On Mar. 31, a lawsuit was filed against the Apple Corporation for allegedly deceiving the public and customers by exaggerating and ultimately falsely advertising the capabilities of its new 20-inch iMac monitor.
The class-action suit was filed in the U.S. District Court in San Jose by Los Angeles based law firm Kabatek Brown Kellner LLP, a plaintiffs-only firm that is “always on the consumers’ side.”
In a press release about the suit, Kabatek Brown Kellner claims that Apple has “grossly inflated the capabilities of its monitor” even though it is inferior to previous generations and the new 24-inch iMacs. Apple told consumers the 20-inch iMac and 24-inch iMac displayed “millions of colors at all resolutions,” which is only true in the case of the 24-inch iMac and previous generations of the 20-inch iMac. In actuality, the new 20-inch only displays 262,144 colors, 98 percent fewer than the 16,777,316 colors on the 24-inch.
The difference in capabilities is significant because Apple advertises the two monitors as though they are interchangeable, when really the 20-inch iMac screens have a narrower viewing angle, less color depth and accuracy and are more susceptible to washout across the screen, according to the press release.
“Apple is duping its customers into thinking they’re buying ‘new and improved’ when in fact they’re getting stuck with ‘new and inferior,'” said Brain Kabateck, managing partner of Kabateck Brown Kellner.
Apple’s website tells consumers “No matter what you like to do on your computer – watch movies, edit photos, play games, even just view a screen saver – it’s going to look stunning on an iMac,” which the lawsuit points out to be untrue since the inferior technology and limited color potential of the 20-inch iMac is ill-suited for editing photographs.
Although there are differences between the monitors, UC Davis Apple customers don’t seem to have a problem with them.
“People haven’t complained, and we have anal retentive people coming in about the monitors,” said Michael Souder, sales associate at the TechHub at the UC Davis Bookstore. “We’ve had complaints about computers not being fast enough and not coming with software, but we’ve never had complaints about the monitor’s picture or wrongfully advertising, which I think speaks a lot about the products.”
UC Davis Apple customers, although a bit bothered by the lawsuit, still feel the same about the products.
“If Apple claims a product is something it’s not, they should refund people their money,” said UC Davis junior and Apple user Michelle Jose. “I would still buy Mac regardless. They have really great graphics, and they are better than Windows.”
According to Kabateck, the goal of the lawsuit is to help the customers who were deceived and taken advantage of and to make sure Apple tells the truth in the future.
ALEX BULLER can be reached at city@californiaaggie.com.
