Apple Not Liable For Plagued iMac Screens, Updates Firmware Anyway

Apple just dodged a bullet.

A New York California federal judge dismissed a potential class action lawsuit which alleged that Apple propagated their popular iMac screens without disclosing certain manufacturing defects to its customers, saying that the allegations were too general to be considered.

The lawsuit stated that unwanted vertical lines would appear on the devices after the warranty period had expired and that Apple “internally recognizes and concedes” the defect, but did nothing to warn consumers.

While the class action suit was dismissed, the judge did state that the common-law claim regarding Apple’s deliberate conciliation could be amended to add more detail, and thus decrease the scope of the suit.

(Source: Law360, requires registration)

Coincidentally (or maybe not so), Apple released a firmware update to address problems which have arisen on the 27″ iMac screens. The firmware is stated to “address issues that may cause image corruption or display flickering”.

The results of this update, however, have been mixed. Our own Daniel Brusilovsky tweeted that even after the iMac software update, he was still having issues with the screen. Others are having better luck, stating that the problems have subsided.

It doesn’t seem too far fetched to believe that these two events are correlated. Apple knew that their product had widespread malfunctions, and as such, are finally trying to rectify the situation. Luckily for them, the class action suit was too broad.

Next time, they might not be so fortuitous.