Apple moves to dismiss lawsuit over 'misleading' iOS device capacity claims
Apple on Wednesday filed a motion to dismiss a class action lawsuit that claims the company misrepresented to consumers the amount of storage space iOS 8 uses in newly shipped iPhone and iPad devices, noting plaintiffs failed to provide evidence of fraud.
According to Apple's California court filing, plaintiffs Paul Orshan and Christopher Endara did not present facts supporting claims that iPhone and iPad buyers were intentionally misled about the amount of usable disk space available on new devices running iOS 8. Apple was first slapped with the lawsuit in December.
"Like all software ever written, Apple's iOS mobile operating system--which enables the device to function--uses a portion of a device's resources, including its storage capacity," Apple said.
Plaintiffs argue that, while they knew iOS 8 would eat up some disk space, the operating system was larger than expected at between 600MB and 1.3GB. They were not able to "reasonably anticipate" the size of iOS 8 as compared to previous versions of Apple's mobile operating system, the filing said. The suit also asserts Apple used unanticipatedly low device capacity to sell customers subscription-based iCloud storage plans.
In its motion to dismiss, Apple said the argument suffers from two fundamental flaws, the first being plaintiffs' inability to produce evidential statements from Apple or other sources that would have lead them to such expectations. Secondly, plaintiffs failed to mention the cited subscription iCloud storage plans only apply to upgraded service options. Apple offers 5GB of free iCloud storage space with every new device purchase, more than enough to cover iOS 8's alleged large size.
Further, Apple notes plaintiffs only purchased 16GB versions of the iPhone 5s and iPhone 6, as well as an unidentified iPad model, but are suing over 8GB and 16GB iPhone, iPad and iPod products. Plaintiffs, therefore, lack standing in asserting their complaint.
Apple requests the suit be dismissed with prejudice.
According to Apple's California court filing, plaintiffs Paul Orshan and Christopher Endara did not present facts supporting claims that iPhone and iPad buyers were intentionally misled about the amount of usable disk space available on new devices running iOS 8. Apple was first slapped with the lawsuit in December.
"Like all software ever written, Apple's iOS mobile operating system--which enables the device to function--uses a portion of a device's resources, including its storage capacity," Apple said.
Plaintiffs argue that, while they knew iOS 8 would eat up some disk space, the operating system was larger than expected at between 600MB and 1.3GB. They were not able to "reasonably anticipate" the size of iOS 8 as compared to previous versions of Apple's mobile operating system, the filing said. The suit also asserts Apple used unanticipatedly low device capacity to sell customers subscription-based iCloud storage plans.
In its motion to dismiss, Apple said the argument suffers from two fundamental flaws, the first being plaintiffs' inability to produce evidential statements from Apple or other sources that would have lead them to such expectations. Secondly, plaintiffs failed to mention the cited subscription iCloud storage plans only apply to upgraded service options. Apple offers 5GB of free iCloud storage space with every new device purchase, more than enough to cover iOS 8's alleged large size.
Further, Apple notes plaintiffs only purchased 16GB versions of the iPhone 5s and iPhone 6, as well as an unidentified iPad model, but are suing over 8GB and 16GB iPhone, iPad and iPod products. Plaintiffs, therefore, lack standing in asserting their complaint.
Apple requests the suit be dismissed with prejudice.
Comments
The thing is, this wouldn't force people to buy iCloud, because you can't store apps in iCloud, and iTunes Store content doesn't count against the limit. It's a stupid claim.
Now abolish your positive discrimination kick, Cook, and hire workers based on talent [B]without prejudice[/B].
Apple says an iPhone has 16GB of storage in it. I take that to mean it has 16GB worth of flash memory chips. What else could they have said?
Yes... you cannot save 16GB of your [I]own[/I] files to the phone... but Apple didn't say you could either.
Besides Android eats up more space then iOS, no suing going on there!. There's been cases like this in the past and thrown out.
There's no counting for stupidity.
Their only chance of winning lies in them drawing Judge Denise Cote to rule on the merit of the case.
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Seriously, what the **** is wrong with you?
Why is this poster allowed to trash every every thread with his irrelevant, bigoted, political garbage? Why is he allowed to get away with baselessly attacking Cook and Apple on having the audacity to choose who they want to hire in their own company, in a thread about iOS storage storage lawsuit? Why am I constantly banned for calling this poster out on his abhorrent behaviour, and trashy, classless posts?
7,000 posts of incessant, off-topic trolling, and still going strong. Amazing.
Just exactly what percentage of space lost to OS and junk apps is acceptable? 20%?, 30%.
What if Apple takes half the storage one day?
Maybe devices should have a required 'usable memory' notice on advertisement. It could be the deciding factor in a consumers purchase.
Well hang on, there may be some validity to this.
Just exactly what percentage of space lost to OS and junk apps is acceptable? 20%?, 30%.
What if Apple takes half the storage one day?
Maybe devices should have a required 'usable memory' notice on advertisement. It could be the deciding factor in a consumers purchase.
You've gotta be kidding.
First of all, Apple does not install junk. Just because you don't find it useful, does not make it junk. These guys have done their usability homework (and I suspect you know this already).
Second of all, "space lost to OS"... you realize that without an OS, all you have is a brick in your hands, right? This is like complaining about the cabin compromises inherent in a 4-wheel-drive vehicle.
Thirdly, half of... what? Exactly, what? How much is too much, too little? It's going to vary by the user. My mom-in-law owns a 5S, never takes a picture, never texts, never games, etc... it's just a phone to her. I'd counter that Apple is *forcing* her to purchase memory capacity that she'll never use. The horror!! /s
Finally, if you're going to invest in a product like this, you need to do your homework, just like any other major purchase. Take some responsibility for determining your intended usage; don't expect the vendors to do your thinking for you.
This is no different from a desktop computer hard drive. Where do you think Windows is on and how much space that takes up. Everyone knows the small memory ones are for basic users.
Besides Android eats up more space then iOS, no suing going on there!. There's been cases like this in the past and thrown out.
There's no counting for stupidity.
This site's authors and fans were among the most vocal critiquing Samsung for 'lying' and misrepresenting over this very issue. The same thing now, when applied to Apple, becomes ludicrous and frivolous....
While some Samsung phones are pretty bulky on the bloat, I do believe Apple has one of the 'most misrepresented' phones to date. The 8gb iPhone had ridiculously low amount of space available to the user, especially if you accounted that they practically had to wipe the phones memory in order to receive upgrades. You are partially right though, while Android itself can't be sued because it does not claim to take up 'zero space', if this lawsuit were to succeed these guys would be free to go after every phone manufacturer who uses Android or other OS' and claims the actual phones memory size instead of the actual size minus what the OS takes up.
In both Apple's and Android's cases I think the argument is without merit. As long as the memory size advertised is the actual physical size of the memory it is up to the user to figure out what portion of that is available to them.
That's pretty much the definition of junk.
That might be true if you were Apple's sole customer. Which you're not.
I don't know about you, but I live my life from my own perspective; so yes, Apple installs quite a bit of unremoveable junk.
It seems like any prospective buyer could go into any Apple store, pick up any IPhone on display, Go into settings-General-usage, and figure it out pretty quickly and easily. If they are so new to iPhones that they are unable to figure out that sequence, there is usually an abundance of in store help available. The answers are there, just have to ask the question. Not everything needs to be spoon fed!