CUPERTINO, Calif. – Apple Computer Inc. faces a lawsuit alleging it misled consumers and made low-quality software upgrades for older computers to "accelerate a deliberate policy of planned obsolescence."
According to the proposed class-action suit filed Wednesday in Superior Court in Los Angeles, the Cupertino-based company encouraged customers in 1998 and 1999 to buy their latest PowerPC G3 computers, while promising the units would be capable of running Apple's next-generation operating system called OS X.
The company also said OS X would be "fully optimized" to run on those G3 models.
But Apple, which released Mac OS X last year, broke both promises, the lawsuit alleges.
"Computers have a short life span compared to other assets — that's for sure. But when a company makes claims to spur sales, they ought to live up to their claims," said Thomas Ferlauto on Friday. He is one of four named plaintiffs and a Los Angeles attorney in the case.
Apple declined to comment on the pending litigation.
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