Apple Addresses 2018 iPad Pro 'Bending' Controversy, Says Subtle Deviations May Be More Visible Due to New Design

[9081094]

Is it an overreaction to say that we might be in the midst of witnessing the beginning of the end of Apple, in the light of recent events?

This moment is long overdue if you ask me. They should have used more of their profits for R&D and less for shareholders. If they’ve done that, there would definitely come more out their never ending pipeline and no one would complain of the sad state of the macs. Siri would be on par with the competition and probably be ahead because they’d an head start.

We would see their whole hardware line being updated once a year like every technology company is doing. Offering the best and those premium prices would be justified.

 

[furi0usbee]

And all my Apple products have had no issues out of the box.

Boom!

I feel for you when you take the iPad out of the box and find it.... bent. Boom2!

 

[whitedragon101]

It's really a design issue, I think. The case is essentially jointed at four points, held together with some sort of plastic or polymer. Apple's support doc says "we're using really good materials and manufacturing processes" but in reality it's an inherently weak, maybe even fragile, design.
[doublepost=1546728251][/doublepost]

I disagree. The design and/or materials and/or manufacturing process are inherently weaker than prior iPads. The fact that Apple will replace them has nothing to do with whether the product is safe in the wild.

That's not the story. The story is Apple are shipping iPads bent by several mm from the factory and then refusing to replace them as faulty saying the bends are not a fault. That story isn't true.

 

[MacDonaldTrump]

It’s not acceptable, I fear this is a weak response from apple, users will continue to experience bends through normal use. Resale has clearly been damaged with this dog of a product.

Works well when you take the risk and actually use it, I’m too scared it will bend and hardly pick it up anymore.

I’ve been through so many people, forums/store/support believing I have lied and I caused the bend, I have apple care and would easily replace if I did. I’m glad I posted pics and started talking about it instead, I want apple to be made responsible for this. It has been a crappy experience, i really expected to enjoy this product.

 

[9081094]

It’s certainly not the first time people have been ringing the death knells of Apple, and it most certainly won’t be the last.

Apple will go on to be insanely successful for a good long time to come.

Not that it changes anything here.

They’re going downhill if they aren’t able to compete on price, features and services.

Unless the iPhone XI is marvelous and iOS 13 is what it should have been 4 years ago Apple will end up in a me too company for the rich.

Mac Pro is too late. I’ll never invest much money into a computer company who doesn’t give its user base trust.

 

[citysnaps]

Does Apple bear any responsibility on how they produce their iPad? Or will you just attack every user like others did with the iPhone 6 Plus fiasco?

It depends. You may not need to, but I need to see more information and data.


"Or will you just attack every user like others did with the iPhone 6 Plus fiasco?"

Shrug... I used a 6+ for around three years. Absolutely zero issues. And still have it as a backup after getting the $29 battery replacement. It's a solid phone - even dropped it a few times.

 

[Millah]

People need to understand the difference between something BENT and a flatness tolerance of .5mm

A .5mm flatness variance is practically imperceptible to the naked eye UNLESS trying to find it by holding it against a perfectly calibrated straight edge or surface plate.

The pictures that Macrumors CONTINUES to display dishonestly are iPads BENT beyond this tolerance.

I mean you guys do understand that even the inspection instruments used to inspect for flatness have their own tolerances for calibration? There is no such thing as a +/- .00000000000000000000 tolerance. It is quite literally impossible.

 

[dreamlikestate]

Sure you can. You've sat on your 2017 MBP many times? Why?

Facesitting via skype

 

[Shiro_Simba]

It depends. You may not need to, but I need to see more information and data.


"Or will you just attack every user like others did with the iPhone 6 Plus fiasco?"

Shrug... I used a 6+ for around three years. Absolutely zero issues. And still have it as a backup after getting the $29 battery replacement. It's a solid phone - even dropped it a few times.

Can I ask what data you are looking for ? I’ve spent a lot of time doing analytics, and am genuinely curious.

What will your source be to make an informed decision ?

Facts we known -
1. No sales numbers
2 . No return numbers
3 . No return Numbers due to bend
4. No data of % units failing tolerance

I’m intrigued what you propose to be the source of credible data.

Maybe you plan To get an iPad to pull apart or review ifix it tear down to do some analysis ?

 

[Kobayagi]

You buy that? Oh, randomly and off topic, I’ve got some fools gold that’s actually *real gold* in the center, and I’m willing to sell it to you for $800/oz. (cuz I like you) even thought it’s easily worth 3-4X that. Wait for my PM and routing number.

Yeah, uh not funny.

Please don't take Apple's side on this. This guy spend $1000+ (depending on storage) and got a bent device. This isn't normal. And yeah, I believe him lol, what reason would he have to lie? To get 'likes' on a forum from random people?

 

[citysnaps]

Can I ask what data you are looking for ? I’ve spent a lot of time doing analytics, and am genuinely curious.

What will your source be to make an informed decision ?

Facts we known -
1. No sales numbers
2 . No return numbers
3 . No return Numbers due to bend
4. No data of % units failing tolerance

I’m intrigued what you propose to be the source of credible data.

Maybe you plan To get an iPad to pull apart or review ifix it tear down to do some analysis ?

I don't know, yet. What I'd like to know, however it is determined, is if there were any user contributions in any real-world damage reports. It's early.

For example... You've said you have sat on on your MBP many times, presumably without any damage. And I believe you. I suspect others have as well.

However...just because a MBP can tolerate an owner sitting on it many times without resulting damage, does not mean that an iPad can as well. Everything has limits. If I sat on my iPad Air 2 and damaged it, I would not run to Apple and complain, or make a big fuss on YouTube.


"Facts we known -
1. No sales numbers
2 . No return numbers
3 . No return Numbers due to bend
4. No data of % units failing tolerance"

Exactly. And without that information I'm not going to immediately and reflexively say there's a problem. If you've spent a lot of time doing analytics, I hope you'd want the same underlying information and not rely on a couple of YouTube videos where someone is intentionally trying to damage the device, likely motivated by clicks.

 

[Arran]

Just a heads up -- we had some complaints about the photo that was previously used in this article, so I've swapped the original photo for a different photo of a 12.9-inch 2018 iPad Pro demonstrating a slight bend. The original photo featured a more significant bend and some users rightly pointed out that it was not perhaps the same issue that Apple is describing.

It's still unclear what's going on with the bending on the whole, as some of the bends we've seen have been more dramatic than others. For that reason, I'd encourage you guys not to focus too much on the photos in the article, but more so on the information that Apple is offering up.

If you have a bent iPad, please feel free to share photos and let us know if you've been able to get a replacement from Apple. Apple suggests this is just a cellular issue, but we've seen complaints from non-cellular owners too, which indicates there could be more than one bending problem happening.

Appreciate the effort, but you'd be better with no picture at all. Unless you can get a picture that is 400 microns (preferably confirmed fresh out of box). That would be more helpful as it would show readers what 400 microns actually looks like. It's still confusing as-is.

How many microns out is that new picture?

 

[stevie grant]

All bends are visible if you measure them.

What the hell are you talking about?

Bends that are "measurable" can ALWAYS be seen by the human eye? So, by extension, ANY VARIATION THAT CAN BE MEASURED CAN BE SEEN BY THE HUMAN EYE?

Do you work for Apple?

 

[Rob_2811]

I don't know, yet. What I'd like to know, however it is determined, is if there were any user contributions in any real-world damage reports. It's early.

For example... You've said you have sat on on your MBP many times, presumably without any damage. And I believe you. I suspect others have as well.

However...just because a MBP can tolerate an owner sitting on it many times without resulting damage, does not mean that an iPad can as well. Everything has limits. If I sat on my iPad Air 2 and damaged it, I would not run to Apple and complain, or make a big fuss on YouTube.


"Facts we known -
1. No sales numbers
2 . No return numbers
3 . No return Numbers due to bend
4. No data of % units failing tolerance"

Exactly. And without that information I'm not going to immediately and reflexively say there's a problem. If you've spent a lot of time doing analytics, I hope you'd want the same underlying information and not rely on a couple of YouTube videos where someone is intentionally trying to damage the device, likely motivated by clicks.

Because they show that the device bends very easily and that doesn't fit the narrative that you are trying to create.

 

[Jamers99]

New marketing slogans for the latest iPad Pro...
"Bend over and take one"
"Get Bent with the new iPad Pro"
"Bend there, done that"

 

[citysnaps]

Without looking it up what is the convolution of a Lorentzian function and a Gaussian function and is there a closed form solution for the resulting function?

I understand your question but don't know/remember if convolving those two functions results in another well-known function. As a first approximation I'm guessing it would "look" Gausian in nature - but that's kind of a given.

If I had a version of MATLAB that runs on my computer I could certainly plot the convolution. I suspect there isn't a closed-form solution.

So...What is the correct answer?

 

[Heineken]

I feel for you when you take the iPad out of the box and find it.... bent. Boom2!

So where is this flood of bent iPads out of the box? Macrumors is using the same image over and over again even though that iPad was bent by the user. Can't see forest for the trees.

 

[Shiro_Simba]

I don't know, yet. What I'd like to know, however it is determined, is if there were any user contributions in any real-world damage reports. It's early.

For example... You've said you have sat on on your MBP many times, presumably without any damage. And I believe you. I suspect others have as well.

However...just because a MBP can tolerate an owner sitting on it many times without resulting damage, does not mean that an iPad can as well. Everything has limits. If I sat on my iPad Air 2 and damaged it, I would not run to Apple and complain, or make a big fuss on YouTube.


"Facts we known -
1. No sales numbers
2 . No return numbers
3 . No return Numbers due to bend
4. No data of % units failing tolerance"

Exactly. And without that information I'm not going to immediately and reflexively say there's a problem. If you've spent a lot of time doing analytics, I hope you'd want the same underlying information and not rely on a couple of YouTube videos where someone is intentionally trying to damage the device, likely motivated by clicks.

I can tell you that I cannot get a meaningful sample data size to produce a Meaningful report . You do not want to trust a survey on MR, and you have no ability to cleanse you data and too much bias .

You other option is to review a tear down , from an engineer point of view.

The other, to use proper engineering testing tools to confirm force needed for structure to become unstable .

Right now we are all working on bias and assumptions - the data frankly does not exist

 

[citysnaps]

Because they show that the device bends very easily and that doesn't fit the narrative that you are trying to create.

I understand that's fine for you. And that's OK.

 

[stevie grant]

That would be more helpful as it would show readers what 400 microns actually looks like. It's still confusing as-is.

How many microns out is that new picture?

Maybe apple could provide the minimal effort to provide visuals of how much of a bend 400 microns actually is to the human eye.

Seems like that would clear things up pretty quickly, and shut up a lot of apple "haters".

 

[citysnaps]

I can tell you that I cannot get a meaningful sample data size to produce a Meaningful report . You do not want to trust a survey on MR, and you have no ability to cleanse you data and too much bias .

You other option is to review a tear down , from an engineer point of view.

The other, to use proper engineering testing tools to confirm force needed for structure to become unstable .

Right now we are all working on bias and assumptions - the data frankly does not exist

"Right now we are all working on bias and assumptions - the data frankly does not exist"

And without data you're still going to leap to a conclusion?

I certainly won't. Sounds like you don't have a problem with that, though.

 

[Baymowe335]

It's major enough if Apple is releasing multiple statements about it. Says it all really.

Again, they’ve likely sold over 10M, so we’d be hearing about it a lot if it was anywhere close to a big issue. We are the only people talking about it consistently.

Plus, Apple will replace those out of spec. Seems like the usual issues of selling 300 million devices annually.

 

[dirtylilhobo]

Thinner is so much better, right Apple?

So thin now they’re bent right out of the box and these aren’t “microscopic” bends. They’re so obvious and proven by laying it on a flat surface or against a straight edge.

Nope, thinner is NOT better. And, I want my headphone jack back too...!

 

[Baymowe335]

You see if Apple really had a tolerance of 400 micron (supposedly implemented before the scandal rather than dreamt up after), then no one would receive a product above that, because they would have been rejected by QC and never put into the supply chain. Why do Apple need to offer replacements, or don’t they work to their own tolerances?

Btw, 400 micron or 1:15 across an iPad is a very poor tolerance to start with. For example a spirit level costinga few pounds would be absolutely useless made to that tolerance.

Do you know how QC works?

No clue what you’re talking about in your second point.

 

[davester]

Customers don’t care about the process, they just want a product that is flat