Apple drops '4G' reference in iPad marketing material

The Gadget Show  Tuesday 15 May 2012

The UK’s advertising watchdog has forced Apple to alter the name of its third-generation iPad after labelling its naming strategy “misleading”. The controversy surrounds the use of the term “4G” in Apple’s marketing material, with the Advertising Standards Authority arguing that while the iPad itself may support next-gen mobile networking speeds, the UK’s actual networks do not, and the ASA feels this could potentially mislead customers.

So from now on, instead of having Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 4G versions of the iPad, you can now choose between Wi-Fi, and Wi-Fi + Cellular. The product you’ll be buying remains identical, but the reference to 4G has vanished.

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The move follows similar changes that have already taken place in Australia, New Zealand the the Far East, but while Apple Australia has gone as far as offering refunds to anyone who feels they were misled by the description, Apple UK has already confirmed that it won’t be doing the following a similar route here.

Apple’s third-generation tablet is the first to be compatible with faster-than-3G LTE mobile networks, which have been widely tested in many markets including the UK but have only been fully rolled out in the US and Canada.

The matter probably hasn’t been helped by the existing confusion that surrounds the latest iPad’s official name. While the first two editions of Apple’s tablet were known as the iPad and iPad 2, the latest version isn’t actually named the iPad 3 at all, but rather the New iPad, which suggests Apple will either take a whole new naming approach next time around, or hasn’t actually thought about what will happen when the next version launches and the New iPad is no longer the new iPad.

Come to think of it, maybe it’s best if we don’t think about it either for now…

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