U.K. regulatory board backs Apple App Store ad claims
The U.K. Advertising Standards Authority ruled this week that Apple has the right to say in commercials that there is software for "just about everything" on its iPhone App Store.
The ASA reviewed the advertisements from Apple and wireless carrier O2 after the board received 10 complaints from viewers. Those who complained said that the HTC G1 and Android Marketplace offer a range of applications, just like the iPhone.
Apple U.K. responded to the ASA and said that the iPhone has many more applications available on it than the G1 has. Currently, there are more than 65,000 programs available in 88 countries on the App Store, while the Apple U.K. told the ASA there are around 2,100 Android programs offered in nine countries.
"They emphasised that the iPhones Multi-Touch functionality was more advanced than any competing functionality and allowed users to perform actions such as 'pinch-to-zoom' and 'swipe-to-scroll,'" the ASA ruling reads. "They said that because of its reputation, many brands and developers launch their applications only on the App Store."
The ASA determined that the advertisement was not misleading. While some of the applications shown in the commercial are available on other mobile platforms, the board ruled that the iPhone is the only location where consumers could access such a variety of options.
"We therefore considered viewers would understand the claim 'Only on the iPhone' to refer to the range of apps available and the user experience of the App Store and iPhone, and not that they were the only company to provide applications for mobile phones," the ruling reads. "Because Apple had shown there were far more applications available for the iPhone than the G1 phone, and user-experience of the iPhone and the app store was distinct from its competitor, we concluded the claim "Only on the iPhone" was justified and not misleading."
The regulatory board can be particularly hard on advertising in the U.K., where advertising claims must meet a much higher standard than in the U.S. Just last year, the ASA ruled that Apple had to change a "misleading" commercial that claimed that "all parts of the Internet are on the iPhone."
That assertion was misleading, they said, because the iPhone does not support Flash or Java, two proprietary technologies that sometimes prove integral in the display of certain Web pages.
The ASA last year determined the claims "You'll never know which part of the internet you'll need" and "all parts of the internet are on the iPhone" implied users would be able to access all websites and see them in their entirety.
The ASA reviewed the advertisements from Apple and wireless carrier O2 after the board received 10 complaints from viewers. Those who complained said that the HTC G1 and Android Marketplace offer a range of applications, just like the iPhone.
Apple U.K. responded to the ASA and said that the iPhone has many more applications available on it than the G1 has. Currently, there are more than 65,000 programs available in 88 countries on the App Store, while the Apple U.K. told the ASA there are around 2,100 Android programs offered in nine countries.
"They emphasised that the iPhones Multi-Touch functionality was more advanced than any competing functionality and allowed users to perform actions such as 'pinch-to-zoom' and 'swipe-to-scroll,'" the ASA ruling reads. "They said that because of its reputation, many brands and developers launch their applications only on the App Store."
The ASA determined that the advertisement was not misleading. While some of the applications shown in the commercial are available on other mobile platforms, the board ruled that the iPhone is the only location where consumers could access such a variety of options.
"We therefore considered viewers would understand the claim 'Only on the iPhone' to refer to the range of apps available and the user experience of the App Store and iPhone, and not that they were the only company to provide applications for mobile phones," the ruling reads. "Because Apple had shown there were far more applications available for the iPhone than the G1 phone, and user-experience of the iPhone and the app store was distinct from its competitor, we concluded the claim "Only on the iPhone" was justified and not misleading."
The regulatory board can be particularly hard on advertising in the U.K., where advertising claims must meet a much higher standard than in the U.S. Just last year, the ASA ruled that Apple had to change a "misleading" commercial that claimed that "all parts of the Internet are on the iPhone."
That assertion was misleading, they said, because the iPhone does not support Flash or Java, two proprietary technologies that sometimes prove integral in the display of certain Web pages.
The ASA last year determined the claims "You'll never know which part of the internet you'll need" and "all parts of the internet are on the iPhone" implied users would be able to access all websites and see them in their entirety.
Comments
Gee I wish we could complain about ads in the US and get them pulled due to misleading information... Billy Mays would have been out of business a long time ago.
RIP Billy Mays, regardless of your feelings torward the products he pushed. Sadly you won't have to worry of any new more ads, ever again about watching tv and then hear (in a loud booming voice) "HI, BILLY MAYS HERE..."
RIP Billy Mays, regardless of your feelings torward the products he pushed. Sadly you won't have to worry of any new more ads, ever again about watching tv and then hear (in a loud booming voice) "HI, BILLY MAYS HERE..."
Poor guy. Gonna miss him. He made quite an impact in his field.
I'm from the UK, so I feel I can make these comments, having met a few. Anyone who wants proof should look no further than the Register.
What unites most of these people is that they have barely used a Mac (or any other Apple product) for that matter.
I just find it hilarious they lost this round. It probably gets them far more wound up than Apple.
They had a ruling about this? I'm glad they weren't my tax dollars.
Ya, really... That's what I was thinking.
Poor guy. Gonna miss him. He made quite an impact in his field.
I don't miss him at all - every time he came on TV I had to turn down the volume- totally annoying. Charlie Tuna on the other hand- he I miss.
They had a ruling about this? I'm glad they weren't my tax dollars.
Be careful... as an ex-Brit now living in the US (for quite some time now) having an advertising standards watchdog is probably a better use of tax 'dollars' than many other things I could mention. On British TV, you don't get utter bullshit commercials lying through their teeth to get you to buy some pill that will solve all your life's woes... for example.
Maybe Britons should shout for their tax 'dollars' to be spent subsidising awful telecoms companies who stifle competition through lobbying so they can get away with charging people for receiving texts and phone calls, as well as making them (that's got to be the stupidest thing I've ever come across).
Gee I wish we could complain about ads in the US and get them pulled due to misleading information... Billy Mays would have been out of business a long time ago.
I don't miss him at all - every time he came on TV I had to turn down the volume- totally annoying. Charlie Tuna on the other hand- he I miss.
Well, the only thing that bothered me about Billy Mays was his constant yelling. I don't think I've seen all his ads, but I don't recall any Mays ads that stood out as misleading. There were a lot of other ads of that kind I'd rather see disappear though.
I'm going to complain to the same board about this write up being misleading. The lead-in talks about Apple's use of an app for "just about everything" but the actual article points to the complaints being against the "only on the iPhone" statement. So, I will now sue AI for employing a bait and switch scheme to get me to read this article under false pretenses.
There's an App for that...
True, it automatically bring up the map app with a permanent pin on that East Texas district where everyone files all those patent infringement lawsuits against apple and others...
More on the suit at hand, even if there wasn't "an app for that".. that would give someone an incentive to make one.. capitalism at its best.
They had a ruling about this? I'm glad they weren't my tax dollars.
The ASA is not funded by the tax payer, but by the advertising industry itself. And it deals in pounds not dollars.
* It doesn't
There must be some real hard ??core? Apple haters in the UK to keep making these complaints.
Microsoft has a very big presence in the UK, bigger than the US proportionately, Govt and BBC for starters. BBC paid MS loads of money (around half a billion dollars IIRC) for their streaming media when they had no need having their own in house plus alternatives like open source and Quicktime etc. Lots of good stuff about it on http://www.groklaw.net/
All these Apple advert complaints are most likely to be MS astroturfing whether paid for directly or indirectly.
What bothers me most about these advertising complaints is their insincerity. I never hear about HP or Dell ad complaints. No one is trying to protect consumers from misleading claims in these ads; they are just trying to poke Apple in the eye with a sharp stick. These are either Apple haters who have nothing better to do with their time, or competitors who are trying to win in court what they can't win in the marketplace.
Before you go stark raving conspiracist, let's start by showing us a Dell or HP ad that you think was misleading. Besides, it sounds like anyone can make a complaint to this board, why make a fuss about the "other" side if "your" side should be able to make a complaint, but so far that we've heard, hasn't happened. The Apple ads make news because it's Apple. If Dell got smacked down by the same process, would we really hear about it?