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3G - Cracks in Plastic Housing

it finally happened....

I exchanged my previously cracked black 16g iphone 3g for a new one on the 5th of august. My new one had the slightly yellow screen and a slightly uneven case but to my pure enjoyment NO CRACKS...that is, no cracks until 2 days ago. I found them...right in between my volume rocker and bezel. I've decided not to take it back...not right now anyway. I'm going to try to wait it out this time to see if Apple decides to do something about. This is so absolutely frustrating!!!!
 
It looks like all of the cases will develop a crack at one time or another. It's a real pain to keep looking it over. I wish they would issue a recall and replace all of the backs with another material, but I guess it takes time to do all of that. For such a big company, this is a gigantic blunder. You'd think the engineers could have developed or designed a case that wouldn't crack. None of my other phones or Palm TX had this problem. :(

madlymocha said:
I exchanged my previously cracked black 16g iphone 3g for a new one on the 5th of august. My new one had the slightly yellow screen and a slightly uneven case but to my pure enjoyment NO CRACKS...that is, no cracks until 2 days ago. I found them...right in between my volume rocker and bezel. I've decided not to take it back...not right now anyway. I'm going to try to wait it out this time to see if Apple decides to do something about. This is so absolutely frustrating!!!!
Click to expand...
 
It's nuts! Cracks have appeared in the last day for me. I got my iPhone July 28th and I have been watching the phone closely in the areas that most people are getting them. What do you know, there are cracks in the volume rocker area and on the top by the headphone jack. I would suggest sending apple feedback directly to them about this. I just did, but while on my 4th phone I am going to wait until it gets worse or Apple acknowledges the problem. The first three had the glass coming up from the body, power button stuck down, and the screen was so crooked i could barely scroll with my finger.
 
buckydgoat said:
It's nuts! Cracks have appeared in the last day for me. I got my iPhone July 28th and I have been watching the phone closely in the areas that most people are getting them. What do you know, there are cracks in the volume rocker area and on the top by the headphone jack. I would suggest sending apple feedback directly to them about this. I just did, but while on my 4th phone I am going to wait until it gets worse or Apple acknowledges the problem. The first three had the glass coming up from the body, power button stuck down, and the screen was so crooked i could barely scroll with my finger.
Click to expand...

let me guess, white?
 
ad hoc said:
I've noticed a small crack between the headphone jack and the chrome bezel (the thinnest part of the plastic back) on my less than 1 week old Black... Honestly not too worried about it as long as I don't get others that I can see without a bright flashlight.



Click to expand...
my white iphone came with this crack right out of the box. I noticed it when I got home and was putting the screen protector skin on - not having out of the box except while in the apple store activating it. First thought it was just a rough spot from the plastic mold, but indeed is a crack.
Sounds like the screen is the most durable part of the phone :eek:

i0Nic said:
Anyone bought an iPhone in the last week with cracks developing?

Anyone bought one in the first week of release and only just now developing cracks?
Click to expand...
mine was purchased Aug 5th.
 
xgman said:
That is pretty damming. Hmmm . .. better stock up on nice cases it seems to literally cover up this mess until, when, and if Apple ever fixes this.


Also, that pretty much dispels the notion that this may be caused by excessive heat right? I mean how much heat can there be in a new box in an air conditioned retail store?
Click to expand...

The stuff that the case is made of contracts already at room temperature. Since it is likely that the back is framed around or held in place by steel or metal supports there is a double effect: The case itself contracts when getting warmer (zirconium has this ability) and the metal inside expands when getting warmer. So a slight change in either of the components' states can already cause some stress on the case or the metal inside.
 
gldelx said:
my white iphone came with this crack right out of the box. I noticed it when I got home and was putting the screen protector skin on - not having out of the box except while in the apple store activating it. First thought it was just a rough spot from the plastic mold, but indeed is a crack.
Sounds like the screen is the most durable part of the phone :eek:


mine was purchased Aug 5th.
Click to expand...

That's a white iPhone??
 
I don't believe all phones are prone to crack. I have been using the snot out of mine, including the headphone jack and volume rocker and still have no cracks on my 16GB Black purchased on July 11th.
 
yea I don't think my white is gonna crack at all... I've even dropped it from about 4ft onto street concrete... It's got some nicks in the back but no cracks... It doesn't look like to brittle of a plastic... Which is why I think it's wierd on how many crack posts I keep reading about...
 
Both my wife and I got iPhones a few days after they were released (both 16 GB, mine black and hers white).

My wife's case looks fine, but my black case has two full cracks from each end of the sleep button to the top (meaning the screen side) of the case. I got the first one in a few days.

I'm most likely going to head to an Apple Store on Friday to have it replaced. Normally I would just wait until they do some repair program or something, but my worry is that the cracks are already causing the corner of the case to come out and if it continues it may appear that I dropped it on the corner of the plastic instead of a design flaw.

Which sucks since my screen is in awesome shape and I've heard some bad stories.
 
I emailed Apple about this issue (Steve Jobs), and the response I got from him was that the cases were not cracking on their own. :eek:

From: Steve Jobs <sjobs@apple.com>
Date: August 10, 2008 3:43:39 PM PDT
To: Andrew
Subject: Re: Cracks in iPhone 3G

The cases are not cracking.

Steve


On Aug 10, 2008, at 3:41 PM, Andrew Blila wrote:

Mr Jobs,
I am a loyal Apple customer and a great fan of it's products. I recently upgraded my 1st Gen iPhone to the 3G. I am quite concerned with the issues that the cases are apparently having with cracking. Does Apple have an official stance regarding this? I was one of the loyal that camped out to get this fantastic product, but I am extremely concerned with this issue. Any help you could give regarding this, I would greatly appreciate. Thank you again for the continued great work!
Very respectfully,
Andy


I sent another email with a link to this thread attached and have received no response at all, so again I am very confused with Apple's lack of response...either to dismiss this issue and say it's operator error or to say it's a design or production error. :confused:
 
andyblila said:
I emailed Apple about this issue (Steve Jobs), and the response I got from him was that the cases were not cracking on their own. :eek:

From: Steve Jobs <sjobs@apple.com>
Date: August 10, 2008 3:43:39 PM PDT
To: Andrew
Subject: Re: Cracks in iPhone 3G

The cases are not cracking.

Steve
Click to expand...

Not to sound crass or anything, but maybe it's the chemo drugs talking. He must not be allowed to see anything negative. :rolleyes:
 
andyblila said:
I sent another email with a link to this thread attached and have received no response at all, so again I am very confused with Apple's lack of response...either to dismiss this issue and say it's operator error or to say it's a design or production error. :confused:
Click to expand...

Not surprising at all. They don't like tumbling stock.
 
Cracks

I don't think iphones are just cracking on their own, then again a defect can apply when the shell was made, it may have a weakness, are all the cracks happing in the same place. I'm not a iphone owner although i do have about 8 apple products all in the computer side of Apple. I didn't go near the iphone, but i can't believe this crack stuff, and are people still reporting cracks.
 
aepple said:
I don't think iphones are just cracking on their own, then again a defect can apply when the shell was made, it may have a weakness, are all the cracks happing in the same place. I'm not a iphone owner although i do have about 8 apple products all in the computer side of Apple. I didn't go near the iphone, but i can't believe this crack stuff, and are people still reporting cracks.
Click to expand...

I would agree with you if the majority of the cracks weren't in the exact same spots. Headphone jack, volume switch, etc. They all seem to be failing in the same spots. Unless they are being dropped in the exact same manner....cracking in the exact same spots is numerically impossible!:eek:
 
Trajectory said:
That was crass.
Click to expand...

Kinda was wasn't it, well maybe he just is in denial then.

By the way, to the guys above asking about what type of cracks, these are stress cracks in the material that was used. The material was obviously a poor sub par choice for this application and they develop internally more so than from say dropping the phone. There also seems to be a fairly long list of other quality control defects that seem to be present especially when someone goes to replace one and has to look or go through several to get a clean one.
 
My Black iPhone 3G (8GB) is just now starting to crack (purchased July 12th). I took it back to the store yesterday and they're going to replace it (waiting for one to come in)
The cracks are in an unusual spot though, from what I've seen on the forums. Mine are visible when looking at the screen, right under it towards the top. I don't have a camera near me besides the iPhone camera though.

For those curious: Model MB046LL
 
cracks

Maybe the defect is structure weakness in the shell, i assume the back of the iPhone pops off to change the battery. Could force of changing the battery or opening the back attribute to the cracks.
 
Not that electronics were ever good for the environment, but this has gotta be a friggin environmental disaster, hasn't it?! Constantly replacing bad shells with more bad shells... I wonder what happens to all the old ones... :(
 
hob said:
Not that electronics were ever good for the environment, but this has gotta be a friggin environmental disaster, hasn't it?! Constantly replacing bad shells with more bad shells... I wonder what happens to all the old ones... :(
Click to expand...

I'm thinking it's a stress crack from two materials with different coefficients of thermal expansion...My wife's just cracked right by the ringer switch, and I had check it last week and it was fine. It is cracked to the point you can feel the discontinuity. It's not just a hairline crack you have to hold up to the light to see. And No she hasn't dropped it....
 
Mine had a crack at the headphone jack. Over the last 2 weeks, I have tried over 8 times to get a suitable replacement. Each of the 8 phones they offered either had cracks, case looked really rough or had scratches, dead pixels.

Today I finally got a replacement where everything is right. But boy did I have to go through some to get it.
 
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