Siri Challenged in Lawsuit, Complaints of Apple’s Misrepresentation

Michael Foley March 12, 2012 2
Siri Challenged in Lawsuit, Complaints of Apple’s Misrepresentation

The Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog reported that last Tuesday, a lawsuit was filed in the Northern District of California by an iPhone 4S customer. He is accusing Apple of misrepresenting the functionality of it’s newest iPhone’s most distinctive feature, Siri.

The plantiff is Frank M. Fazio of Brooklyn, New york, who filed the suit on behalf of iPhone 4S owners everywhere. His problem with Apple is over the company’s advertising campaigns (below) that champion the automated personal assistant which he believes to be “misleading and deceptive.”

In many of Apple’s television advertisements, individuals are shown using Siri to make appointments, find restaurants, and even learn the guitar chords to classic rock songs or how to tie a tie. In the commercials, all of these tasks are done with ease with the assistance of the iPhone 4S’s Siri feature, a represented functionality contrary to the actual operating results and performance of Siri.”

Mr. Fazio claims that Siri’s actual performance is quite hit and miss and quite contrary to the advertisements, takes a great deal of effort to work correctly. Having turned to Siri a few times myself I would have to agree with Mr. Fazio’s account. While at times quite a novelty and even occasionally responsive, taken on the whole, Siri leaves much to be desire. And I am certainly not the only corroborator of this story, for even Gizmodo did a piece on the broken promise which was Siri.

But still, is this enough to lash out with a lawsuit? Apparently yes, it is. For even though Siri is technically speaking still a Beta product, Mr. Fazio is suing on the grounds that Apple crossed a line when it green lit the advertising campaign which presented Siri in a much more favorable light than it deserved.

The suit is seeking unspecified damages and a court order to prevent Apple from using additional misleading advertising related to Siri’s functionality. Apple has yet to file a responses.

Do you think Apple misrepresented it’s product? And how has Siri worked for you? Let us know in the comments section below.

2 Comments »

  1. Sarah March 13, 2012 at 11:14 am - Reply

    In my own experience, Siri has not been as effective or intuitive as the commercials imply. I also rarely use Siri, so I do not know the ins and outs of the software. It does seem surprising that an individual would sue Apple for this, but I will be interested to see how this case turns out.

    Sarah
    Mosaic Technology
    http://www.mosaictec.com

  2. Mohammad ali April 11, 2012 at 9:14 am - Reply

    I agree with him. Siri does not work as it was advertised.

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