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An Apple iPhone advert has been banned by the advertising standards watchdog for exaggerating the phone's speed.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld complaints by 17 people who said the TV advert had misled them as to its speed. Apple UK said it was comparing the 3G model with its 2G predecessor and its claims were "relative not absolute". The advert repeatedly stated that the phone was "really fast" and showed news pages and the Google maps service taking just fractions of a second to appear. Text on the screen said: "Network performance will vary by location."

After upholding the viewers' complaints, the ASA said the advert must not appear again in the same form. It said the advert was likely to lead viewers to believe that the device actually operated at or near to the speeds shown in the advert. The watchdog concluded: "Because we understood that it did not, we concluded that the ad was likely to mislead."

Apple said its claims were "relative rather than absolute in nature" - implying the 3G iPhone was "really fast" in comparison to the previous generation - and therefore the advert was not misleading. The company also said the average consumer would realise the phone's performance would vary - a point they said was made clear by the text stating "network performance will vary by location".

Source: BBC

Gala says...

I personally use an iPhone and although my web browsing is not at a speed shown in the advert it's still considerably quicker than on previous phones I've used to browse the web. In saying that though, I never expected my iPhone to perform at the speeds shown in the advert! If i believed everything I saw in adverts I'd be deeply disappointed with just about every product I'd ever purchased. The largest problem I have with browsing the web on ANY mobile device is down to the performance of the mobile phone network itself. Slow browsing speeds are inviarably the fault of the network operators poor coverage in your area and not down to the performance of the device in your hand. Nearly 7 million people own these iPhones now and like me, I'm sure most of them seem to understand that location plays a major factor, it's a shame the ASA doesn't take take this into account.