Two disgruntled customers are suing
Apple over
what they claim to be false advertising in regard to the quality of the
company's products.
According to court filings, Fred Greaves and Dave Gatley purchased MacBook
and MacBook Pro laptops only to find that the displays fell short of Apple's
promises.
The two then filed suit in San Diego, California, claiming that Apple
promised a much higher calibre product than it delivered.
The plaintiffs claim that the screens on the MacBook and MacBook Pro
notebooks do not deliver the quality or capability that Apple promised in its
advertisements.
The suit charges that Apple does not provide the "millions of colours" that
it advertises, and that the quality of the software that renders and displays
the images is inferior to that of Microsoft Windows.
This is a far cry from Apple's claims of a high-end, state-of-the-art
machine, according to the plaintiffs.
The pair maintain that Apple uses a technique known as 'dithering' to provide
the 'millions of colours' advertised in the machines.
Dithering is the process of placing two different colours of pixels alongside
each other to give the illusion that a certain colour is being displayed. This
allows for a number of different tones to be displayed with a limited colour
palette.
"The reality is that, notwithstanding Apple's misrepresentations and
suggestions that its MacBook and MacBook Pro display millions of colours, the
displays are only capable of displaying the illusion of millions of colours,"
the court filing states.
The suit also claimed that the displays are prone to defects and that the
graphics engine in Mac OS X is inferior to that of Windows "at all resolution
levels".
The amount of money being sought by the plaintiffs was not stated. However,
the suit seeks an injunction to prevent Apple making the advertising claims that
provoked the suit.
"[Apple's] modus operandi constitutes sharp practice because Apple knows the
existence and nature of the defect at issue yet refuses to acknowledge it, let
alone recall the laptops and fix the problem," the filing reads.
"Apple apparently hopes that its laptop purchasers will not spend the time,
expense and effort to pursue claims on an individual basis and Apple hopes to
enrich itself with the money it saves."
Apple did not return a request for comment from
vnunet.com.
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