Australia Wants Apple to Change the Name of its iPad Models

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Posted April 16, 2012 at 8:44pm by iClarified

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission wants Apple to change the name of its iPad models, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

The watchdog group thinks Apple is confusing customers by selling the iPad Wi-Fi + 4G and took the company to court on March 27th.

Apple already changed the wording on its website to warn customers that the iPad is not compatible with Australian 4G networks and offered to refund any confused customers but apparently that's not good enough.

Mediation between Apple and Australia's competition watchdog has ended without a resolution. The next phase of the case will be determined at a directions hearing this afternoon before Justice Mordecai Bromberg of the Federal Court in Melbourne.

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Australia Wants Apple to Change the Name of its iPad Models

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Mick - April 17, 2012 at 6:14am

I'm an Aussie, and I know that there is 4g currently in use with other mobiles, so Im more than a little confused as to why the handshake can't take place. Is it because the iPad uses a frequency in oz used for tv? Isn't it simply a matter of retuning the sensitivity? Or making in fact Australian models, just like the cars (left hand drive). I mean to say, is there a solution, or is it going to be diatribe until someone gives.

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Kornmehl - April 17, 2012 at 7:08am

Mick, I rather believe that the erroneous iPad frequency is not limited to Australia, but is an issue for all units sold throughout the world. Australia is of course not the only country that uses the 1800 MHz bandwidth for 4G; most of Europe and Asia use that standard. Why Apple insists on defying that benchmark, simply because they're based in the United States is utterly beyond me. In any case, should Justice Bromberg hand down the verdict in favour of the ACCC, it will set a precedent for every other nation where the current iPad is sold; in short, Apple will be up for Billions in replaced units, and that is after all, what Cupertino is so afraid of.

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joyz - April 17, 2012 at 3:17pm

Young Man.... You don't get out much do you...

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Kornmehl - April 17, 2012 at 1:21am

@ Geoffrey: You're getting a little titchy there, old son. No, my head is not actually where you're implying, But I do think you and your ilk have drunk just a little too much CoolAid.

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qw1987 - April 17, 2012 at 12:17am

Methinks that Apple should simply announce that, due to regulatory difficulties, they will not be selling the iPad in Australia. I suspect that the good people of Australia would solve the problem rather quickly.

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Mike - April 16, 2012 at 10:34pm

How is that stupid? You can't advertise a 4G product that is not 4G compatible for that region. They have every rights to complain.

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qw1987 - April 17, 2012 at 12:12am

Do they tell auto manufacturers that they are not allowed to have speedometers that go up to 200 MPH ?

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Gadget Josh - April 16, 2012 at 8:58pm

You know that's so stupid of them because it's the same over in the UK where I live, we don't have 4G until 2013 but we can still purchase 4G models for when we go on holiday or traveling somewhere Where there's 4G networking. It's just stupid of Australia to do that!

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Kornmehl - April 17, 2012 at 12:45am

I beg to differ. What's stupid is not so much the fact that the ACCC is demanding correct product labeling from Apple, but rather the fact that Apple's so called "4G" only works in the US. It is not stupid of Australia to use same benchmark 1800-MHz bandwidth used in Asia and Europe, it was stupid of Apple to employ the 700-MHz bandwidth that every country except the US has already allocated to digital-TV. Clearly, some people in Cupertino didn't do their research before launching their new gadget. That's not Australia's fault, that's Apple's problem to fix.

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qw1987 - April 16, 2012 at 8:52pm

Dumb-de-dumb-dumb.

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