Nearly a month after dealing with battery problems in its MacBook and MacBook Pro notebook computers, Apple Inc. has been hit with a class-action lawsuit by two MacBook owners who claim the company falsely advertised the quality of the displays used in the notebooks.
The lawsuit, filed on May 3 in California Superior Court in San Diego by two California citizens Fred Greaves and Dave Gatley, accuses Apple of falsely advertising the capabilities of its MacBook and MacBook Pro displays.
In their 22-page suit, the plaintiffs alleges Apple misled them with MacBook and MacBook Pro advertising that claimed the displays are capable of 8 bits per channel, capable of displaying as many as "16 millions of colors,” but instead were sold displays of lesser quality that looked "grainy" and “sparkly."
Instead, the suit claims, Apple used displays in the MacBook that support only 6 bits per channel, offering about 262,144 colors.
A further assertion is that an old technique “dithering process” used by Mac OS X to simulate eight bits per channel gives significantly inferior results to that used by Windows on the same hardware.
In dithering, nearby pixels use slightly varying shades or colors “that trick the human eye into perceiving the desired color even though it is not truly the color,” according to the lawsuit.
The color performance is said to fall short of that required by a professional user of software such as Apple’s Aperture photography application.
MacBook and MacBook Pro customers who complained to Apple about display performance either in person or in writing are said to have been fobbed off by Apple agents and employees for being “too picky” about their assessment of the quality of the display or “imagining” the defects.
According to lawyers of the two named plaintiffs and others unnamed, the display problems were not present when Intel-based MacBook users used Windows XP, rather than Mac OSX.
The claim is based on the idea that Apple’s practices would lead “an objectively reasonable purchaser” to assume the computers are capable of displaying millions of colors and are suitable for use by someone who needs accurate color.
Besides false advertising and misrepresentation, Apple is also charged with violating the Unfair Competition Law and the Consumer Legal Remedies Act with its failure to address and settle the situation.
Many discontent customers have posted their complaints on a discussion forum hosted by Apple though it appears Apple has engaged in substantial editing of the posts on the discussion forum. One disgruntled Apple customer created the web site colorblindmac.com as a clearinghouse of information about the issue, including suggestions on software and techniques MacBook users can use to verify the status of their own MacBook displays.
The suit, filed by Fred Greaves and Dave Gatley, also names as defendants "Does 1 through 50" – individuals or corporations who were either Apple’s agents, servants "acting in a common conspiracy" or who "aided and abetted" that other defendants.
In addition to multiple forms of relief and reimbursement, the plaintiffs are also seeking an injunction that would prevent Apple from continuing to market its existing notebook displays alongside claims that they support “millions of colors” and offer views “simply unavailable on other portables”.
The lawsuit is being handled by attorney Peter M. Polischuk on behalf of the plaintiffs.
Despite various issues, the MacBook range of laptops has been very successful for Apple, and the strong sales of the machines recently helped Apple sales soar to $5.2bn in the first three months of 2007.