iPhone 4 owners can now pick up $15 'Antennagate' settlement
Summary: iPhone 4 users have until August 28 to claim your $15, provided you have not already acquired a free bumper for the phone.
If you bought an iPhone 4 and you live in the U.S., you may be entitled to a $15 settlement payout.
iPhone 4 owners who purchased their handset on or before February 17, 2012 can now file a claim online. Those wishing to make a claim have until August 28 to do so. If you've already received a free bumper from Apple then you're not eligible for this payout.
You all remember "Antennagate", right? Soon after the iPhone 4 as released, some users began complaining that holding the handset in a certain way caused cell reception to drop dramatically, to the point of losing reception completely.
Apple issued an open letter to iPhone 4 owners and followed that up with a press conference where the late Apple chief executive Steve Jobs made the claim that this was not an iPhone issue but in fact an industry-wide problem.
Jobs also claimed that the call drop rate of the iPhone 4 was almost the same as that for the iPhone 3GS, with fewer than 1 extra call being dropped per 100 calls. Apple also made a selection of free cases available to consumers. Jobs also famously responded to concerns raised by tech site Ars Technica by saying: "Just avoid holding it that way."
But none of that didn't prevent the lawsuits, all 18 of them, which were later combined into the one class action lawsuit, which in all covers some 25 million iPhone owners.
The lawsuits claimed that Apple was "misrepresenting and concealing material information in the marketing, advertising, sale, and servicing of its iPhone 4 - particularly as it relates to the quality of the mobile phone antenna and reception and related software."
Image credit: Apple.
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Talkback
For $15 there's no limit to what I can buy!!!
You're lucky...
Antennagate was real
Really?
But yet it is a real issue
It's clear that performance was sacrificed for looks. That said, if coverage is moderate to strong, you wont notice a difference.
@otdaddy
Apple was never found to be "guilty"
2) more importantly, Apple was not found "responsible" either -- that is why it is called "settlement". It is cheaper to promise $15 rather than be engaged in long time lawsuits. By the way, Apple already offered free bumper cases back in 2010 for anyone who would say that they need it. Less than 3% of people ever wanted it anyway. Since bumper cases costs $30, this settlement is even less than what Apple wilfully offered two years ago.
Toddbottom doesn't understand the difference
I am curious
Like, partial refund/compensation for a two year old model?
What this case may lead to, is more scrutiny to other vendors. So, those who dislike Apple -- it's bad news for your beloved vendors. For if Apple is doing it in the US, they are expected to do it as well... and only few of them are likely to have $15 profit margin per device...
Well-written article
* Worst
Frivolous lawsuit ... only *real* money to lawyers!
You are on AT&T
This can't be true...
Jobs wouldn't tell a mistruth even if you could put your finger across the gap and witness the signal start to fail for yourself. Just like showing a battery is charged at 100% even when it was only 90%, Apple only has your best interests at heart.
Never owned an mobile phone?
This is how these antennas work and your body can be big factor.
But, I believe this all is very good for Apple. Now their competition will face tougher times, as they are forced to offer similar incentives to customers.. and nobody has the margins like Apple to afford it.
Clumsy sentence
with "But all of that didn???t prevent the lawsuits".
Tut! Yes I am one of those haters. (-8
I also heard they treat their little Asian workers very well, they feed them and everything. Antennagate was all Samsung's fault (or was that because we held it all wrong?), the iPhone [s]5[/s] 4s, the iPad(3) 4G not working in most Countries, iTunes makes Flash look secure, Safari making IE look good and secure. Still wont own up to the security issues, lacking product range, no consumer preferences, product still owned by Apple even after you pay for the product (read your warranty & end user agreement), virtually impossible to get repairs if you smoke, damaged screens, green tinged retina's, the list goes on and on. But they are not problems with a product, NO! they are your problems because '[b]YOU[/b] ARE DOING IT ALL WRONG!'.
Apple still selling overly priced product, under powered, outdated before launch, locked to a world of docking ports, products to be able to use other products (try your sdcard in you iPad/iPhone), then try to move those files to your iPad from the sdcard (oh! you can if you cheat, but no way to do it legitimately). If you use them (Apple products) great I have no problem with people using products, but I do take the religious Apple tizered zeal of the Sheeple as a sign of brain damage and an inability to think for themselves, wash, or wipe their bums without help.