Apple has been forced to withdraw an advert for the original iPhone after its claims that the device could access “all parts of the internet” were deemed inaccurate.

The Advertising Standards Authority upheld two complaints about the TV advert, ruling that it gave a “misleading impression” of the iPhone’s internet capabilities.

The iPhone dramatically improved mobile internet access when it was released last year, but it still has several blind spots.

The handset supports neither Flash nor Java, two programming languages used within many websites. Flash displays graphics, animation and videos on web pages, while Java is used to embed small applications within websites, often with the aim of increasing their interactivity.

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iPhone users cannot access these features using their handsets, resulting in websites with applications that don’t work or with white space where graphics should have been. The most common problem encountered by iPhone users is the absence of video clips that have been embedded in websites.

YouTube, the internet’s most popular video destination, does work on the iPhone because Apple has found a way of circumventing the Flash technology used to display the video clips. iPhone users instead see the video in a Quicktime player – a different video format which is supported by the handset.

The second-generation iPhone, released in July, remained incompatible with Flash and Java, despite hopes from some in the web developer community that it would support these features.

Adobe, the company behind Flash, and Sun Microsystems, which created Java, are both working independently from Apple to find a way to get their programs onto the iPhone. Neither has indicated when work may be completed.

The disputed advert showed a user scrolling through various web pages before a voice-over said: “You never know which part of the internet you’ll need . . . which is why all the parts of the internet are on the iPhone.”

Apple denied that the advert was misleading, arguing that it aimed to show that the iPhone could access all websites, not that all parts of every website would work with the phone’s web browser. Many mobile phones display only a significantly reduced version of most websites.

The ASA rejected the defence, saying that people who had seen the advert would have expected unfettered web access.

“We noted Apple’s argument that the ad was about site availability rather than technical detail,” its ruling stated. “The claims, ‘You'll never know which part of the internet you’ll need’ and ‘all parts of the internet are on the iPhone’ implied users would be able to access all websites and see them in their entirety.

“We considered that, because the ad had not explained the limitations, viewers were likely to expect to be able to see all the content on a website normally accessible through a PC, rather than just having the ability to reach the website.”

Apple will not be allowed to rebroadcast the advert.

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