LA resident says durability claims misleading

LA Weekly is report that a class-action lawsuit has been filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court by a person named Donald LeBuhn, claiming that Apple's marketing of the glass used in the iPhone 4 as "20 times stiffer and 30 times harder than plastic" is deceptive and that the glass is in fact defective. LeBuhn claims that the company knows about the defect, but refuses to warn customers that "normal use" -- which in LeBuhn's case involved dropping the iPhone from a height of approximately three feet -- will cause the glass to break.

LeBuhn's claim is based in part on the incident, where his daughter dropped the iPhone 4 just three weeks after purchase while sending a text message. However, LeBuhn says he previously owned the iPhone 3GS and also dropped it from a similar height, but in that case the glass did not break.

Independently of LeBuhn, warranty provider SquareTrade has reported on incidents in their database and found that iPhone 4 owners were in fact much more likely to damage the newer model compared to the previous one. Screen damage claims reported by SquareTrade as being 82 percent higher in the first four months of availability compared to a similar period for the iPhone 3GS. The overall reported accident rate was 68 percent higher. Squaretrade blamed the majority of claims on the rear glass panel of the iPhone 4, which is not present in the older models.

LeBuhn is asking the court to order Apple to refund the purchase price for all iPhone 4 owners in the lawsuit, to reimburse customers for any repair fees, and to make restitution to compensate customers for "their overpayment in purchasing defective iPhone 4s." [via LA Weekly]

by MacNN Staff