Apple facing iMac lawsuit

Accused of "duping its customers"

1 April 2008 9:09 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

Apple is facing a fresh lawsuit relating to its iMac computers, and specifically to the display of the 20-inch model.

Relating to the "millions of colors" issue that was recently settled by the company, the two complaints have now apparently been rolled into one class-action lawsuit.

The plaintiff, Chandra Sanders, claims to represent tens of thousands of customers who purchased the smaller of the two iMacs introduced last year with the argument that although the 20-inch model is inferior to the 24-inch version, Apple markets the products as if they are of the same standard.

While 24-inch iMacs are capable of displaying 16,777,216 colours on 8-bit, in-plane switching screens, the 20-inch iMac have 6-bit twisted nematic film LCD screens that can display only 262,144 colors.

The complaint states: "The inferior technology of the 20-inch iMac is particularly ill-suited to editing photographs because of the display's limited color potential and the distorting effect of the color simulation processes".

"Apple deceptively marketed its new 20-inch iMac in a way that grossly inflated the capabilities of its monitor, which is vastly inferior to the previous generation it replaced."

"Apple is duping its customers into thinking they're buying 'new and improved' when, in fact, they're getting stuck with 'new and inferior'", said a lawyer at Kabateck Brown Kellner, the firm that is handling case.

"Beneath Apple's 'good guy' image is a corporation that takes advantage of its customers. Our goal is to help those customers who were deceived and make sure Apple tells the truth in the future."

Full tags

Hardware, Desktop PCs, Monitors, Apple, Lawsuits