Disgruntled iPhone 3G owner sues Apple over download speed

Apple released the iPhone 3G in July to much fanfare.

SAN FRANCISCO - A customer sued Apple Inc. over its iPhone 3G, saying it doesn't download Web pages and music at twice the rate of its predecessor, as the company advertises.

The 3G, which relies on a new high-speed worldwide standard to download data, connects to the network "less than 25 percent of the time," according to a complaint filed Tuesday in federal court in Birmingham, Ala. Plaintiff Jessica Smith seeks class-action, or group, status on behalf of other consumers.

Apple, which advertises the iPhone 3G as being "Twice as fast. Half the price," sold 1 million of the handsets in the first three days after they went on sale last month. The company has released a software update to improve network connections for it after program glitches were reported to have hurt call quality.

Smith "noticed that her Internet connection, receipt and sending of e-mail, text messages, and other data transfers through the device were slower than expected and advertised," and she experienced "an inordinate amount of dropped calls," according to her complaint.

The phone competes with models from Research In Motion Ltd. and Samsung Electronics Co.

Apple spokeswoman Susan Lundgren declined to comment on the suit.