ASA.

You seriously believe the ASA is taking action on any significant fraction of the gravely misleading ads on TV?

Do you really think Apple has been singled out unfairly?

Yes. The Apple ads are not among the most misleading ads currently running. But most of those have no action against them.

 

[Stella]

You seriously believe the ASA is taking action on any significant fraction of the gravely misleading ads on TV?



Yes. The Apple ads are not among the most misleading ads currently running. But most of those have no action against them.

Some one has to make a complaint and then ASA will investigate. Isn't that how it works?

Apple hasn't been singled out.

 

[ChrisK018]

Does anyone seriously think that Apple's commercial is a fully accurate representation of the iPhone's speed and capabilities?

I've been with Apple since the II+. As much as I love their products (and my 1st gen iPhone) that was some bs. I don't think I could get that fast on my T1 line.

 

[WindowsGuy]

So how does ESPN support its blind and disabled users. Looks like an ESPN issue to me.

A long list of phones that theoretically support Flash is not very helpful if on the whole these phones Web experience is useless anyway. For example, constant crashes etc.

You're very misinformed if you think that the decision not to support Flash is based on the fact that Apple want webmasters to use Quicktime instead - they are hardly overlapping technologies. Its much more likely to do with stability and battery life.

If Apple were worried about battery life than they would have tested their 3G & GPS. These options are a considerable drain on the battery making going a full workday almost impossible without a recharge.

FLASH is a choice if you want to view it. 3G & GPS have been implemented poorly in 2.0 software and the published battery times are in a perfect world situation.

It's not even worth posting to this site because the Apple Sheep are so high on Kool-Aid they can't see past Steve's ass to realize we've been over sold and under delivered when it comes to the iPhone 3G.

Apple would ban the commercials from the rest of the world if they had any ethics.

 

[arkitect]

You seriously believe the ASA is taking action on any significant fraction of the gravely misleading ads on TV?

Yes. The Apple ads are not among the most misleading ads currently running. But most of those have no action against them.

You know, I am curious if you actually know what the ASA does…

Go to their site and read. You might be surprised.
Oh, and here's the link… it appears you might have trouble finding it.
http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/about/short_guide/

 

[heisetax]

Truth in advertising

and the internet on any other phone isnt even half as good as the iphone.

But does that have anything to do with truth in adversiting? I doubt if it does.

One can be an iPhone supporter & see this as false or misleading advertising. Also rememberthat one's opinion of whether it is correct doesn't count. Because of lack of Java or Flash all of the internet is not available, i.e. a fact. We could say that Windows OS is junk & does not live up to its advertising, but is that fact or opinion. Being basically a pro Mac website, we want to make this fact. But in my business I have several people that believe that Windows is a better OS than the Mac OS.

The ads were restricted because of facts, not opinions. Just because one does not use Flash orJava has nothing to do with the problems with the ads.

 

[ditzy]

You seriously believe the ASA is taking action on any significant fraction of the gravely misleading ads on TV?



Yes. The Apple ads are not among the most misleading ads currently running. But most of those have no action against them.

As I've already said 2458 ads were either pulled or changed last year by the ASA. Apple are not being singled out.

 

[Trajectory]

"Because the iPhone doesn't support Flash or Java, you couldn't really see the internet in its full glory," said Olivia Campbell, a spokesperson for the ASA. "They made a very general claim that you can see the internet in its entirety, and actually that's not quite true - so we've upheld."

So what is the definition of "internet in its full glory" and "internet in its entirety"? And who gets to define that? That is the main problem with this action. It is totally baseless and frivolous. If they applied this same "standard" to all ads, they'd ALL have to be pulled for being "not quite true."

 

[Denarius]

Flash and Java are both propietary software in contrast to the open standards of HTML/XHTML/CSS used for the vast majority of the web. They can enhance the web experience, but absolutely shouldn't be regarded as an integral part of the web medium and the ASA has made a serious misjudgement in their decision.

Taking this idea further, if Flash does start to be considered as integral, how long before Microsoft, Google, Apple decide to launch their own propietary alternatives? Before you know it we'll have browser wars all over again but with the new internet interpreted languages, where we'll all find ourselves in a position where we'll have to have all of these products on our machines along with all of the extra security risks that each technology will inevitably have in its lifetime.

For my money, any web designer who deploys any serious core website functionality in Flash or Java without any form of w3c standards compliant html/css site as an alternative for those not using Flash/Java shouldn't be employed. The fault lies with sloppy web-site developers relying too much on add-on technologies and not concentrating on the core that ensures the continued cohesiveness of the web.

 

[Phil A.]

So what is the definition of "internet in its full glory" and "internet in its entirety"? And who gets to define that? That is the main problem with this action. It is totally baseless and frivolous. If they applied this same "standard" to all ads, they'd ALL have to be pulled for being "not quite true."

Ads in the UK normally avoid making absolute claims (and instead use phrases such as "probably the best lager in the world") because if you make an absolute claim then it has to be absolutely true or you are in breach of the codes.
Saying "every part of the internet" is not open to interpretation: It means exactly that and if you make that claim and any part isn't available then you are automatically in breach.
Apple are obviously aware of this because in the UK the "corridor" iPhone advert did not use the phrase "twice as fast, half the price", but rather said "High Speed 3G internet at a surprisingly low price"

Flash and Java are both propietary software in contrast to the open standards of HTML/XHTML/CSS used for the vast majority of the web. They can enhance the web experience, but absolutely shouldn't be regarded as an integral part of the web medium and the ASA has made a serious misjudgement in their decision.

If the advert said the iPhone supported all web standards then it would probably not have been in breach. Claiming to support all parts of the internet was never going to be acceptable because it was a far too wide ranging claim that couldn't be backed up

 

[WindowsGuy]

Flash and Java are both propietary software in contrast to the open standards of HTML/XHTML/CSS used for the vast majority of the web. They can enhance the web experience, but absolutely shouldn't be regarded as an integral part of the web medium and the ASA has made a serious misjudgement in their decision.

Taking this idea further, if Flash does start to be considered as integral, how long before Microsoft, Google, Apple decide to launch their own propietary alternatives? Before you know it we'll have browser wars all over again but with the new internet interpreted languages, where we'll all find ourselves in a position where we'll have to have all of these products on our machines along with all of the extra security risks that each technology will inevitably have in its lifetime.

For my money, any web designer who deploys any serious core website functionality in Flash or Java without any form of w3c standards compliant html/css site as an alternative for those not using Flash/Java shouldn't be employed. The fault lies with sloppy web-site developers relying too much on add-on technologies and not concentrating on the core that ensures the continued cohesiveness of the web.

The ASA obviously disagrees with you because all the commercials got pulled.

 

[Denarius]

The ASA obviously disagrees with you because all the commercials got pulled.

Obviously. Doesn't mean they've got any idea what they're talking about though.

 

[Stephen123]

As I've already said 2458 ads were either pulled or changed last year by the ASA. Apple are not being singled out.

I guess you can't call it "singled" out. But it is unequal treatment.

Was there any action against the Jersey Tourism ad (for example) which claimed that Jersey was part of the British Isles (false), that the sun 'shines brighter' there than any other part of the British Isles (there are more days of sunshine in some parts of the Outer Hebrides), and that your days in Jersey would be 'perfect' (obviously false).