ASA: Apple can call iPhone 4 ‘world’s thinnest smartphone’

Apple can call its iPhone 4 the world’s thinnest after the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruling against a complaint.

Apple had made the assertion in an advert on its own website, sparking a complaint that, actually, Samsung’s Galaxy S II phone was thinner.

However, the regulator sided with Apple, ruling that the company was right when it claimed the iPhone’s workings were “contained in an enclosure a mere 9.3 millimetres thin, making iPhone 4 the world’s thinnest smartphone”.

According to the ASA, the complaint said the Galaxy S II had peaks and valleys to its design, with the thickness ranging from 8.71mm to 9.91mm, and questioned whether this actually made it thinner then the iPhone.

Consumers would be less interested in whether certain points of a product were thin, if bulges in the product made its overall thickness greater

“Apple pointed out that the Galaxy S II had prominent bulges at the top of the device and at the bottom,” the ASA said. “It acknowledged that the Galaxy S II was thinner at points, but considered that they were still entitled to make their ‘thinnest’ claim.”

The regulator agreed, saying the measurement should include the thickest part of the phone, not the thinnest.

“We considered that consumers would be less interested in whether certain points of a product were thin, if bulges in the product made its overall thickness greater,” the ruling said.

“Because the iPhone 4’s thickest point was thinner than the thickest point of the Samsung Galaxy S II, we concluded that the claim ‘the world’s thinnest smartphone’ was not misleading.”