Woman Sues Apple for $5 Million

iPhones aren't cheap things, so we expect them and their components to live a long life. But, as one woman from Florida found out, that's not always the case. Debra Hilton, who has owned an iPhone 4 for just 15 months, has sued Apple because the power button has stopped working. As her one year warranty has ended, Apple refused to replace Debra's iPhone and left her with two options. One of them is a repair which would deprive the owner of $149.99 (shipping not included), the other option is for Debra to buy a new iPhone; and we all know they are quite expensive.

The owner decided to fight back and searched the internet for guides which would explain how to repair the power button. She stumbled upon Apple's Community Support site, which showed that many more people had the same problem with the power button on the iPhone 4. The thread has been viewed more than 800,000 times and contains more than 400 posts. She also had a look at many YouTube videos, before coming to an iFixit guide on how to replace the power button.

Seeing as hundreds of iPhone 4 owners have experienced the same fault with the power button, it must have been a carefully planned obsolescence - Debra stated - The button was probably designed in such a way that it stops working just after a year of being used, saving Apple the money in replacing the phones. As soon as Debra found this out, she sued Apple for $5 million. Surely it would have been easier for Apple to replace the out-of-warranty iPhone, wouldn't it?

This isn't the first time that Apple has been sued. In December 2012, 83 year-old Evelyn Paswall sued the company after breaking her nose, when she walked into an unmarked glass door in an Apple Store, located in New York. Evelyn's lawyer stated that the glass door had "no markings on the glass, or they were inadequate" Apple has also been sued by an Oklahoma woman, who claims a TV interview she gave was sampled and sold on iTunes without her consent. She famously said "I got bronchitis! Ain't nobody got time for that!" This quickly became an internet sensation. As well as this, a New York man sued Apple over the Siri voice assistant feature on the iPhone 4S, saying that it doesn't work as advertised.

There will be many more attempts from the public at suing Apple, we will have to wait and see how weird they will get.