Familiar complaints to some iPhone 3G owners, or to anyone who’s spent any time in Apple’s support forums lately. Indeed, Apple recently acknowledged the device’s reception problems. That said, the company’s “twice as fast, half the price” messaging does include the caveat “actual speeds vary by site conditions,” which would seem to absolve it of Smith’s charges of false advertising. And, beyond that, those who are disappointed by the performance of their new iPhone 3Gs had 30 days to return the device without consequence. Which is not to say that iPhone 3G’s performance hasn’t been disappointingly subpar or that it’s unreasonable to demand that Apple (AAPL) fix it. Just that Smith had recourse other than a suit demanding that Apple pay unspecified damages in addition to repairing or replacing all defective iPhones.

Familiar complaints to some iPhone 3G owners, or to anyone who’s spent any time in Apple’s support forums lately. Indeed, Apple recently acknowledged the device’s reception problems. That said, the company’s “twice as fast, half the price” messaging does include the caveat “actual speeds vary by site conditions,” which would seem to absolve it of Smith’s charges of false advertising. And, beyond that, those who are disappointed by the performance of their new iPhone 3Gs had 30 days to return the device without consequence. Which is not to say that iPhone 3G’s performance hasn’t been disappointingly subpar or that it’s unreasonable to demand that Apple (AAPL) fix it. Just that Smith had recourse other than a suit demanding that Apple pay unspecified damages in addition to repairing or replacing all defective iPhones.