Apple CEO Tim Cook has been sued in small claims court by Mark David Menacher, a California customer who is upset that Apple has forced download of the iOS 7 install file onto his devices with no way to remove it.
Menacher, like some others, does not like the new iOS 7 design and doesn't want to update to the new firmware version. The problem is, the automatically downloaded install file is taking a significant amount of space on his devices, and there is no way to delete it.
"Apple's disregard for customer preferences in relation to iOS7 is corporate thuggery," Menacher said in a statement. "Steve Jobs was reportedly rough on company employees in pursuit of happy customers, but Tim Cook apparently cultivates a culture of contempt for customer satisfaction in pursuit of corporate profits. It is a policy that will eventually fail."
Menacher told CNET he is "considering" escalating the issue to a higher court, and looking into class action status for the lawsuit.
What do you think? Are you concerned by this as well?
Update: For those questioning this in the comments, Apple states in this knowledge base article that "Available updates download automatically if your device is connected to Wi-Fi and a power source."
I had this whole upgrade fiasco with my iPhone 3Gs when Apple upgraded to the first version of iOS that had multitasking capabilities. Again with my iPhone 4s? I don't think so. I dumped my iPhone and moved on to the new Lumina 1520 with Windows 8. Love my new phone and I will never look back. You may not be able to sue Apple, but you the consumer can fire them like I did!
My opinion is that as a consumer I should have acces to any IOS I want. I am still at 6.1.3 cause I hate iOS 7. Apple should give at least a 90 day window to sign lower firmwares when a new one comes out. It's my device so I want to choose the iOS of my liking and not what they want. My wife's iPhone 4 took the update somehow and she barely uses her phone now. Just to call or answer phone calls.
If I was able to sue them I would. Paid 600$ for a device I can't use anymore? Is that right?
If I decided to run iOS 5 am I bothering anyone? So why I can't have acces to it? IT'S MY CHOISE!!!! But apple became a dictator and they do whatever they like!!!!
Maybe we should start a petition.
Kirk,
What you have paid is for the handset and not the OS, the Apple OS is proprietary of Apple and they have complete rights with themselves, thats what they have mentioned in the term and conditions you may read them in your iPhone.
If you really want to take control of the OS then you will have to jailbreak, but i would not recommend that to you as it will void your iPhone warranty for ever.
Suing apple is not a good idea as it will not make any difference to them, they will have a lawyer appointed to the case and it will go on forever plus it will be a huge cost for you as well to appoint a lawyer so all in all for $600 iphone you will have to shed more than that to sue apple... i mean do you really think they must not have thought about this at first place ?
Rest is upto you .... All the very best.
In practice, people purchase the iPhone, which, in practice, means the phone and the software that lets them use the phone. No one is referring to how much they love the handset--and not the apps and operating system--when they talk about their phone, not even Steve Jobs. He bragged in the presentations and marketing about all the things the phone was capable of, which the OS was involved in doing. The only thing that says you purchase the rights to the headset and not to use the OS (and I'll take your word for it that it says that, because I, like most people, never read it, since you don't need to read it to use the phone, and it is unreasonable to think anyone should have to) is the terms and conditions. While you might be right on a legal technical point, a rational and reasonable way to look at it would be to let anybody use the very features of the phone that were advertised and show on display when they agreed to purchase it (and not taking away those features or making them work poorly).
I'm with Gideon. iOS7- has three updates to fix issues. I hate the way it looks, the icons are different, I can find my photo gallery less than a second before, Now I have to know what the new icons look like. The white dialer on white back hate it, and the keyboard, the old one was much more intuitive. Just too much at once.
In my opinion it's the worst update to date. I'm getting the note 3 for my next phone.
Or downgrade with restore on itunes! I plan for apple to add ios 6 everything onto ios 7 so people can have it the way they want it, the problem is I don't know how to rumor or animate my idea like the concepts, do you know how?
For those who do not know how to downgrade to lower iOS, here is an link, i have used it myself so please dont say that this approach does not work.
And for those who sue people like Tim Cook, should start reading, understanding TERMS AND CONDITIONS or else they can use Windows Mobile or Android Mobile.
https://www.iclarified.com/31004/how-to-downgrade-from-ios-7-beta-to-ios-6
When anyone purchased their phone, did they tell Apple that Apple would be allowed to destroy the phone they just paid for if Apple wanted to? No, a reasonable person would assume that when you purchase something, you get what you agreed to purchase and that it won't be changed by the seller at some later point to something worse. If Apple doesn't understand that implicitly, then maybe I'll write some terms and conditions and force them to agree to them next time I purchase something from them.
iOS 7.x is ugly and I have nothing but complaints about it. I refuse to own any device running iOS 7.x anyone else in the same boat is advised to search Craigslist for devices that are still on 6.x
It's not really all that stupid.. He has a high potential to win. Apple makes people upgrade their devices when they are comfortable with what they have. If you go out and buy a car and you like the car but then the company that gave you the car decides they want you to have a different one so they take yours and give you a different one. Would you be pissed and sue the company? I would. I can match this up with soooo many things. If you disagree with it.
Actually, the issue is not being forced to upgrade, because that doesn't happen. The issue is the automatic download which is now taking up a lot of space on the guy's phone... the upgrade is not automatic, but the download is (at least for some people). So in your example, it's as if the car company shipped you a huge heavy box containing a new motor and left it on your doorstep... and now you don't want it, but can't figure out how to get rid of it.
Because of the above, he does NOT have a high chance of winning. The automatic downloads are in the terms, so he agreed to them... although obviously he, like the rest of us, has never actually read them. If on the other hand the upgrade was also automatic, he would have a chance to win if the performance of the phone was severely impacted. But since whether to upgrade or not is his choice, zippo money for this guy.
In a MacBook you can always reinstall whatever OSX version you want, meanwhile, of course, exist the compatibility between that OSX and the machine. The same in the PC, you can install various Windows releases. If something has the posibility to UPGRADE, should have also the opposite, the DOWNGRADE option.
I hope this Menacher will win over Apple politic because in this way, we can all have the benefit to CHOOSE and to be FORCED to remain on what this company wants us to stay.
Yes, but as you may or may not know, the way Cydia saved shsh blobs for ios 6, it saved them incorrectly, so they were bad and non-usable. The only way is if you saved them with TinyUmbrella, and also, I've tried everything i know, and i still cant downgrade to 6.1, even though i have the blobs saved. I had to restore to 6.1.3 and use the tethered jailbreak because I had no other option. And so, my point is, the only ios 6 firmware that most people are going to be able to downgrade to is 6.1.3 anyway. I understand thats ok as a 6.1.3 jb is coming soon, but as for now, it still sucks for people like me.