Charges has been file in a class action law suit, accusing Apple Computer of creating a defective product. Plaintiffd charge that the color screen of the new iPod Nano scratches repeatly. Longer use will render the device useless, well before its "intented" lifespan. The merit of the class action suit is strong, because the number of people who have joined is growing by the day. However, the greatest strength that this suit has is its lack of large compensation demanded by plaintiffs. Most plaintiffs simple want this problem resolve to a point where they feel that they got their money's worth.
Apple responds to this class action suit has been calculated. They are taking full advantageous of all the legal trick that is available to them. I believe, that they have a two plan strategy: 1) tackling the suit with all the legal road block that they can harness in the hope for a small settlement and 2) the accounting department is assessing options e.g. the cost of a total recall or the cost of settling the law suit with each individual. My feeling is that they will produce a plan where they will recall the iPod Nano but with one big caveat i.e. they will leave it to the customer to initiate this process. This plan had worked in the past e.g. the power pack of the Titanium Powerbook was done this way, and the results is perhaps the least expensive option that Apple could have chosen.
Many of the people involve in the suit undoubtably have unreasonable positive scenarios opf the final outcome. In all likelihood they will have their demand meet. It it certainly cheaper to pay for repairs than it is to finance a school of lawyers. The really interesting question on everyone's mind is, will Apple go out of their way to service their customers. I think they will do what I stated above, and perhaps a little bit more. They will most likely design a fix for this problem and quickly roll out a new version. All is will have benn forgotten when newer bling floats in front of our eyes.
Like many product litigation cases, those few who voices their compaint will get serve. Although, most of them will feel disappoint in their reward in light of their hard effort. Apple is a large company with a 50billion market cap., and like most large company, it will deploy the best legal fight and create the best possible outcome for itself.
