Apple Digging into Accounts of iPhone Explosions in Europe

[charlituna]

As a company, you never apologize until you know for sure you've done something wrong. Apple is still waiting to examine the phone(s) in question, so they don't know whether they are at fault.

For that matter, neither does anyone else.

and that is the issue. a lot of folks are blasting them without considering that the full facts are not out there

also we are talking about perhaps 50 incidents in a few million devices. with electronics there will always be a few problems, but the ration here is really nothing to cry out for a full recall

The only persons that know anything about how Apple handles these kinds of situations are the affected.

true. although when it hits the media a few more folks know. but in point of fact, how do we know that it wasn't spun a little to make Apple look worse than they were

You don't know how Apple thinks about or treats it's employees (and don't bring the suicide of this Chinese guy up. Read up on the matter first..), and neither do most people here (including me).

very true. as for the suicide, that was not an Apple employee. he worked for a company that does business with Apple. not the same thing

But, the European chargers are likely a different design from those sold in North America. Those European chargers could have a design defect that causes one out of a million of them to fail in a bad way.

a design defect is likely to cause a lot more than a handful of occurences

 

[cisco1138]

Definitely going to stop carrying my Iphone in my Front pocket.

Say,
Did your iPhone just explode in your pocket,
or are you just happy to see me?

 

[phillipjfry]

I haven't seen it mentioned yet but I'm to assume this is the 3gS phone?

Oh, well. 30 million devices out there. A few are BOUND to detonate, or emit mind-control gas, or grow legs and and start a vendetta against humanity. It's just simple probability.

I, for one, welcome our new exploding iPhone overlords

 

[nuncupatory]

I smell bullcrap. My guess would be that some French kid broke his brand new iPhone and made up the story to get another one.

...and shoves shards of glass into his eye to back up his story?! Yeah, right. That makes PERFECT sense.

 

[Mac Kiwi]

What is the possibility his phone could be a knock off? Or would the official distribution network {ie telecom companies} make that very unlikely?


I hope that piece of glass in the kids eye did not puncture anything.

 

[wackymacky]

It's my new App in the app-store call Grenade, as a theft deterrant that turns the phone in to a fragmentation anti-personnel weapon. It's triggered by sending the message "expode" plus the pass-code as a txt to an iPhone that has the app instaled.

Jokes aside loosing an eye from an exploding iPhone has to be worth $10'000'000

 

[xbjllb]

Great. Can we get back to making computers now?

iMacs and Cinema displays don't explode.

Neither do Blu-ray burners and drives.

 

[mackk]

Maybe the new MMS feature made it explode

 

[peterdevries]

Which is why punitive damages are awesome. That equation doesn't work anymore.

Outside of the US it does.

 

[peterdevries]

There are many, many other cell phones out there, right?
I`ve never heard of any of them explode, even after being exposed to direct sunlight. If iPhones are "that" problematic, I guess this is a real issue!
I own 2 iphones, one of the first gen and a 3G. Never had a pb. But this issue worries me a bit....

Apple products, given the price, should be perfect!!!!!!

As was said before, every electronic product has a small percentage of failures. These are accepted because the likeliness of the defect happening is too low to justify the attempt to avoid the defect from happening. This would simply be too expensive and would probably propel your iPhone into a wholly different price category.

The thing with exploding Apple products is that they attract a lot of publicity because everyone expects that their products are made by little elves in god's (Steve) basement and should hence be perfect and not break. Moreover, the visibility of Apple in general and the fact that we as a group are specifically watching makes it seem like iPhones are defective more often than other phones.

If any of the 100 different cell phones Nokia sells at this point (just check the website, they really have this many active models) explodes or burns up, it's not news anymore. It happens regularly and the affected get compensated through a previously established process with a fixed amount and a certain settlement if they decide to sue. This is the same way Apple probably handles this.



Just check this out: http://www.google.nl/search?q=cell+...s=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

 

[danwms]

If mine starts hissing im going to close my eyes tight but leave the phone near my face.

Hopefully ill get a few cuts and ill sue their asses.

That will bring down the cost of the contract.

 

[Manderby]

Originally Posted by swagi
If all you fanboys would please acknowledge that the European courts will never judge in favor of the customer and rule high penalties. That guy had an issue with his phone, no more no less.

This is nothing like the typical American compensation lawsuits, that we Europeans love to make fun of.

First one who actually points out the ridiculeness. Thank you.

Well actually, no-win no-fee lawyers have been getting very common in the UK (so probably the rest of Europe too since the business is clearly profitable) in the past few years, and there are many adverts encouraging people to sue companies for causing injury.

But in EU countries, the law is different from US. So no, sueing companies for causing injury will never be a profitable thing as the law protects both companies and people the same way for to encouraging a agreement based on fidelity.

 

[BongoBanger]

Outside of the US it does.

It depends if the country is governed by a civil or common legal code. In the UK punitive damages (referred to as exemplary damages here) can be awarded for example. The attitude towards countries with civil legal codes such as France and Germany is also changing.

 

[macchiato2009]

My theory is that this is Apple's way of remotely punishing jailbreakers.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHHA

you made my day


that mught be true ^^

 

[macchiato2009]

in the US, you guys have the chance to have "class action lawsuits"

in Europe we don't

the European Union can sue companies but it doesn't very often unless big bucks could go in their pockets instead of consumers' pockets (ie vs Intel or MS)

the EU care more about making money for their own rather than defending consumers

 

[pfml07]

Ok lets be fair, Apple are not exactly well known for the reliability of their products. We have iBooks that smell of urine, brown macbooks, brown iphones, magsafe adapters setting on fire and not exploding iPhones. Don't get me wrong I love apple products but come on, my nokia never exploded, my dell power adapter didn't set on fire, nor did my dell turn brown. I was shocked to hear that my 3 Year Apple Care warranty doesn't even cover the power adapter or battery without a series of phone calls to Apple complaining.
What's next....iMacs imploding?

 

[iPhone 62S]

Ok lets be fair, Apple are not exactly well known for the reliability of their products. We have iBooks that smell of urine, brown macbooks, brown iphones, magsafe adapters setting on fire and not exploding iPhones. Don't get me wrong I love apple products but come on, my nokia never exploded, my dell power adapter didn't set on fire, nor did my dell turn brown. I was shocked to hear that my 3 Year Apple Care warranty doesn't even cover the power adapter or battery without a series of phone calls to Apple complaining.
What's next....iMacs imploding?

Apple do make well-built products usually, a lot better then the alternative products anyway. You just don't get articles everyday about the millions of perfectly working Apple products.

EDIT: Also, Dells have their own problems, and lots of them too.

 

[JonasLondon]

Ridiculous. All chargers output DC (direct constant) and the source voltage difference - 110 or 230 volts - has absolutely zero relevance.

True.

(And for what it's worth, the EU 230V is safer than US 110V but not because of voltage but EU power is 60Hz and US power is 50Hz. US power is closer to human heartbeat so US electrical shock can lead to heart failure more often than EU shock. Both are dangerous, though.)

Not true. Most of the World has 50 Hz, it is the US which has a 60 Hz line frequency!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utility_frequency

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mains_electricity

 

[(L)]

You may want that, but that'd be extremely selfish and unwarranted. Here's what Apple owes the guy:
- an apology
- a new iPhone
- compensation for medical bills to treat the eye injury
- compensation for lost wages due to the eye injury (and not BS psychological injuries)

Quite frankly the other stories in the article, at least the one about the iPod jumping 3 metres in the air, is not believable.

While I generally agree with you that getting a minor injury isn't cause for a sweepstakes package of Apple goods, what you describe here as compensation is a bit lacking.

Consumers are protected by law not to have the products they buy explode in their faces (excepting balloons, explosives, guns etc). So 'compensation' isn't just a matter of replacing the defective item (if demanded) and paying for medical bills. If this is a true story, it's not enough to replace the product and pay for damages. They need to pay for the offense that these damages represent, as well.

The actual amount might vary, but for starters Apple should fully refund the cost of the iPhone. And while I agree that psychological damage payments are often BS, this is a classic example where the law must protect the consumer, so the victim deserves a significant reparation. To do it with Apple products is impermissible - more products from a company that put glass in your eye? That's called adding insult to injury.

 

[peterdevries]

Ok lets be fair, Apple are not exactly well known for the reliability of their products. We have iBooks that smell of urine, brown macbooks, brown iphones, magsafe adapters setting on fire and not exploding iPhones. Don't get me wrong I love apple products but come on, my nokia never exploded, my dell power adapter didn't set on fire, nor did my dell turn brown. I was shocked to hear that my 3 Year Apple Care warranty doesn't even cover the power adapter or battery without a series of phone calls to Apple complaining.
What's next....iMacs imploding?

Have these things actually happened to any of your Apple products, or are you using "we" as in "us" worldwide Apple customers? These things happen to products from all manufacturers. The fact that we are all talking about these things en watching Apple news items like a hawk just makes it appear that this happens more frequently to Apple products.

Again, if you want an Apple product like an Iphone to be failproof, than you can expect it to cost around the same price as a Vertu.

 

[peterdevries]

(And for what it's worth, the EU 230V is safer than US 110V but not because of voltage but EU power is 60Hz and US power is 50Hz. US power is closer to human heartbeat so US electrical shock can lead to heart failure more often than EU shock. Both are dangerous, though.)

Absolute nonsense. 50Hz and 60 Hz means 50 and 60 oscillations PER SECOND. Our heart beats within a range of roughly 1 per second to 3 per second. Those few oscillations difference between 50 and 60 Hz don't mean anything to the heart. It would get shocked either way. Both frequencies are just as dangerous. It's the strentgh of the current that makes the difference and kills you and that depends on the device.

 

[MorphingDragon]

Maybe because the voltage in Europe is higher, it somehow damaged the battery cells during the charge in his iPhone.

I heard a little sorta like hissing sound while I was on the phone. It sounded like a hard drive on my laptop. Hope it's not the same as his.

The Mains Power of the Country is negligible. The voltage once gone through the computer is exactly the same as any other country.

I think this isnt a battery problem.
The battery releasing Hydrogen Gas wouldn't cause a shatter pattern like that. It looks like the pattern was evenly distributed. Like it was run over by something heavy.

 

[sintra1]

Those that are looking at electronic failure are FAR OFF the mark.

I will give you ALL THE ANSWER its nothing to do with electronics.

This has ALL the hallmarks of high levels of nickel sulphide within the glass compound, and is a well known phenomenon within the glass processing industries.
Glass toughening reduces the risk by a using heat to crystalize the nickel sulphide and rapid cooling to Set the structure process but its not fool proof.
Nickel Sulphide de-stabilizes glass and leads to this type spontaneous breakage

A small portion of faulty glass still gets through from time to time and then lets say add finger acid/oils and you WILL see this effect albeit very rarely

With several million units now in use worldwide you would expect at least few hundreds to be effected.
OH and any other users of similar glass touch screen technology WILL also see this phenomenon at similar % rates.

As an aside the 3Gs coating may well be part of the risk reduction process more so than just reducing smudgy finger prints.

For those interested go do research on Nickel Sulphide and glass.

 

[macchiato2009]

Absolute nonsense. 50Hz and 60 Hz means 50 and 60 oscillations PER SECOND. Our heart beats within a range of roughly 1 per second to 3 per second. Those few oscillations difference between 50 and 60 Hz don't mean anything to the heart. It would get shocked either way. Both frequencies are just as dangerous. It's the strentgh of the current that makes the difference and kills you and that depends on the device.

i don't have the proper explanation and it has probably nothing to do this frequency

but 110V seems more dangerous than 220V even if you can both die with 110 and 220

i've heard about many casualties about 110V

 

[chrono1081]

I'm skeptical. How is it that everytime Apple releases something (iPhone or iPod) there's always at least 3 reports of them exploding? It never happens in the US, always in Europe or the odd case Japan.

+1

If these do happen I have a feelings its a case of user abuse.

I did have a 1st gen nano thats battery bulged and broke the case open. Not suprising since the person I gave it to had it in a hot car all day. I still buy iPods though cause its an electronic device with a battery. It can happen just like with ANY device with a battery.