FTC And FCC Complaints On The iPhoneFTC And FCC Complaints On The iPhone

Any popular item is bound to have its detractors and the iPhone is no exception. Most of the complaints we hear about don't involve the device but either the carrier, AT&T, or Apple itself in some of its decisions about the platform, especially how it arbitrarily decides what apps will and will not be in the App Store. What issues are serious enough though for a consumer to lodge a complaint with the FCC or FTC?Thomas Claburn decided to find out. He filed a Freedom of Information Act request and obtained 72 complaints filed with the Federal Communications Commission and 450 complaints filed with the Federal Trade Commission. The results make for some interesting reading.

Given the popularity of the device, selling millions of devices a year, it is remarkable to me that there are so few complaints since the beginning of 2009, the period covered by the request.

As expected, the FCC received an earful about AT&T. AT&T's blocking of Google Voice is a hot button for a number of users. The FCC investigation of the issue is ongoing.

A number of the issues the FTC revealed have nothing to do with the iPhone. Those that did involved things like warranty disputes, the inability to unlock the phone and hacked iTunes accounts incurring unauthorized charges.

The funniest complaint I saw listed was a user seeking to block Apple's acquisition of Lala.com.

For those buying thinking of buying an iPhone, there are no surprises here. The hardware generally seems excellent and the issues with AT&T are known.

It would be interesting to see how Google and Microsoft fared for their respective platforms, but because there are so many device makers and for both companies, the mobile platforms are a minor part of the business, you'd have to file dozens of Freedom of Information requests and then do an incredible amount of filtering to come up with the same type if information.