Apple’s Deceptive iPhone Advertising

Apple Computer is running a television advertisement that makes its recently introduced iPhone 3G look like the device from the future that we have all been waiting for. Web pages pop up instantly, a magical map shows us where we are as soon as we ask, and the little computer switches between programs without a stutter.

It’s all possible, in this new, attractive technological universe, thanks to an otherworldly synergy between Apple’s shiny hardware and ATT&T’s super-fast 3G data network.

And, as YouTube video uploader “rrrrrrrroooooooo” has demonstrated in this devastating little movie, it’s all a lie. Apple has quite clearly crossed the line between their customary smirking and exaggeration to just making things up.

They have a very nice little computer/phone here, and the 3G network is probably adequate for plenty of uses, as long as you don’t have a lot of data to move. But Apple’s attempt to portray the experience as just as fast as a real computer hooked up to the real internet (not through a cellphone layer) is a shameful demonstration of flat-out fakery.

Apparently the “real-world” experience depicted in the video is better than that of many unsatisfied customers, according to this Wired article.