Apple Launches 'Touch Disease' Repair Program for iPhone 6 Plus

[Attirex]

you're dropping it wrong.

 

[SBlue1]

This will become huge in the next few months as the phones get older.
[doublepost=1479431918][/doublepost]

Not a design issue. If you drop your phone, it's your fault. Simple.

Dude, did you read what he has written?? LOL.

 

[tentales]

....tldr;

All of this being said, is it Apple's fault? Well, yes ultimately of course it is.

That's all that matters. Apple used to repair their devices (for free) even when culpability was uncertain. It garnered them that loyalty that they're now starting to piss on.

 

[JosephAW]

Apple's transformaiton from the rebel jogger in the 1984 commercial to the authoritarian on the projection screen is now complete.

"Today we celebrate the first glorious anniversary of the Information Purification Directives.
We have created for the first time in all history a garden of pure ideology, where each worker may bloom, secure from the pests of any contradictory true thoughts.
Our Unification of Thoughts is more powerful a weapon than any fleet or army on earth.
We are one people, with one will, one resolve, one cause.
Our enemies shall talk themselves to death and we will bury them with their own confusion.
We shall prevail!"

Did you see that video about apple's inventing room, free from distractions that can kill a fragile ideas. Sounds like 1984.

 

[lordofthereef]

Wow. Might be the nail in the coffee for me. Of all the things in 2016... Apple too.

 

[rawweb]

I'm on my 4th iPhone 6+ under AppleCare+, all had touch disease symptoms among other issues. I just had my latest one swapped this past weekend for this very issue. Very nervous at my long term outlook as my AppleCare ends on December 1 and I currently don't have a desire or cash flow to get a upgrade. Really hoping the refurb swap I received does not end up experiencing this issue.

 

[physicsprof]

yes, that's what i'm saying.

the video is from ifixit -- they aren't apple. they can only guess at what causes things. apple studied it and determined what actually causes it. repeated drops.

sorry you dropped your phone, bro.

Oh absolutely. After all Apple is a totally uninterested, neutral party in this. I mean, why would they lie and blame it on the user? (Edit: do I need to add a sarcasm alert...?)

 

[Lord Flashheart]

That's all that matters. Apple used to repair their devices (for free) even when culpability was uncertain. It garnered them that loyalty that they're now starting to piss on.

Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner. I remember when one of my MacBook Pros got super hot and burned. It was replaced with an equivalent new model(Maxed out version), out of Apple Care warranty (I did have to move up to higher CS Rep). Now...

 

[BootsWalking]

To all of the "Metal Shield" vs "Sticker" Oooooh this is a design flaw people. First, I've seen the video and the claims by the assembly person making these speculations are exactly that. Speculations. This person is NOT a mechanical engineer. This person is NOT an EMI Electrical Engineer. She is a skilled assembly person simply noting that the phones with the shield don't exhibit the problem where the ones with the sticker do. That being said, NEITHER THE SHIELD NOR THE STICKER were designed with the intent of keeping IC's from becoming unsoldered. The EMI shield does have the property that it provides mechanical strength to the PCB, thus minimizing what is probably mechanical flexing which is probably the part of the root cause of the solder balls becoming detached.

Being an IC designer for some 30 years and working in the PC industry for just as long, anyone who has done this kind of work would immediately recognize this issue as most likely 1) a solder ability issue and 2) perhaps a mechanical issue with flexing on the PCB that has problems with the IC becoming detached. My 2cents is it is a manufacturing issue relating to either the type of solder used or the process control or lack thereof relating to how the IC's were originally put on the board. If it was a rampant design flaw then a substantially larger sample of phones would be failing with this problem. Given the fact that this large failure rate does not exist, I'd point my finger to the solder reflow line and what was going on at the time of the failed units. It would not surprise me at all to know (us on the outside will never find this out) that the failing units may all in fact be traced to a specific line or a specific period in time and something happened on the manufacturing line to cause weak solder joints.

All of this being said, is it Apple's fault? Well, yes ultimately of course it is. Is it the design change from a shield to sticker the cause for the problem? I would say no. The design change exacerbated the problem but I don't believe it's the root cause, which, as an engineer, you are most interested in solving. The design change to the stickers from the shield, looking at both a manufacturing cost and a design profile design was probably a very desirable change. Making the change, however, allowed devices that came off the line with the weak solder joints to fail.

I'm not going to get into the muck of who should pay and who should not. Have at it. I just wanted to put my 2c in on what I believe is the real root cause of the problem. And.... like I said.... because of certain liabilities, you and I will never really know but I would guarantee you there is a manufacturing engineer or two at Apple and their assembly plant that know EXACTLY why these units failed and I'd be more that willing to bet EMI shields have NOTHING to do with the root cause of the problem.

Fair points but getting to the root cause is mostly academic (and for Apple's own edification) since the extra IC mounting protections (shield, underflow) outlined in the video would likely have avoided the failure symptoms even with the root cause unaddressed. As for how many failed units there are and what that may indicated in terms root cause, hard to speculate at this point because we really don't know how many units are affected.

 

[bladerunner2000]

But but but... iPhone's are perfect and only Android has problems!

 

[BootsWalking]

Anyone else see the irony in how Apple says this issue is caused by people dropping their phones whereas their solution to the Apple III motherboard issue was to tell people to pick up the computer and drop it?

 

[tentales]

Apple's transformaiton from the rebel jogger in the 1984 commercial to the authoritarian on the projection screen is now complete.

A new startup needs to come along and create an ad depicting a free-climber descending into the walled garden full of weeds, trolls and worshippers and levelling the walls to reveal an open Sierra landscape.

 

[bladerunner2000]

Anyone else see the irony in how Apple says this issue is caused by people dropping their phones whereas their solution to the Apple III motherboard issue was to tell people to pick up the computer and drop it?

You know, there are still a lot of people that can't accept that reality... a lot of those kinds of people are right here on MacRumors.

 

[Porco]

By Apple's own logic, either:

1) the iPhone 6 Plus has a specific and exclusive design flaw that means dropping it too often causes this issue,

or

2) all the iPhone 6 Plus users with this issue dropped these phones but never dropped any other iPhone model since 2007's original iPhone.

If it's the former, it's Apple's fault for making a phone out of materials that can't survive the same use as the 14 other different iPhone models they made.

If it's the latter, one has to ask why everyone is dropping *only* the iPhone 6 Plus (shape and size?), and whether it might be a concern for recent iPhone 7 Plus purchasers pretty soon, seeing as the form is so similar. (I am thinking 'no...' because I am going with scenario number 1, and there is an inherent design flaw, regardless of being dropped or not!).

So I think it's disgraceful to try and charge people more money to fix your lemons, Apple.

 

[H2SO4]

are you trolling? not everyone dropped their phones. Sometimes the flex in the iphone eventually leads to the failure.

This. I'm shocked you all can't see this guy is trolling you.
Next, breaking news. BMW agree to fix cars for free when the user has crashed them a few times.

 

[tentales]

Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner. I remember when one of my MacBook Pros got super hot and burned. It was replaced with an equivalent new model(Maxed out version), out of Apple Care warranty (I did have to move up to higher CS Rep). Now...

I was in Munich in 2003 on a Friday night, with my then 1 week old brand new PowerBook G4, that I'd bought at an Apple store in California. Plugged in a 3rd party firewire drive and it somehow killed the logic board in the G4.

My Monday presentation was screwed, or so I thought. Apple repaired the PBG4 over the weekend at no cost, at an AASP and offered me an alternative firewire drive at a substantial discount. I had just returned to the Mac at that time after 6 years on Windows and this single service action made me loyal to Apple for the next decade.

More so than their design, their service used to be 1st class, now you're just paying like first class.

 

[dlx86]

I will have what you been smoking.

I don't know that you do, you'll become a blind Apple fanboy that ignores any kind of negativity.

 

[drewnamis]

Ugh. Literally hours after I traded in my iPhone 6+ because it started exhibiting problems.

 

[BornAgainMac]

Admitting it yet while charging $149 doesn't really seem like admitting it.

Well, they admitted they needed $149.

 

[akash.nu]

"some iPhone 6 Plus devices may exhibit Multi-Touch issues after "being dropped multiple times on a hard surface," causing damage to the device."

Apple's customer service fixes the stupidity of many yet again. You drop it, you pay for it. Sucks to be clumsy, Apple shouldn't have to do this, but they are and that's one reason why I stick with them.

I genuinely think Apple is downplaying this issue and charging customers where they should've done it for free as its a manufacturing defect. We all know it.

Apple under Tim Cook is definitely not the same anymore. Jobs may have been arrogant but knew how to get such things sorted.

 

[ArmCortexA8]

Apple's own site indicates "Apple has determined that some iPhone 6 Plus devices may exhibit display flickering or Multi-Touch issues after being dropped multiple times on a hard surface and then incurring further stress on the device." This therefore implies all users who have the issue are responsible - talk about making accusations without proof - just get a statutory declaration advising the phone has never been dropped, etc.

This is why the charge is being implemented because Apple have not admitted its a manufacturing defect which would be $0 cost, instead it's inferred the owner has caused it. It's being treated as accidental damage.

As always read the fine-print -

* Apple may restrict or limit repair to the original country of purchase. - so if you purchased your phone from a country you no longer reside in, this repair may be difficult.

* Pricing offered by Apple Authorised Service Providers may vary. So AASP's may charge more than the US$149 repair cost.

 

[HailstormX]

I have had a few friends with this issue. For one of them a year ago we took the phone to the Apple Store and tried to get it fixed as a display replacement. They tried it of course still didn't fix the issue. But they were good about it replaced the phone for the 129 price vs idk 299 or something like that.

I didn't read the article just saw touch disease repair program and got excited thinking wow good job apple for owning it. Boy I was wrong... this is Pathetic...149.99 for a repair on a 2 year old phone?... Why announce a repair option for a very specific design issue and charge for it.. Just seems like apple is loosing the magic on all fronts. This doesn't affect me directly but its been always good to know when issues show up apple usually does the right thing.
I'm really second guessing that now.

 

[BarcelonaPaul]

So the richest company in the world now charging its owners to repair a poor design.
I thought that Apple couldn't go any lower when it put the 20% price increase on the UK but wow, this is low!
My instinct tells me that dealing with Apple is now like dealing with the devil. American capitalism at its greediest!
I'd like to be positive on this post, but, Apple's greed is pretty repulsive.

 

[FasterQuieter]

Bad Apple. Bad.

 

[BlargKing]

What did you expect? Apple admit they made a poor design choice that resulted in substantial failure rates on a flagship product? This is Apple, not Samsung. Apple never makes mistakes after all.

Sarcasm by the way.

So now they just turned a poor design choice into a way to gouge more money out of its userbase.

My brother's iPhone got touch disease. He ate the cost of the phone and went and bought a Galaxy S7 rather than give Apple anymore money.