Apple settles iPod battery lawsuit

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 12 May 2008 at 08:49

Apple has settled two class-action lawsuits that alleged the company misled consumers over the battery life of its iPods.

The Canadian plaintiffs argued that Apple overstated the battery life of early generations of the player, claiming they were capable of up to ten hours of continuous music playback. The plaintiffs claims that the battery life rapidly sloped off after the batteries had been recharged.

Apple has agreed to settle the case, offering Canadian consumers who bought their iPods before 24 June 2004 a $44.75 credit at the Apple store.

To qualify for the discount, however, the battery life of their iPods needs to have dropped to five hours or less for the first and second generation of the device and four hours or less for the third generation. Quite how consumers prove the battery life of their device has diminished isn't clear.

Apple settled a similar case with US iPod owners in 2005.

Early iPods had a reputation for poor battery life, although that appears to have been remedied with recent generations of the device.