Defective by Design, Mindless as Sheep
I would like to make a case in point about one of the stupidest lawsuit ever to hit the American court system. Woman sues Apple for causing her an inconvenience from their iPhone price cut (from Computer World). No offense to those who love Apple, but I hope this woman's case gets thrown out and that she must pay all the legal fees due to Apple's lawyers. The case is based on stupidity and greed for an entity out in Cupertino, California just swelling in cash. Here are my reasons and inferred "damages" that the plaintiff claims from analyzing various sources on the web and even from the local news broadcast I saw on TV.
- Woman goes to buy an iPhone hoping to buy the 8GB iPhone...
- But... the 8GB ends up being sold out, so she buys a 4GB
- She also signs up for AT&T service for a 2 year hitch.
- The iPhone would get a price cut and Apple's half-way solution would be to offer a $100 rebate
- Caveat noted by Zero: The rebate is only valid for EARLY adopters, which the plaintiff is one.
- But... With the price cut and rebate, the only model offered by Apple for an iPhone would be an 8GB model
- Result: 4GB is discontinued - Value of 4GB version ends up being unpopular and value depreciates.
- Plaintiff decides to sue for the price change for the following reasons
- Claims that Apple had intentionally forced her to buy the 4GB iPhone
- Claims that Apple had forced her to sign for a 2 year hitch with AT&T which she is now trapped in
- Claims that the rebate does not help her recoup her costs
- Claims that due to the matter of fact that the 4GB model was discontinued, she can no longer sell her 4GB model for FULL PRICE for re-compensation/profit
First off, she's a fool to claim she was forced to buy the phone and sign for service... No one forces you to buy something, ever. This AMERICA for crying out loud, not some communist regime saying "Buy iPhone or DIE!!!" The AT&T contract, that was her own problem. As far as the rebate for compensation... if she paid with a credit card, she could easily call them and ask about price protection. That way she would be able to receive $200 from her credit card company and $100 from Apple (that is if it is valid... feel free to correct me - Zero). The part about the model being discontinued and not being able to recoup the full price for profit, that's just reeks of sheepish stupidity. Electronics evolve so fast that , to hope for selling for profit is just plain stupid. There was NO shortage of iPhones, so to sell for profit is foolish.
The iPhone has just been plagued with headaches and almost "defective by design" as it limits the liberty of the consumer to use the device as they wish. It was (possibly is still) unusable in Linux due to the checksum that must be verified, because the phone CANNOT be used on a system where iTunes has never been released. Then there's the unlocking chaos, like this example on The Consumerist. Don't forget the chaos from the new firmware that is bricking the baseband chip on the iPhone prohibiting it from ever making calls again and limited success on restoring the devices functionality as reported from the iPhone Dev Team. There are people who use the derogatory term "iTrendWhore" because they follow the trends, but in the computer community... we call these people sheep taken hostage by their own stupidity to research the device... Anyone remember the lawsuit about those claiming that they are suing about the battery design prevents them from replacing the battery? I assume the case has been quashed from the sheer stupidity that the plaintiff in that case claimed they were "forced" to buy the iPhone.
FOR THE LAST TIME, PEOPLE... NO ONE FORCED YOU TO BUY THE iPHONE, BECAUSE IN AMERICA YOU ARE FREE TO BUY WHATEVER YOU WANT.
I hope that these stupid lawsuits stop... because I have no doubt that the world is sick of the greedy, sue happy, crybaby Americans crying why certain proprietary devices prohibit their liberties.
