Lawsuit Accuses Apple of Bricking iPhone 3Gs with iOS 4 to Sell More iPhone 4s

You'll recall, we're sure, just how poorly the iPhone 3G performed with iOS 4, and even Apple's fixes to performance in iOS 4.1 didn't fix everything. Thus, we now have what we expected: a lawsuit.

Plaintiff Biana Wofford has filed a lawsuit in the Superior Court of California for San Diego. She alleges that Apple knew that iOS 4 would essentially "brick" the iPhone 3G, and that the Cupertino, CA-based company hoped that such bricking would boost iPhone 4 sales. Wofford is seeking class action status.

Aside from Wofford's complaint alleging that Apple knew that the update from iOS 3.x would brick or rather, turn her iPhone 3G into a "device with little more use than that of a paper weight," Wofford also addressed the difficulties with downgrading the ROM on an iDevice. Indeed, Apple has never offered a company-certified way for someone to simply plug their iDevice into iTunes and downgrade to an earlier ROM.

While it seems, at first glace, silly to believe that Apple would cripple iPhone 3Gs so as to sell more iPhone 4s, this case could result in something good, even if it ends up in the Black Hole of discarded lawsuits. It's possible this might finally force Apple to create a way for people easily use iTunes to go back to a previous OS version.