MS, HP agree to drop ‘deceptive’ PocketPC ads
Settle quietly to avoid FTC wrath
Posted in Business, 3rd April 2001 16:51 GMT
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Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard have spared themselves hefty fines by agreeing to Federal Trade Commission demands that they cease claiming that PocketPCs provide built-in wireless Net access.
The FTC began investigating claims that the pair were making misleading statements in their advertising back in February.
Of course, PocketPCs do support wireless Net access, through Windows CE's dial-up access and TCP/IP networking code. That's why HP and MS made the claim. However, the devices don't contain the hardware needed to allow this software to talk to the outside world.
It's this lack of a built-in modem that made the pair's claim to offer "built-in wireless access to the Internet and e-mail at any time and from anywhere" deceptive, the FTC said. ®
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