Apple Inc yesterday offered to refund Australian customers who felt misled by advertising about the 4G capability of its new iPad, which can only access the ultra-fast wireless network in North America.
Apple’s problems in Australia could have wider repercussions in markets where the US company also advertises the iPad as featuring 4G, despite those countries having an incompatible network, or no 4G networks yet.
According to reports in the technology media, the EU’s executive commission could follow Australia’s lead in taking action against Apple over the 4G marketing.
Australia’s Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has taken Apple to the Federal Court for false advertising over its “iPad with WiFi + 4G” promotion, because the popular device does not work on the local 4G frequency.
The US tech giant’s lawyers said Apple was prepared to publish a clarification about the tablet’s Australian capabilities, and refund any customers who felt they had been misled by the 4G reference.
Paul Anastassiou, counsel for Apple, said in court in Melbourne that the company was confident very few people would apply for a refund.
Anastassiou added that Apple was not prepared to put corrective stickers on iPad boxes, as sought by the ACCC, but would email customers to clarify that the device was not compatible with local carrier Telstra’s 4G network.
It would also publish notices to that effect at the point of sale “for the sake of absolute clarity”.
However, Anastassiou said that when the matter comes to a full trial — set for May 2 —- Apple would contest the ACCC’s claims that it had misled consumers because the third-generation iPad did work on other Telstra frequencies.
“It will be contested by Apple there are in Australia networks that, according to international definitions, are 4G,” he told the court, according to The Age newspaper.
“What Apple says is that other networks operated by Telstra are in fact properly described by international standards as 4G, even though Telstra itself does not so describe them.”
Anastassiou added that Apple had “at no point in any promotional material ... said at any time” that the new iPad was compatible with Telstra’s 4G network.
The ACCC is seeking an injunction to sales along with a financial penalty against Apple, corrective advertising and refunds to consumers.
Judge Mordecai Bromberg said it was “more relevant” what an ordinary consumer understood by the term 4G, while ACCC lawyer Colin Golvan argued that the promotion was confusing.
“The iPad should not be sold as compatible with the 4G network or by reference to the terminology ‘plus 4G,’” Golvan said.
“Apple does not have an iPad which would meet a consumer request for an iPad which operates using a SIM card in the [Australian] 4G network.”
Like in Australia, Apple’s Web sites in Britain, Hong Kong and Singapore promise “Ultra-fast wireless. Full speed ahead,” but a footnote spells out that the new iPad’s “4G LTE” capability is supported only on networks in the US and Canada.
Customers at Apple’s store in Singapore, where the 4G’s incompatibility with local networks was widely publicized ahead of the launch, said they were not worried about the issue.
“It doesn’t matter that it doesn’t have 4G, how fast do you want it to go?” said student Kamalina Mazlan, 22, who was buying her first iPad.
Apple announced last week that it had sold 3 million iPads in its first weekend on the market after the new model went on sale in North America and selected foreign markets on March 16 — the strongest iPad launch yet.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)