Lawsuit filed against Apple by dissatisfied iPhone 3G customer

After the hype, comes the gripe. Apple's iPhone 3G, since its launch last month, has seen a response surpassing even its illustrious predecessor, allowing the company to push one million models over an extended weekend. (See: Apple, AT&T sell 1 million new iPhones in 3 days; users download 10 million applications)

Evidently, all those enthusiastic customers are enthusiastic no more; in fact, one of them can be considered as highly disappointed. A class action lawsuit has been filed by a Birmingham Alabama woman that accuses Apple of deceptive advertising in their claim that the 3G iPhone is ''twice as fast'' as the previous model.

In a 10-page complaint filed Tuesday in the US District Court for Northern Alabama, Jessica Alena Smith charged Apple with breach of express and implied warranty and with unjust enrichment. Smith, who refers to the phone she purchased throughout the complaint as "Defective iPhone 3G," is seeking class action status.

''Defendant intended for customers to believe its statements and representations about the Defective iPhone 3Gs, and to trust that the device was 'twice as fast at half the price','' the lawsuit states. ''Immediately after purchase, plaintiff soon noticed that her Internet connection, receipt and sending of e-mail, text messages and other data transfers were slower than expected and advertised.''

The suit asks that Apple be ordered to repair or replace all defective devices and pay unspecified damages, interest, and attorney fees.

This charge was not entirely unexpected. Several customers had already voiced their discontent over the network speeds provided by the new phone. After weeks of silence regarding the complaints, Apple finally acknowledged that reception issues existed.

Earlier this week, Apple said a recent software update was indeed meant to answer days of criticism about problems experienced with the iPhone 3G jumping from 3G to slower EDGE networks without warning.

But Monday's update was labeled with the briefest of descriptions-"bug fixes"-making it difficult to know exactly what was addressed with the update.