Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
If this turns out to be a widespread problem, Apple will have no choice but to correct it because of the media attention the iPhone gets.
 
I recall someone spotting cracks on their white iPhone the moment he took it out of the box at home. When he went back to the store they accused him of dropping it and wouldn't exchange it or something.

Nice story, NOT. Dude seriously, stop posting. You present zero facts, pure fiction. "wouldn't exchange it or something..." umm, so your post was basically a huge waste of time...fantastic. Delete your account, get a life. I trust you as much as I trust a politician....


I also "recall" seeing bigfoot...
 
Hello, Can someone please explain why everyone is asking about the serial number?

Has it been worked out that it was a batch issue?
 
dont try to pick bones from an egg...
besides blackberry, what else dose RIM make?
I think apple needs to address this issue... 15% defect rate is a huge number if that turned out to be true.
Apple can extend the warranty on iphone like m$ft did for xbox, or give us back the Al casing (I am just wishing for it)..
 
Just go away.

Man i love the iphone too but he got a point, if you pay 500$ for something no matter what category or type of product you have the right to say what you want. I hope apple address the apple community and offer a solution for future buyers like me or else is better for people just to stop buying it...

Just adding, i read somewhere here that 1 of each 4 white phones are developing cracks without talking about the other issues and 1 of 5 black iphones are developing cracks. Apples needs to say something soon and i repeat what my friend up there said, What the F*ck apple?
 
I am a stockholder and I refuse to defend Apple in this. It is embarrassing. I agree with most of the people complaining here. Apple has always prided itself on delivering a quality and visually appealing product. They dropped the ball here. Since they pride themselves on these standards....I think it's fair to hold Apple to them. We pay more money for Apple products, expecting those standards to be met. I for one do not mind paying for the quality we usually get. Not only should we expect Apple to replace these, and fix the overall problem.....we should demand that they do. I defend Apple when they deserve defending. They don't at this point. Their silence about this issue is an embarrassment!

Look, Apple is always very slow to acknowledge these kind of flaws. Just look at the recent mobileme disaster. Crisis communication certainly isn't Apple's strength.

By the way, do you regularly use the headphone jack on your white iPhone?
 
Man i love the iphone too but he got a point, if you pay 500$ for something no matter what category or type of product you have the right to say what you want. I hope apple address the apple community and offer a solution for future buyers like me or else is better for people just to stop buying it...

Just adding, i read somewhere here that 1 of each 4 white phones are developing cracks without talking about the other issues and 1 of 5 black iphones are developing cracks. Apples needs to say something soon and i repeat what my friend up there said, What the F*ck apple?

do you have a link to the story where 1 in 4 and 1 in 5 phones are cracking? i want to bring that with me to the :apple: store in case they don't replace mine for me.
 
Cracks

I posted on apples own forum about my experiences with this issue.
I went through a couple of white phones with cracking around the volume buttons. I now have a black iphone and it looks ok but if you catch the phone in the light you can still see the lacquer is cracked by the volume adjuster but as its black so it won't show up badly. I think apple need to change the clear coat that they spray the cases with to one that has a bit more give to allow for the slight stretching of the plastic during assembly. I also think the plastic by the headphone socket it way too thin to last any amount of time-i've seen several that were cracked there out the box when I was trying to find a good one. I have a lot of apple products but find more and more that its luck of the draw if you get a 'good' one. I also find it odd that that there seems to be such a wide range of physical faults out-the-box with these devices from dust to wonky glass, not to mention poor case to bezel allignment. I'm going to keep my current phone and see how it goes. I really do hope apple will respond soon to its customers growing concerns regarding this issue.
 
Add one more white one

Just looked at my wifes phone last night to see if she had any cracks where others had stated. Sure enough right by the volume button. The phone is still amazing though :D
 
Black iPhone 3G with a crack

I've had a black iPhone 3G for about 3 weeks now that is in otherwise immaculate condition. It has developed a crack in the black plastic back between the headphone jack, and the chrome bezel around the front of the iPhone. I'll post a picture when I have a camera handy. The crack runs perpendicular to the bezel in a straight line between the headphone jack and the bezel.

I'm not too stressed about it since it is tiny and the plastic is still flush and smooth on either side of the crack. If the crack starts to spread, or pieces chip off, then I'll be asking for a replacement.

<FlameRetardent>
The phone has not been dropped or otherwise abused, and I have used the headphone jack carefully, being sure to insert and remove the headphone plug in alignment with the socket (no twisting or stressing of the jack.
</FlameRetardent>
 
Just Got Back From The Apple Store

Hey guys. So I went to the apple store today about App crashes and the newly developed cracks.

The crashing isn't gonna stop until Apple updates the firmware.

Now, the cracks. Unless you're in the sun, it's hard to see the cracks on the black iPhone, so of course, the guys thought it was a scratch. But I told them it's definitely a hairline crack on both sides of the headphone jack. I had to suck up my pride and risk looking like I have major OCD (which I do).

They documented the crack so that if it gets any bigger or it becomes a widespread issue, I'll have no trouble exchanging it under the warranty.

SO MY ADVICE TO ANY OF YOU WITH EVEN SMALL CRACKS: GO TO THE APPLE STORE AND GET IT DOCUMENTED.

COVER YOUR @$$. This solves the issue of "Oh well, the next one will just crack". Maybe Apple will start releasing phones that address the issue and when those come out, you can go in for the exchange.
 
In the news today:

"APPLE IS CURRENTLY asking its Taiwanese assembly plant to churn out 800,000 Iphones every week according to Tech Crunch.

Foxconn the company which puts together the extraordinarily popular handset is currently working "above full capacity" leading to fears that their may be problems with quality control.

Reports earlier this week have already voiced concerns over the quality of case mouldings in some models, mainly the white version."
 
In the news today:

"APPLE IS CURRENTLY asking its Taiwanese assembly plant to churn out 800,000 Iphones every week according to Tech Crunch.

Foxconn the company which puts together the extraordinarily popular handset is currently working "above full capacity" leading to fears that their may be problems with quality control.

Reports earlier this week have already voiced concerns over the quality of case mouldings in some models, mainly the white version."

do you have a link for the story you quoted?
 
i have a white iphone, luckily no cracks yet

i have a contour hardskin case, and have only seriously dropped my iphone once, from about 3 feet. the phone fell and the case just separated off the phone no damage was done though.

hopefully i never get a crack
 
mine (16gb black, handled with great care) also developed hairline cracks near the mute/sound buttons. very tiny towards the metal edge just visible. Will watch if they get any larger

i want my old iphone back :/
 
Yes, I'd be interested in seeing a picture of the crack. I have a black one but can't see any cracks, but then, maybe I just don't know what to look for. Anyway, when you have the time, a picture would be appreciated.


I've had a black iPhone 3G for about 3 weeks now that is in otherwise immaculate condition. It has developed a crack in the black plastic back between the headphone jack, and the chrome bezel around the front of the iPhone. I'll post a picture when I have a camera handy. The crack runs perpendicular to the bezel in a straight line between the headphone jack and the bezel.

I'm not too stressed about it since it is tiny and the plastic is still flush and smooth on either side of the crack. If the crack starts to spread, or pieces chip off, then I'll be asking for a replacement.

<FlameRetardent>
The phone has not been dropped or otherwise abused, and I have used the headphone jack carefully, being sure to insert and remove the headphone plug in alignment with the socket (no twisting or stressing of the jack.
</FlameRetardent>
 
Apple store visit

So I posted yesterday that I noticed cracks in my 16gb black iPhone 3g. I took it in today and the mac genius could "barely" see one crack. When asked, she said that she did not see this becoming a big problem. That "its plastic" and would probably do that. She did however, say that I could change it out if I wanted to. My problem is this...do I return my phone when my only true complaint are the cracks, and risk getting something much worse? I've read a couple of posts from people stating they are on their 3rd or 4th phone!!!!! I don't want to go through that.

BTW...I looked at EVERY iPhone on the Apple floor. About 50% of them had cracks. Oddly, most of them were on the black phones.

I would love to be able to show you pictures of my cracks (no pun intended) but I can't get them to show up on camera. They're mostly visible under direct light (sunlight or flashlight) it just bugs me knowing that they exist.
 
Trying to get my old phone back....

So after the recent 2.0 update, I downloaded a mess of applications to my newly updated phone. Well long story short, apparently iphone 2.0 doesn't like having a crap-ton of applications installed. After fighting w/the apple geniuses and going through 3 1st gen iphones, 2 installations of itunes <pc and mac> and continued problems, they gave me a 3g phone.

Well low and behold, I am having the same problem once I install all of my apps .I can only install about half of the apps I have acquired from the appstore prior to the phone becoming so unstable it can't be trusted. In addition, after reading about the cracks online, I decided to check out my phone... it's a black 16 gb 3g that has not been out of a case or dropped since it left the store. Sure enough, on the back of the phone down the left side, there are 2 cracks, both about 1/2 inch long.

I'm willing to live with sparse apps as long as my phone stays stable, but I WON'T accept a phone that's falling apart after 2 weeks. That being said, I'm going back to the applestore today to exchange the cracked 3g back for my 1st gen iphone. At least it won't fall to pieces on me....

Will post the update if I am successful.

Cheers
 
So I posted yesterday that I noticed cracks in my 16gb black iPhone 3g. I took it in today and the mac genius could "barely" see one crack. When asked, she said that she did not see this becoming a big problem. That "its plastic" and would probably do that. She did however, say that I could change it out if I wanted to. My problem is this...do I return my phone when my only true complaint are the cracks, and risk getting something much worse? I've read a couple of posts from people stating they are on their 3rd or 4th phone!!!!! I don't want to go through that.

BTW...I looked at EVERY iPhone on the Apple floor. About 50% of them had cracks. Oddly, most of them were on the black phones.

I would love to be able to show you pictures of my cracks (no pun intended) but I can't get them to show up on camera. They're mostly visible under direct light (sunlight or flashlight) it just bugs me knowing that they exist.

I understand what you mean by them not being noticable, I will try and get some photos up soon.. the cracks really are micro and hard to view, especially on the black iPhones.

These cracks are evidently appearing in places of high stress like the headphone jack or the volume keys. I would guess the smalls ones will be indicative of a future problems, imagine what many of our phones will look like in 6 months. I want to swap mine too, but it might be worth waiting until Apple sort this out at the factory level otherwise you're just setting yourself up for more grief with geniuses etc.

The shortcuts Apple have made to create a cheaper iPhone are unfortunately very apparent..
 
Which build weeks are having the cracks on the iphones? I just picked up mine tonight and it appears i have a week 31 if im reading the serial # correctly, i dont notice any cracks yet on mine only a few scratches from where i took it out of a new leather case.
 
Perhaps while making the back casing "cheaper" they assumed massive amounts of extra profit when selling in millions. Now they will have to sacrifice more profit to fix this cheap plastic issue. Greed is bad! even for a corporation.
 
I found a small faint crack by the sleep wake button. Doesn't bother me, but it is definitely there. White model btw.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.