Apple has been accused of “misleading and deceptive” advertising for its virtual assistant, Siri. The class action suit, filed by Brooklyn resident Frank Fazio, hopes to represent other iPhone 4S users who were disappointed with their devices.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the lawsuit filed in a California federal court states: “Through an extensive and comprehensive nationwide marketing campaign, Defendant has conveyed the misleading and deceptive message that the iPhone 4S's Siri feature, a so-called voice-activated assistant, performs useful functions and otherwise works as advertised.”
It is said that in the advertisements, people are shown to be using Siri to make appointments, find restaurants and “even learn guitar chords to classic rock songs or how to tie a tie”. The lawsuit says all of these tasks are represented as being completed with ease with the help of Siri, and this is “a represented functionality contrary to the actual operating results and performance of Siri”.
“Promptly after the purchase of his iPhone 4S, Plaintiff realised that Siri was not performing as advertised. For instance, when Plaintiff asked Siri for directions to a certain place, or to locate a store, Siri either did not understand what Plaintiff was asking, or, after a very long wait time, responded with the wrong answer.”
As Siri has been touted as a major differentiating feature of the iPhone 4S from the iPhone 4, the lawsuit goes on to claim that, due to Siri's poor functionality, consumers have essentially been suckered into buying a more expensive iPhone 4.
Beta bugs
The iPhone 4S was released in October last year, and while it sports the same design as its predecessor, it has a dual-core A5 chip, which Apple says is up to seven times faster than that of the iPhone 4. It also has a new camera with an eight-megapixel sensor and 1080p HD resolution video recording.
Siri uses advanced voice recognition technology and artificial intelligence software, and at the time of the iPhone 4S launch, Apple said Siri could understand context and natural speech.
The intelligent assistant is, however, currently still in beta, and location-based services, such as finding places and directions, are still disabled outside of the US.
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