back to article AppleT&T's MMS legal woes double

Two lawsuits filed earlier this month against Apple and AT&T Mobility alleging that the companies misrepresented the iPhone's ability to send MMS message have been joined by two more. As we reported mid-month, two essentially identical lawsuits were filed in Louisiana and Illinois. Now, two equally identical lawsuits have been …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    Good job

    Keep taking these guys to task until they learn to play fair. Commoditizing existing markets is the only way to incite the productivity gains of new markets.

  2. Bastiaan van Zwieten
    Jobs Horns

    For once I'll say ...

    ... Sue the bastards!

    Apple may have a tiny excuse for an excuse, but AT & T is really lagging and should have made MMS on the iPhone happen by now.

    But I have one question; "Who uses MMS when you can send and receive e-mail on almost any mobile phone these days for a fraction of MMS' cost?"

    I really wonder.

    (StEvil Jobs, because I have been waiting so long to use him in a post ...)

  3. OrsonX
    Alert

    Idiotic plaintiffs

    Surely there would be no problem if the idiot buying the phone had asked the vendor about the phone features BEFORE friggin buying it!

    - what are the phones features? Does it have MMS?

    - No

    - right I'll have a different one then....

    Simple really.

  4. Piggy and Tazzy

    Does anyone actualle use MMS?

    I'm a bit stunned that people are actually complaining about the lack of MMS?

    Who actually uses it, other than brain-dead teenagers?

  5. Aaron 10
    Jobs Halo

    Who uses MMS anymore?

    C'mon, really. I can send an e-mail with photo attached for free, or I can pay $0.30 each to send an MMS. This is a no-brainer.

  6. Henry Wertz 1 Gold badge

    But they didn't SAY no....

    They didn't SAY "no" they said "yes*" (* very fine print -- not really, until late summer).

    So usually I would say "wow they are trolling" and that this suit is meritless, read the fine print. But the thing is, people have put unlocked IPhones onto a line with MMS, and -- guess what? MMS WORKS!!! AT&T just is refusing to put MMS onto IPhone lines artificially. I think this is what is really pissing these guys off, it'd be one thing if there was an actual technical reason preventing it, it's quite another if they just will not activate an advertised feature that actually works fine. What'll be REALLY interesting is to see if AT&T even gets it ready by summer -- they've got about 3 weeks left. At that point these guys REALLY have a case, since it then won't even be ready by the time they promised at sale.

  7. Ian North

    Who uses MMS?

    Probably those people who don't have iPhones or other smart phones with unlimited data plans but have access to cheap PAYG or low-end contract phones. Not everyone has access to their email accounts everywhere and all of the time. Not everyone's phone has an email client. But most phones available now have colour screens and can receive MMS messages. Sometimes it's nice to have MMS in those cases.

    Example, when my niece was born last year, I was in the middle of the French countryside with no internet connection. My sister still managed to get me a picture of her by MMS. If she'd emailed it to me instead, I wouldn't have picked it up for another week.

  8. Michael C
    FAIL

    Summer ends 9/22 21:18

    Summer (in the USA) is not determined form some arbitrary date associated with a holiday season, or a vacation period, it is clearly defined as the time of the equinox, which in 2009 happes on September 22nd at 8:18PM. In some places, it is also defines as the period of highest average temperature, which actually lags the solstice by about 6 weeks or more, and in parts of California, October is considdered the second hottest month. So first, we have to ask by which "end of summer" did AT&T mean, since they never actually clarified. They could have even meant their Summer Quarter (q3) which for AT&T ends on October 28th...

    If AT&T has failed to deliver MMS by then, then MAYBE they'll have an excuse. Irregardless, if ANY company was to be able to be successfully sued for a product announced that showed up on the street late, Microsoft would have been bankrupt loooong ago, as would nearly every major software company. The same could also then legally be applied to any firmware patch required to fix a broken feature taken away by a software update...

    Further, failure to send and receive MMS native messages does NOT prevent the iPhone from sending and receiving IMAGES, audio, and video electronically, which is the INTENT of the product, and supporting a specifgic protocol will likely not be determined a "selling point" for a non-specific future announcement.

    The only one getting anything out of this are some lawyers, who might make a bunch of money, but if they're unlucky, this could be seen as a frivilous case in the most gross sense, and they could get significant disfavor with judges, their firms, or possibly be disbarred if someone takes it far enough... Even is we clarified summer legally as 9/22, filing a case in court before they actually BROKE that data would not be looked on well by most judges. For Chirsts sake, it;s not even Labor Day, by even the earlist account, the end of summer. most kids are not even back in school yet!!!

  9. northern monkey

    @OrsonX

    Well frankly if the staff in the AT&T stores are as knowledgeable (I use that word reluctantly) about the tariff's features as those at the O2 stores here are then their answer may bear no resemblance to fact. In fact that disclaimer is engraved in mouseprint* on the floor near the bottom of display units in every O2 store.

    *may or may not be true.

  10. Henry Wertz 1 Gold badge

    MMS is needed for MMS

    I hadn't realized they'd filed so early, that is in fact a bit silly. (I thought summer ended in just a few days really, hadn't realized it wasn't until the 22nd until I looked it up....)

    @Michael C

    BUT, I should point out the IPhone purchasers were given a deadline of late summer for MMS to be up, bought the phone early before any price drops, and are paying extra *per month* compared to a non-IPhone plan... on the information that they would have MMS by then. Your comparisons with Microsoft and firmwares are a bit spurious since these involve bug fixes.., MMS with the IPhone works, AT&T's billing system just applies a "block MMS" code to the account for IPhones... I.e. it's not some technical problem preventing it from working, AT&T's blocking it.

    Also the intent of MMS is MMS.... by the argument that sending pictures, video, etc. via E-Mail is equivalent, I could argue the same about SMS... just send tons of tiny e-mails to people. But it's seriously not the same. MMS is absolutely a selling point, I'd never buy a phone that has a camera but no MMS.

    Anyway, filing early is pretty stupid but there's no "maybes" about them having a case if AT&T doesn't get this up by the 22nd.

    (All that said, I don't have any personal stake in this.. I don't like the IPhone, and I have CDMA phone service (since it's got much better coverage in the US than GSM) so I couldn't use one anyway.)

  11. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    @the people that say Who uses MMS

    Thats not the point. It could be the lag of a rotten banana peal with each iPhone they still marketed it as a feature of the product. How would you like to buy a car. Find outon delivery or pickup that the tires, standing next to the tireless car, won´t be installed until 3 months later. Perhaps. Ofcause the fault would be yours because you diden´t ask if it came with tires, windshields, seats and so on.

    If they marketet it they must deliver it.

    (and don´t start mentioning that silly web page message. Cause thats just plain pathetic of an excuse)

  12. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Wow ... just wow

    So err ... because email can do the same things as MMS they are equivalent right ?

    It may surprise you to know there are several more MMS enabled phones in circulation than those supporting email.

    No ? How about this shocker .. There were phones in existence before the iphone.

    The "I don't need it - therefore nobody else does" is a typical fanboy excuse (doesn't deserve to be called an argument). Making an excuse for a technically incompetant network as well. Priceless !

  13. Roger Jenkins

    @Idiotic plaintiffs

    Obviously you have never been involved with sales. Sales staff may not be well trained but they are expected to overcome objections and sell benefits. So, what's to be said to someone who asks about MMS on the Iphone/AT&T, 'Yes Sir/Madam, the Iphone is definitely fully MMS capable (straight face, most honest look,spoken firmly, no hesitation, look 'em in the eyes)'. No lies (in marketing terms), so, no fault (pick up the commissions on pay day, a job well done).

  14. Ivan Headache

    @If they marketet it they must deliver it.

    I don't know as I haven't got an iPhone, but does MMS work in other countries? if so then as far as I can see the case against Apple is pointless.

  15. magnetik

    money

    $5m compensation for not being able to send picture messages? C'mon, that should be thrown out straight away by any sane judge. It's obviously someone trying to get rich quick.

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