RSSApple iPhone ad pulled in UK over 'misleading' Internet claims
By Ed Oswald | Published August 27, 2008, 1:37 PM
The UK's Advertising Standards Authority has ruled that an ad for the iPhone was misleading, and cannot be aired again as it misrepresents the device's Internet capabilities.
Two consumers complained to the ASA -- Great Britain's principal regulating body for advertising -- that Apple's claim of "all the parts of the internet are on the iPhone" was incorrect. It doesn't support either Java or Flash, which provide the backbone for many Web sites and services, they argued.
The ASA responded with a formal inquiry. Apple's response was that the intention of its ad was to show that the Internet on the iPhone is far less encumbered than on other devices, which may only support WAP. It also argued that surfing the Web on the iPhone and on a desktop computer are quite similar.
The company's reasoning for not including either Flash or Java was because both would have needed to be handled by separate plug-ins, and were not open source. Apple said it tried to focus on making mobile Safari as compatible as possible with open standards.
Without Flash or Java, some Web sites on the iPhone may have trouble loading -- if at all -- especially they don't provide alternate version of their content. This was troubling to ASA officials.
"We considered that, because the ad had not explained the limitations, viewers were likely to expect to be able to see all the content on a website normally accessible through a PC rather than just having the ability to reach the website," the Authority said in a ruling.
As such, Apple gave a misleading representation of the iPhone's capabilities, and "must not be broadcast again in its current form." Apple has declined to comment on the ruling.
In the UK, the ASA ensures that all ads are compliant with the country's rules governing advertising, and handles any complaints. Its function is roughly equivalent to that of the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection, which has an advertising division.
The ASA has previously ruled on two other Apple ads recently, in favor of the company in both cases. The first, in June 2006, dealt with claims in the Mac vs. PC ads, while the second last month dealt with ads that showed a phone with the Times Online Web site in greater detail than the complainant thought could be realistically achieved.
Just worth pointing out that the ASA is a self-regulatory body, not in anyway part of the government not a quango like Ofcom, so it is unlike the "Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection" which is a statutory body in the US.
More stuff here...
http://www.mail-archive....bbc.co.uk/msg09530.html
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|Well, if you state "that Apple's claim of "all the parts of the internet are on the iPhone" was incorrect. It doesn't support either Java or Flash, which provide the backbone for many Web sites and services, they argued." Apple is lying.
Have a nice day :)
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|Apple misleads no one. That is Microsoft's territory. Every bit of this ad is 100% true.
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|Dude, you are 100% retarded.
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|Aye, in the land of the blind the one eye man is king.
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|Apple is always trying to make people think that their products are much better than real.
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|What Apple said in response was true. You must have a plugin for both Flash and Java if you want to use it. Many people forget about it because the first time you see a site with that content it pops up and says do you want to install. You say yes then you are on your way.
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|But if there arent any flash or java plugins for the phone than they are lieing. (Assuming they arent available, I dont know if there is or not)
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|How are they lying, It doesn't say it supports every web standard. And Flash and Java is hardly required for any site. It's mainly used in Advertisements and used for programs designed for an actual OS. I have java on my blackberry and WM6 phone and I can't use 90% of the java programs on the internet. Actually I have yet to run into any designed for a web browser that work on my phone. Flash and Java though have modules for phones only offer a weak and sad version of the technology on cell phones.
Apple does has the right to say all the parts of the internet. As you can access every web site. Nothing prevents you from going to a flash web site or a java web site. It nearly is unable to load the Flash and Java modules. Which are 3rd Party and are not part of the HTML standard or XML, or XHTML or CSS. Those are the standards. the iPhone runs on the standards. Otherwise I could make something that played my own type of file and make it so if you had the plug in and it worked and sue them also. Pointless.
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|Then they should have said "reads all standards" instead.
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|Changng the subject slightly, even if there is no flash\java on a website there is often audio and\or video of an industry standard form such as MPEG or AVI and it can't play those formats.
Not a web standard, granted, but still part of the supported standard set of file types that any browser should be able to at least interpret and\or pass on to another part of the system.
Take for example...
It's a different story when it comes to Mac friendly content though such as PDFs whereby Apple bent over backwards to keep Adobe happy by way of adding support for their file types.
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|Seems to me flash does now figure in some pretty big non-advertising areas on the internet. I'd put youtube as the pretty obvious one first, as it is of course an immensely popular site these days. No flash, no youtube. Hmmm. Another one that springs to mind here in the UK is itv.com, which carries live and repeated tv programming - again requiring flash to work.
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