Cupertino-based Apple and wireless carrier AT&T Mobility were sued in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana over the MMS functionality Apple advertises for the iPhone, and which is yet unavailable on AT&T's airwaves. According to the court filing, Apple's “print and video advertisements [for the iPhone 3GS] in and on television, the Internet, the radio, newspapers and direct mailers all touted the availability of MMS,” while AT&T subscribers are still unable to enjoy the functionality.
The class action lawsuit against the two will reportedly consist of around 10,000 individuals. The suit is brought under a series of Louisiana civil codes, including the Louisiana Unfair Trade Practices Act.
Apple, as many of you might already know, released its latest version of iPhone, the 3GS, back in June, along with a new flavor of the handset's OS, the iPhone OS 3.0. While both the device and the platform were advertised as supporting MMS, AT&T, the only carrier in the US to sell the iPhone, does not support the feature
on its network.
The complaint was reportedly filed one week ago and, according to
Betanews, “Millions of customers, including Louisiana residents, purchased the 3G and 3G S waiting for the day in June 2009 when the new application would be available which would allow MMS. Unfortunately, after downloading the new 3.0 software update application, MMS still did not work on both
the 3G and 3G S...The only excuse offered by AT&T and Apple is a mouse-print disclaimer on the Web site, in barely readable font, which reads 'MMS Support from AT&T coming in late summer.'”
For the time being, it seems that AT&T hasn't commented yet on the lawsuit, though a spokesperson with the company did say that the carrier was set to provide MMS on the device “by the end of the summer.”
AT&T needs to upgrade its towers to support the functionality on the iPhone, and it will do so eventually. Even so, the complaint states, “in the meantime, all the millions of purchasers of the 3G and 3G S iPhone have been deceived and cheated out of what they thought they were purchasing – a phone with MMS functionality.”
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