Edible Apple

InternetNews is reporting that a Judge in Arkansas has thrown out 2 out of 3 claims in a lawsuit filed against Apple for poor iPhone 3G performance.

“Had Apple received notice from plaintiffs that the particular iPhones bought by them were defective, Apple could have taken a direct route toward fixing the alleged defects or could have reached a settlement with plaintiffs at a time before litigation expenses were incurred,” the decision states. “Plaintiffs did not afford Apple statutorily guaranteed opportunities,” according to the judge’s ruling.

Smith and Trigg filed the suit August 19 shortly after purchasing the iPhone 3G device last summer.

The suit states the plaintiffs have suffered “significant monetary and non-monetary damages” due to the “defective” devices which allegedly do not provide promised data speeds and voice call connectivity promised in advertising. The complaint alleged breach of express warranty, breach of the implied warranty of merchantability and unjust enrichment.

The suit also requests class certification and was filed on behalf of the thousands who have purchased the new iPhone.

This shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise.  Back in September we analyzed the lawsuit against Apple and it was clear that the litigants had made no effort to mitigate their damages either by returning their iPhones or attempting to exchange them.  Moreover, a large portion of the evidence relied upon by the plaintiffs were blogposts that became obsolete, so to speak, once Apple released software update 2.1.  We noted a few weeks ago:

In the end, Apple is a company just like any other. Sometimes its products don’t work as expected, but that’s not to say that every lawsuit against them is warranted. Frivlous lawsuits ultimately result in higher prices for consumers, and only serve to put money in the pockets of lawyers. Again, this latest lawsuit against Apple seems to largely be based on a number of outdated blogposts, the majority of which were written in July of 2008, just 2-3 weeks after the iPhone 3G was launched. By skirting around the fact that the latest iPhone firmware update seems to have overwhelmingly fixed any remaining iPhone 3G reception problems, and by seemingly making no effort to return or exchange his iPhone, the Plaintiff in this case seems to have filed what can only be described as a frivolous lawsuit.