iPhone battery subject to second lawsuit
A second class-action lawsuit argues that Apple Inc. and AT&T Inc. failed to tell early buyers of the iPhone that annual fees of more than US$100 would be needed to replace the iPhone battery and maintain service. Filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California by Sydney Leung on behalf of a group that could reach into hundreds of thousands of iPhone users, the suit seeks more than $5 million in compensatory and punitive damages. A court conference on the matter was set for Nov. 28.
The nine-page complaint was filed on behalf of Leung by Oakland-based attorney H. Tim Hoffman, and argues that Apple and AT&T committed fraud by not fully informing customers about the costs and procedures for replacing the battery. The complaint argues that the battery “must” be replaced after 300 charges, anticipating a replacement at one year or less by a qualified technician, since the battery sits inside a sealed compartment. In its defense, however, Apple has stated on its Web site that the lithium-ion battery when properly maintained will hold up to 80 percent of its full charge at 400 charge and discharge cycles. Replacing a battery out of warranty costs $79, plus $6.95 for shipping. This whole stuff reminds me of buying a new ink printer: you often buy a dirty cheap printer, but then pay double the original price for first set of new cartridges…
Source: PC World
Comments(20)
A shame. Apple must not want people to use their iphone beyond a certain amount of time. A lot of people will not bother to send in their phones for a new [upto $100] battery replacement but instead a newer model iphone.
I want an iphone, even if I have to get this. But hopefully by the time this is sorted out it’l be for sale in Canada.
I hate this kinda thing – with most mobs now you can take the phone apart and slip in a new battery yourself.
I had the same problem with my iRiver player the battery now need replacing and can only be down my sending back and paying through the nose.
Its a shame that the makers of these things get away producing something that is a problem to keep running without these kind of expensive replacements.
I hope they do get sued and makers have to rethink this whole complete control over batteries thing.
Its great coming up with new battery tech that make your phone special – we are the ones that lose out.
Batteries were great – universal sets you replaced when they ran out – the item was made for easy replacing of cells…
Now its all over the place again….
Can nobody read?
This is no different from any other phone, bar the fact you can’t swap the battery yourself.
After a year of charging and discharging, any battery will see degraded performance but it’s rarely to the point that the phone is useless and genuinely “needs” a replacement battery.
80% after 400 cycles is a pretty good figure, if you ask me. That’s still 200 hours of standby, over 8 days!
i actually like swapping batteries out of my phone. I usually keep 1 battery on the side incase one day i forget to charge my phone or the battery suddenly dies on me….
i keep a spare in my wallet… accept the spare is a shitty one i got on ebay and it goes from about 6 bars of battery to 2 in about 10 secs of calling som1!!!!
Idiot. Can you read? The lawsuit is because of hidden charges “needed to replace the iPhone battery and maintain service”.
Stupid fucker.
Even $pple’s batteries are DRM’d.
Their entire company is based on the premise of DRM i.e. keep control away from the consumers.
Keep locking-in and screwing consumers… eventually even the most dimwitted $pple zealot will find out you’re just as evil as M$!
Well, don’t by apple, don’t buy ipods, don’t buy iphones, don’t buy macs! Apple bleeds you for as much as they can get!
ho ho ho how hilarious and small minded you twats are using the $ sign
Well I’m not surprised frankly. And i laugh at anyone who has purchased one of these. Its the same with the Ipod. Proprietary gear always has this issue, and companies like to make it proprietary just so they can screw you out of as much money as they can. Incidentally, this phone doesnt do anything new, Nokia have 2 phones i think that are on the same level, the only difference is that you use an Apple OS to use the features instead of Java or Symbion.
The only “small minded twats” are the ones who use $ only for the company that starts with m.
They all screw us consumers yet that “sign” is only directed towards one of them. Granted, it’s a very large one but that seems to make people forget that the others are busy building an erection.
The fact the battery is not user changeable is bad design and may cause problems when the handset is released in Europe as the manufactures warranty is 24 months here. Which just means lots of handset returns and pissed off customers when the battery life lowers.
Hopefully, they will change the design before it’s released over here.
I would wait for the Iphone V2.0 to be released as they will have ironed out all the kinks and hopefully added 3G and added the functionality missed from this handset.
I work for a UK network supplier and from what I understand the delay in getting the handset launched is that Apple don’t want the network/service providers to provide a subsidy for the handset and wish to artificially inflate the price. Which does not fit the UK market.
For those of you not in the UK, a handset is discounted (subidised) when taking a 12, 24 or 36 month contract on a sliding scale, usually starting at about £100.00 and is paid back through your monthly line rental.
well i mean it’s called an iphone they can get away with it
and buy the sales they did
knowing that the ipod you couldnt change the batteries yourself what makes you think you could with the iphone…
i dont mind the ipod though for the fact i have other mp3 players i could use as they could do that in days
but a phone??
i tried to tell yall the N95 is a better deal but nope they wanted to pay 600 dollars just to “feel”
iPhone, iPod, iMac, I won’t use them! iCrap.
this is absolute bullshit becuase I have 3 iPhones and this means an annual spending of $300.00 + dollars every 8 or 9 months. if you watch your rls movies on your iPhone like I do then your are charging your battery maybe 1 or 2 times a day and what is terrible is I keep my device charging if I am using it at the office or while watching a movie! So my replacement is most likely going to be sooner! my 8 gigabyte iPhones cost over $750.00 each with tax and a case and accessories not including the activation fee!
I dont care what they are getting sued for, whether it be legit or not, I always love hearing about Apple getting screwed…
iPhone is useless anyway…
http://youtube.com/watch?v=K4VieMjZYfI
@anothergoofyone
I think you can rest easy. Aftermarket iPod batteries became available for user replacement and the iPhone will as well. Most battery suppliers provide instructions and a tool to carefully open the case.
Big drawbacks to having Apple do it are:
1. The cost
2. You don’t get the same one you send in back
Most everything you need to know on the subject can be found here in the iPod and iPhone Battery FAQ:
http://www.ipodbatteryfaq.com/#22
Cheers
There are a LOT of ignorant people who posted above me. I’m a longtime PC user and my iPhone is an awesome piece of engineering. I’m not happy about a sealed battery compartment, and I hope the lawsuit helps the consumers in some way, but I know that I charge once every 2-3 days so 300 charges will last me about 3 years. I’m sure after 2 years, I’ll upgrade anyway!
People who buys the iPhone already have an iPod, so most of them know what hassle it is to change the battery. It’s the people who buys the iPhones fault, if nobody would buy it until you would be able to change the battery your self, Apple would make that model. That said, it’s a piece of beautiful technology and i do agree with post 19 within two years people will upgrade to the next model or another phone. I have never had a phone that i needed to change the battery, on the other hand, those phones were Nokia and SonyEricsson…