A SHENZHEN woman has brought three distributors of Apple Inc. to court for a second trial over undeletable apps on her mobilephone Wednesday.
The woman, identified as Yao, is asking that the phone maker apologize and give users the option to delete all preinstalled software.
Apple’s iPhones come with some undeletable programs such as the Safari Internet browser and the Apple Maps program.
In Western courts, Apple has not been affected by such lawsuits because it is both the manufacturer of the phone and the designer of the software. In most Western countries, the manufacturer has the right to sell hardware with undeletable applications.
Yao bought an iPhone in June last year and found some applications couldn’t be deleted. Yao sued an Apple distributor in Beijing and two retailers in Shenzhen.
At the first trial, Futian District People’s Court ruled against Yao on the grounds that she should have been aware that some applications couldn’t be deleted when she purchased the phone.
At the second trial, Yao’s lawyer Zhang Xingbin argued that consumers should have the right to choose the software preinstalled on their phones.
Zhang also argued that undeletable software might leak user information, although the lawyer had no evidence that this had ever happened. Zhang said market supervision authorities should check, because individual consumers are incapable of checking.
The lawyer representing the distributors said all software was installed to benefit the users and no user information was being leaked.
In May, the Shenzhen Consumer Council released a report showing 95 percent of mobile phones were preset with software when they were sold and 88 percent of the software was undeletable. Ninety-eight percent of consumers surveyed thought undeletable software was unreasonable.
The consumer council issued a public letter to phone makers and sellers, asking that they allow users to delete software that isn’t necessary to keep the phone operating.
The consumer council’s investigation showed that software by telecommunication operators in the phones could be deleted, but the software installed by phone makers couldn’t be deleted.
Distributors installed some undeletable applications after the phones had already entered the market.
Since consumers can’t tell the difference between software installed by manufacturers or distributors, the council suggested phone makers disclose the applications that come preset. (Han Ximin)
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