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Judge says Apple must face the music

by on12 November 2014

Locked in customers

Fruity cargo cult Apple is going to have to explain to a US federal court why it failed to tell consumers that its messaging system would block them from receiving text messages if they switched to Android-based smartphones from iPhones. Jobs’ Mob tried to dodge a day in court by claiming that plaintiff Adrienne Moore’s case had no merit and it never ever did anything wrong.

Unfortunately US District Judge Lucy Koh has heard all that rubbish from Apple before. She was the one who ruled that Steve Jobs organised a pricing cartel to make himself rich at Apple customer’s expense. She ruled that Apple must face plaintiff Adrienne Moore's claim that the message blocking interfered with her contract with Verizon Wireless for wireless service, which she kept after switching in April to a Samsung Galaxy S5 from an iPhone 4.

Moore, who seeks class-action status and unspecified damages, claimed that Apple failed to disclose how its iOS 5 software operating system would obstruct the delivery of "countless" messages from other Apple device users if iPhone users switched to non-Apple devices.

Koh said Moore deserved a chance to show Apple disrupted her wireless service contract and violated a California unfair competition law, by blocking messages meant for her.

"Plaintiff does not have to allege an absolute right to receive every text message in order to allege that Apple's intentional acts have caused an actual breach or disruption of the contractual relationship," Koh wrote.

In court papers, Apple said it never claimed that its iMessage service and Messages application, which ran with iOS 5, would recognize when iPhone users switched to rival devices. Apple now has an online tool, to help people who switch to non-Apple smartphones retrieve messages from iPhone users.

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