Apple facing lawsuit over alleged ‘false' ads for 16GB iPhones

Cupertino-based iPone maker Apple is being sued for alleged 'false advertisement' and 'wrongful representation' of its 16GB iPhones, The Next Digit reported.

The law-suit filed by two Florida based plaintiffs, Paul Orshan and Christopher Endara, has been filed as a class-action complaint on behalf of all of Apple's consumers. The plaintiffs had also demanded a jury trial.

The lawsuit had been filed due to disappointment caused to Apple's users who had been promised full 8GB and 16GB capacities on their phones. According to the lawsuit, the iOS 8, which was the operating system in Apple's devices, used as much as 23.1 per cent of the advertised storage capacity.

As it was claimed that the iOS 8 came prepackaged with the devices, the advertised storage capacity was never available and instead only four-fifths of what was advertised was really accessible and available for use.

According to the lawsuit, this  'marked discrepancy' between what was advertised and what was available would not be accepted by reasonable users such as the plaintiffs and others.

Apple is accused in the suit of not providing the advertised storage capacity as thus wrongfully representing features of the Apple's devices; false advertising and selling them as not advertised; and failure to disclose full information regarding its devices.

The claimants who live in Miami, Florida allege that ''[Apple] neglects to reveal to shoppers that as much as 23.1% of the publicized storage limit of the gadgets will be devoured by iOS 8 and distracted when customers buy gadgets that have iOS 8 installed''.

''Sensible buyers don't expect this obvious inconsistency between the promoted level of storage and the available storage limit of the gadgets, as the OS and other storage capacity inaccessible to customers involves a phenomenal percentage of their gadgets' constrained storage limit.''

Orshan bought a 16GB iPhone 5s in February last year and upgraded to iOS 8 in October, while Endara bought a 16GB iPhone in December with the OS officially installed.

Disappointed with the amount of space taken up by the firmware, the duo are suing Apple for infringing California's truth-in-publicising laws, keeping and at the same time pursuing a $5-million-plus payout for Americans with an iPhone, iPad or iPad of 8GB or 16GB storage limits, and those who had upgraded to iOS 8.

The suit follows a complaint registered against Apple over the company's treatment of music files on iOS gadgets, but the suit which included proof from late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, was rejected by a US jury (See: Apple wins iTunes suit).