14 DAY TRIAL // A class-action lawsuit was filed in California on Thursday, claiming that Apple forced iPhone users to upgrade to iOS 7, by breaking one of the most used apps on such smartphones, FaceTime. Allegedly, Apple aimed to save money on a deal with Akamai.
The lawsuit claims that Apple intentionally broke FaceTime in iOS 6 to force users to upgrade to iOS 7 and thus avoid high data costs that Apple would have needed to pay to Akamai. The lawsuit claims that the forced upgrade to use FaceTime rendered older devices like iPhone 4 and iPhone 4s unusable.
Apple Insider showed internal documents that Apple released during the patent infringement suit with VirnetX, which reached the latest conclusion in October last year when a jury ordered Apple to pay $302.4 million.
iOS 7.0.4 often crashed on older iPhones
FaceTime was launched in 2010 and Apple incorporated two ways in which users could share video and audio with each other. One of the ways was a peer-to-peer system for connecting iPhones directly, while the other was a relay service from Akamai.
The lawsuit with VirnetX forced Apple to give up on the peer-to-peer system and rely exclusively on Akamai’s service, and it resulted in Apple paying $50 million from April to September 2013 to use the relay service.
Later, Apple found a way to create a peer-to-peer service on FaceTime in iOS 7, one that wouldn’t require the company to rely so heavily on Akamai’s technology. But not all users wanted to upgrade to the latest OS version and to limit costs with Akamai’s service, so Apple allegedly broke FaceTime on iOS 6, forcing users to upgrade to iOS 7. The expenses to Akamai were thus reduced as more and more iPhone users upgraded to iOS 6 to use FaceTime, one of the most popular features for iPhones.
The most recent lawsuit claims that Apple forced owners of iPhone 4 and Phone 4s to upgrade, even though the iOS 7.0.4 version didn’t run smoothly on older devices, causing some of them to crash. The suit claims that Apple violated California’s unfair competition clause and the amount of damages sought wasn’t disclosed.