Apple Caught Misleading Australian Customers Over iPad 4G Capability
Apple has been caught with it pants down in Australia for mis-selling it’s new iPad tablet, launched a mere week and half ago on March 16. The iPad has 4G capability and so does the Australian mobile network. However, the single network operator that runs it, Telstra Corp, uses a system that’s incompatible due to the use of different frequencies, hence making the 4G functionality on the iPad useless in Australia. However, Apple forgot to tell its customers this small fact before sale.
It seems that Apple wasn’t too keen on coming clean on this either, so the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has had to take Apple to court to force them to disclose this problem. Now, Apple has since been emailing customers with an offer of refunds, but the court case is still due to go ahead on May 2, with a hearing on April 16. Apple will formally display a warning about this problem in a week or so, but Apple are breaking the law, so something like this should go in with immediate effect and isn’t difficult to do, so it’s not clear why the delay.
In documents lodged with the court, the ACCC says Apple advertised that “iPad with WiFi can with a SIM card, connect to a 4G mobile data network in Australia, which it cannot do”.
Apple “seems to accept that there’s a lack of compatibility,” said Colin Golvan, senior counsel for the ACCC said at the Federal Court in Melbourne. “It’s been completely indifferent to the Australian market,” he said.
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