Unethical Issues of Apple Iphone

Important Note: This sample essay mainly illustrates the structure of your assignment on ethical issues of a company selected by you. You may first identify two or three ethical problems and then discuss how to solve them. Remember including relevant citations to support your evidences and viewpoints. Ethical issues in iPhone 1. Introduction . With an elegant combination of a mobile phone, iPod and personal digital assistant (PDA), iPhone was launched at Apple and AT&T stores across the US on June 29, 2007(Place, 2007). iPhone is by no means a prodigious success by selling one million iPhones within 3 months (Wolverton, 2007).

However, what coupled with its splendid success are numerous criticisms from the general society. This paper firstly examines two of the most severely unethical issues in iPhone’s marketing activities, and then provides some possible suggestions to these problems. Finally a brief conclusion will be drawn. 2. iPhone’s Unethical Marketing Activities . Deceptive Advertising Practices On July 26, 2007, a class-action lawsuit was filed against Apple and iPhone carrier AT&T for deceptive advertising over the iPhone battery (Lane, 2008).

According to the lawsuit, apple engaged in “purposeful and fraudulent concealment” of the fact that iPhone purchasers were required to pay $89. 95 to get the device’s battery replaced, which means the replacement fee would become an annual charge based on the expected life of battery – 300 to 400 charge cycles. According to Lane (2008), Apple faces criticism because it did not disclose the actual cost and inconvenience of replacing the battery until three days after the iPhone’s release. Also the battery information was difficult to find on Apple’s website.

In sum, the fact that Apple did not immediately communicate the exact cost of replacing the battery, along with the fact that the iPhone battery was not replaceable by users, had generated an outrage among iPhone users. 1 Environmental Problems Back in May, 2007, Apple head Steve Jobs pledged that his company would become greener and that it would out-pace the competition when it came to removing toxic chemicals from the production of its devices (Stevens, 2007). This was largely seen as a response to a Greenpeace-led campaign.

Now, Greenpeace was at it again, calling Apple out for taking a step backwards when it came to the toxic chemicals found in the iPhone (Riley, 2007). These chemicals also included Bromine, which had been banned in European toys thanks to its apparent impact on hormone levels in children. Greenpeace claimed that Apple was far from leading the way for a green electronics compared with its competitors, like Nokia, who hasd already sold phones free of Polyvinyl chloride (Stevens, 2007). Based on these findings it was hard to doubt that Apple took a step back from its green initiative to get the iPhone out the door.

However, it was questioned whether the company would respond to this Greenpeace challenge like it did the last. 3. Suggestions . Deceptive Advertising Practices Although deceptive practices may benefit more profit in the short run, such practices will eventually harm their business in the long run. If consumers do not get what they expect, they will switch to more reliable products. This can also cause a backlash, if corporations are more focused on profits than customer service, particularly for a company such as Apple, which claims a long-term relationship with customers.

Therefore, Apple Inc. should do its possible endeavor to avoid deceptive practices in the future and implement some initiatives to minimize trouble and inconvenience made to consumers, such as giving a discount to the first batch of iPhone purchasers to replace their batteries. Environmental Problems Nowadays, more and more companies are adopting policies of environmental sustainability, which is a management approach that involves developing strategies that both sustain the environment and produce profits for the company (Armstrong, 2008; Kotler, 2008). Apple Inc. as a leading corporation in the field of electronic products, should also initiate the environmental sustainability policies. Regarding the environmental problems involved in iPhone, Apple should respond to this Greenpeace challenge to solve the problem as soon as 2 possible and in the future Apple should try best to act as a leading giant for a green electronics. 4. Conclusion . This report investigates two of the major problems concerning the ethicality of marketing activities of iPhone including 1) deceptive advertising practices and 2) environmental problems.

It can be concluded that despite the worldwide popularity, iPhone still faces some ethical problems. Suggestions to improve the image of iPhone by enhancing its ethical issues have also been discussed in this paper. They include: 1) avoiding deceptive practices in the future, 2) taking initiatives to minimize the troubles caused, 3) responding to the Greenpeace challenge and 4) maintaining the policies of environmental sustainability. In this way, iPhone could probably both enjoy the success in selling and maintain an ethical image.

Reference: Kotler, P. (2008). Principles of Marketing. Pearson Education. Lane, F. (2008). Court Pulls Plug on Apple iPhone Battery Lawsuit. Sci-Tech Today. Retrieved September 26, 2008, from http://www. sci-tech-today. com/story. xhtml? story_id=62144 Place, N. (2007). ‘Mac-tastic’ arrival: iPhone goes on sale today at 6 p. m. The News Herald, Panama City, Fla. Retrieved June 29, 2007, from http://www. newsherald. com. Riley, D. (2007). Greenpeace: iPhone Not Good for the Environment.

TechCrunch. Retrieved October 14, 2007, from http://www. techcrunch. com/2007/10/14/greenpeace-iphone-not-good-for-the-environment/ Stevens, T. (2007). iPhone Bad For Environment, Says Greenpeace. Switched. Retrieved October 15, 2007, from http://www. switched. com/2007/10/15/iphone-bad-for-environment-says-greenpeace/ Wolverton, T. (2007). Apple sells 1 millionth iPhone. San Jose Mercury News. Retrieved September 11, 2007, from http://www. mercurynews. com.