Apple sued for “iMac deception”

Kabateck Brown Kellner, LLP, a law firm from Los Angeles, California, has filed a lawsuit against Apple on behalf of a number of users claiming that Apple “deceptively marketed” its 20-inch iMac by claiming that it has improved display performance, although the device’s monitor is allegedly of “inferior” quality to its previous model. The lawsuit claims that the iMac’s monitors are incapable of displaying “millions of colors,” despite Apple’s marketing claims. “Apple is duping its customers into thinking they’re buying ‘new and improved’ when in fact they’re getting stuck with ‘new and inferior,’” said Brian Kabateck, Managing Partner of Kabateck Brown Kellner. “Beneath Apple’s ‘good guy’ image is a corporation that takes advantage of its customers. Our goal is to help those customers who were deceived and make sure Apple tells the truth in the future.”

The “millions of colors” claim comes from the assertion that while 24-inch iMacs display 16,777,216 colors on 8-bit, in-plane switching (IPS) screens, as did the previous generation of 20-inch iMacs, the new 20-inch iMac monitors display 98 percent fewer colors (262,144).

The suit also claims that the screens used in the 24-inch and 20-inch iMacs respectively are of extremely different technology. “The 20-inch iMacs feature 6-bit twisted nematic film (TN) LCD screens, the least expensive of its type. The 20-inch iMac’s TN screens have a narrower viewing angle, less color depth, less color accuracy and are more susceptible to washout across the screen,” stated by Kabateck Brown Kellner. “Apple is squeezing more profits for itself by using cheap screens and its customers are unwittingly paying the price,” according to Kabateck.

Two California photographers, Fred Greaves and Dave Gatley, filed a similar class action lawsuit in May of last year, over Apple’s claim that the MacBook Pro could display “millions of colors.” According to the lawsuit, the reality is that Apple fakes the notebooks’ color range through software dithering, and yet offers the extended color option in a Mac OS X drop-down menu, without any mention of software emulation.

Read [StreetInsider]