advertising and unfair and deceptive business practices by encouraging iPhone 3G users to download iOS 4, the latest version of Apple’s mobile OS. Wofford claims that even though the iOS upgrade promises fixes and improvements, it made her second-generation iPhone unusable.

“The true fact of the matter … is that the iOS 4 is a substantial ‘downgrade’ for earlier iPhone devices and renders many of them virtually useless iBricks,” Wofford’s lawyers wrote in the complaint [pdf].

Apple did not respond to a request for comment.

Apple’s iOS operating system has received a major upgrade once a year, and the company has disclosed that some new features do not work with older handsets because they carry less memory or slower processors. When Apple announced iOS 4, it said that multitasking would not work on the second-generation iPhone, for example, but it would be supported on newer handsets. Also, Apple said iOS 4 was not compatible with the original iPhone at all — but it was supposed to work with the more recent iPhone 3G.

However, when iOS 4 shipped in the summer, some iPhone 3G customers complained that the update caused performance to become very sluggish. Months later at Apple’s Apple TV press conference, Steve Jobs said iOS 4.1 would address performance issues on the iPhone 3G. Some tests showed that iOS 4.1 improved the iPhone 3G’s performance only slightly.

In her complaint, Wofford claims that Apple was aware that iOS 4 would cause degraded performance on older iPhones, and she accused Apple of purposely creating an incentive for customers to purchase newer iPhones.

“Apple has falsely, intentionally and repeatedly represented to owners and consumers of the iPhone 3G that its new operating system for the device, iOS4, was of a nature, quality, and a significant upgrade for the functionality of all iPhone devices, when in fact, the installation and use of the iOS4 on iPhone 3G resulted in the opposite — a device with little more use than that of a paper weight,” the complaint read.

Wofford’s suit, filed in the judicial district of the county of San Diego, requires approval from a judge to gain class-action status. If it became a class-action suit and won, Apple would likely be forced to pay damages to iPhone 3G customers.

See Also:

• Review: iPhone 3G Trades Battery Life for Interface, Software …
• iPhone 3G Users Complain of Slowdown on Upgrade to iOS4
• Apple Launches iOS 4 for iPhone, iPod Touch
• Jobs: Software Fix for iPhone 3G Slowdown ‘Coming Soon’
• Apple Rolls Out iOS 4.1 Update for iPhone, iPod Touch

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Authors: Brian X. Chen

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