Class Action Lawsuit Filed Over iPhone 4 Glass Breakage

[DDustiNN]

Well let's take something of similar value - a laptop. That's a portable electronic device, yes? Anddd guess what happens if you drop it? :gasp: IT BREAKS!

Did anyone ever sue Dell because they dropped a laptop and it broke?

Seriously, this conversation is just plain idiotic.

Insurance exists for a reason, and you should not expect a $700 electronic device to be indestructible.

 

[res1233]

Apple still has a piss poor design flaw in the phone no matter how you cut it. They left an edge of the glass exposed. If they had made the metal band a little wider covering the edge that would not be an issue.

Yes chances can happen that it breaks when a phone falls but the iPhone odds of breaking from being dropped is a heck of a lot higher than the rest of the phones out there and 3rd part insurance companies have provided the data to back it up. iPhone 4 has a higher accident rate than the 3G and 3GS along with other smart phones on the market.
Apple also claims it is stronger but those rates do not seem to back it up either.

A cell phone should be design to expect to take some abuse from normal wear and tear. This includs being drop hitting the ground multiple times. Includes being knock off a night stand during the night.
All that falls in normal wear and tear. Hell my blackberry get knock off the night stand about once a month when I am feeling around for my glass or going for the alarm clock. I keep my glass close to my phone so I can easily find them. The phone is the marker to help me feel for them. Do note that I am pretty much blind with out my glass and I can not exactly see on my night stand.
Or the phone gets knock off while I sleep.


Cell phones take a fair amount of abuse. The iPhone4 I would worry about keys hitting that exposed edge and causing it to crack.



It is sad that Apple had to make a bumper to fix the design flaw in the phone in terms of protecting the glass. I wonder if apple knew it failed some test and figured hey we can make more money by selling 50 cents worth plastic and packaging for 30 bucks.

You clearly don't own an iPhone 4. How do i know? If you did, you probably would have noticed that BLACK PLASTIC STRIP that is there to protect the edge of the glass from getting hit. They need to extend that slightly, but for the most part it does its job well.

 

[cgc]

Sounds like they're trying to bring a class action lawsuit against the laws of physics- specifically gravity and impulse. I really don't see the logic here.

Exactly, how dare glass break when I negligently drop it. </sarcasm> People expect everything to be perfect in every way, under all circumstances. Drives me nuuuuts.

 

[KALLT]

Harder does not mean it's unbreakable. And phones tend to break when they fall to the ground, especially when made out of glass. When you're clumsy, you should consider not to buy it or pay for an insurance. Not doing either one is your own concern, but don't blame Apple for it.

 

[Journojulz]

Trying to think of a single £500 consumer electronic i would expect to survive a 3 foot drop.....

 

[0815]

I can see where he's coming from with this. My iPhone's glass broke and I'm going to have someone help me replace it. I understand glass breaks when it drops, but I dropped it no more than 2 feet off the ground onto concrete, and it put a nice, big crack across the top of my phone.

I dropped my iPod touch off my deck onto the ground (which is concrete too) and that drop was around 6 feet off the ground, and guess what? I didn't have a case on it, and it survived with a bunch of scratches on the sides. The glass never broke (Ok, maybe a few scratches, but that's it)

This is a case that apple needs to address. We realize they like to have their products look nice, but the iPhone 4 is just too god damn fragile, unless you never leave the house or put it in a megahuge otterbox case.

the height you drop it from alone does not mean anything. It depends a lot an the angle and exact spot where it hits the device. You know, everything has a weak spot where it breaks more easily than when hit at another spot (a perfect sphere is probably the exception), than it depends on the initial 'speed', on the roughness of the concrete where it hits, .... and a million factors more. That is true for every device, not just the iPhone.

Bottom line: glass breaks if you drop it and don't blame someone else except the person who dropped it.

 

[0815]

This is not a question of whether someone would reasonably expect the claims to be true or not when buying. It's a question of deceptive advertising, which exists because companies long claimed products could do things they could not. In my mind, this is definitely a strong case. They specifically state the glass has been treated to be harder and stronger than plastic, and plastic things usually don't break when you drop them. Unfortunately, like all other class-actions, this will end with a settlement (meaningless to everyone except the lawyers) instead of a company admitting wrong-doing publicly.

deceptive advertising? Show me the ads where the claim you can drop the phone without breaking. They stated its harder and stiffer and therefore more scratch resistent ...

scratch resistent != drop proof

Well, maybe they should put a warning label on it:

"IF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND THE BASICS RULES OF PHYSICS, YOU SHOULD NOT BUY THIS DEVICE'

 

[Journojulz]

They specifically state the glass has been treated to be harder and stronger than plastic, and plastic things usually don't break when you drop them.

Harder and STIFFER - not stronger.

People with glass phones should know not to drop them.

How many £500 glass objects do you expect to survive dropping?

 

[bushido]

can we all just agree that it was a really bad decision to put glass on both sides of a phone but its ur decision to buy and use it ... end of story

 

[Namji]

Apple claims... that it is the same glass that is used in helicopters and high-speed trains. I highly doubt this. I can not see helicopters and high-speed trains having such a fragile glass to "shield" the pilots and passengers as this would be a serious safety concern.

My point?? Apple has made a false claim.

 

[meatballs]

Well let's take something of similar value - a laptop. That's a portable electronic device, yes? Anddd guess what happens if you drop it? :gasp: IT BREAKS!

Did anyone ever sue Dell because they dropped a laptop and it broke?

Seriously, this conversation is just plain idiotic.

Insurance exists for a reason, and you should not expect a $700 electronic device to be indestructible.

Another bad analogy. A laptop usually sits on a desk/table while you're using it. A cellphone is designed to be used while you're walking around.

 

[possumwater]

I wouldn't advocate for a lawsuit like this, but I can understand this guy's point. The advertising points to the glass being ultradurable and likens it to the glass used in the windshields of high speed trains and helicopters.

When I read "glass used in the windshield of a high speed train", my first thought is "wow, that must be tough and resistant to impact". At least I'd expect it to survive a 5 foot fall. However I'm pretty sure it's been demonstrated that the iPhone 4's front glass is failing at a higher rate compared to the 3GS.

It does seem like deliberately misleading advertising to me. Is it illegal? I have no idea, probably not. Just a little unethical IMO.

My line of work is Flight Safety. I'm sorry to tell you but the strength in a Helo windshield isn't what you think of as drop proof, if it were as thin as an iP4 screen. An airplane can be traveling at 400 KIAS and hit a bird, the bird will explode and blood all over your face from it...nothing is drop proof etc. Airplane and Helo are two different things, Helo’s don’t fly as fast as a fixed wing. Now if they had said an Apache…

However, I too think that iP4 advertising is misleading at best. Hopefully they will learn from this and make a better decision on screens in the future. I bet Mr. Jobs figures if you drop it, you should have to pay. He values his product deeply and I’m sure expects you to take care of it accordingly. If not, you can pay his guys a large fee for that. In business, they expect so many people to have to send said device in for repair, and they adjust the cost of the product accordingly.

 

[possumwater]

Apple claims... that it is the same glass that is used in helicopters and high-speed trains. I highly doubt this. I can not see helicopters and high-speed trains having such a fragile glass to "shield" the pilots and passengers as this would be a serious safety concern.

My point?? Apple has made a false claim.

Same tech, not same strength. In no way is a Helo windshild this thin...maybe the guage cluster's glass.

 

[fswmacguy]

Oh, for the love of-

Only in America would someone complain that glass breaks.

I should start a lawsuit because my hot coffee was hot. Oh, wait...

 

[JAT]

I agree with what you are saying but yo are also generalising the consumer...

Unfortunately many will interpret apples advertising to mean it should withstand drops as well as scratches.

You realize that you generalized people in your next paragraph. That's because generalizing makes sense. People are all very similar, part of being the same species.

Using your own words.. there are probably millions of 'morons' out there that buy iPhones, its their right to understand the advertising and therefor apples responsibility to make sure they DO in fact understand the difference between STONG and TOUGH to cite a past post of another member!

No, that is not a right. Not as stated by any government I am familiar with, nor any moral source, such as the bible.

The first case of "not thinking" was Apple in once again putting form over function and making the phone Shiny™ rather than useful and durable.

No, they did think. Quite a bit. And they went for scratch resistance in this product. Your story of an old phone...the iPhone 4 would not have received new scuffs with the same accident, not nearly the same. My 1G iPod Touch has a similar story to your former phone. My daughter threw it across our driveway. You can play connect the dots on all the gouges. Different glass, different damage.

The majority of Americans aren't engineers. When you say "harder than plastic", people assume that's what you mean in the commonly accepted meaning of stiff/hard, not a technical inference about torsional rigidity. Laws against false advertising are meant to protect a non-technical public.

Are they? One of my favorite comments, "you can't legislate stupidity". And shouldn't try. Paying for an extra smartphone for no good reason really ought to clear up a little stupidity, if you ask me.

can we all just agree that it was a really bad decision to put glass on both sides of a phone

It's not the "both sides" *, it is that they went for scratch resistant over shatter resistant. And I don't agree, scratches are far more of an issue for me, historically.

* I may not be fully correct on that comment. The stiff construction of metal between glass may also be a factor in reducing impact resistance, not sure. IANAEngineer. Regardless, that is not exactly the fault of 2 sheets of glass.

 

[Aatos.1]

Some things never change.

1) Apple's outrageous advertising hype.

2) Apple's hype causing sky high customer expectations.

3) Apple's products failure to meet those expectations.

4) Apple's ongoing denial that they caused those expectations.

5) Apple's ability to do whatever they want with little or no negative consequences.

A true testimony to the power of being supremely skilled in the art of sales & marketing. Of refining the art of manipulating people with more skill than any other tech company currently operating.

 

[fswmacguy]

Some things never change.

1) Apple's outrageous advertising hype.

2) Apple's hype causing sky high customer expectations.

3) Apple's products failure to meet those expectations.

4) Apple's ongoing denial that they caused those expectations.

5) Apple's ability to do whatever they want with little or no negative consequences.

A true testimony to the power of being supremely skilled in the art of sales & marketing. Of refining the art of manipulating people with more skill than any other tech company currently operating.

Wha- really?

1. Apple plays regular television ads and runs regular internet ads. I see more ads for Dell / HP / Toshiba than Apple.

2. Subjective.

3. Apple rarely fails to meet customer expectations. They have a lot of products coming out regularly enough that one or two bad eggs cannot stink up the henhouse.

4. Subjective.

5. Apple is a corporation just like any other company. It has a team of lawyers that handle any issues that arise just like any other company. What are you saying?


If you don't like Apple's products then don't buy them. It's not rocket science, this.

 

[uv23]

A coworker of mine dropped his brand new iPhone 4 from about the same height, and the front glass was completely destroyed. However, he took it to the apple store and they replaced the phone for him.

 

[ZipZap]

I just dont get all the apple support here.

They advertised stonger and harder glass and the purpose in doing so was to make consumers feel that the iphone 4 was more durable.

While not the only reason I bought the phone, I was impressed with these glass claims and did believe the phone I was buying was durable.

Time has proven this to be false with respect to the glass.

I believe that the problem is the design of the phone which exposes the edges of the glass increasing the likelihood of the glass to shatter.

This coupled with the fact that the screen is glued to the front glass, creates a very destructive (and expensive) potential.

So maybe the glass is typically better but thats totally negated by the design.

I'd like to see a similar class action over the antenna, which I believe is an obvious design flaw that should have been corrected and not just patched. I sure would love to use my phone naked...but that is totally impossible with my IP4.

 

[tkalleder]

accidents happen... lawsuit? overreaction!

in my opinion the glass is good and durable. got the iphone 4 on the first day available and threw it down a sandstone hill two hours after I got it by accident. It kept falling, tumbling and sliding for 10 meters, damage? Shock for some time for me, a few scratches on the aluminum+plastic around the glass and some very tiny pieces of glass splintered off at the rim. No scratches, no breaks, nothing, on front and back... fair enough for me!

phone looks pretty used now since first day but I can live with that. plastic phones would usually just break...

maybe I was just lucky but in my opinion the quality is good.

 

[bosskxx1]

No metrics

There have been so many lawsuits brought against products and almost all of them have been dismissed. In order to stand up in court there has to be specific metrics that the company publicly announces ( it should be able to survive a X newtons impact at Y angle). Virtually all companies keep this information confidential for this particular reason.

 

[thulsmans]

i dropped my 3gs from knee height and it got the spider web, however my iphone 4 which has been dropped from chest height multiple times has yet to break. just saying

 

[Stuke]

It's chemically stiffened...

which means it is more brittle (it's elastic modulus is higher, but probably steeper as well, meaning that a lower strain than usual could cause it to exceed it's elastic limit and crack). Being told it is "harder" doesn't help solve the fact that it is more brittle. What Apple should report is the improvement (if in fact it is improved) of the glass's toughness. This is the product of strain and stress (or the area under the stress-strain curve). The larger this number, the less likely the material is to break when deformed (by, for example, a puncture or impact in the glass). Therefore, being stiffer and harder doesn't mean being tougher. It's a material scientists catch 22 situation...we try to have all three but achieving high toughness (with high stiffness and hardness) usually means a composite material that can offer a place (interface between filler and matrix) for impactful energy to go when delivered to the material. Trouble is, composites are generally not transparent!

LA Weekly reports (via The Next Web) that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Apple over the iPhone 4 and its claimed propensity for breakage. The lawsuit feeds off the "Glassgate" publicity that has seen the iPhone 4 judged to be more accident-prone than other smartphones due to Apple's use of glass on both the front and back of the device.In his filing, LeBuhn cites Apple marketing materials for the iPhone 4, which claim that the "ultradurable" glass used in the iPhone 4 is "20 times stiffer and 30 times harder than plastic". According to LeBuhn, these claims are misleading at best, and his suit seeks full refunds for customers covered by the class action suit and reimbursement for any repairs made.

Article Link: Class Action Lawsuit Filed Over iPhone 4 Glass Breakage

 

[Surely]

Which sources?

https://www.macrumors.com/2010/10/12/iphone-4-more-prone-to-accidental-damage-than-3gs/

People with glass phones should know not to drop them.

I'm prrrrrrrrretty sure that people know that they shouldn't drop their iPhone. It's not like it's a choice, you know.

 

[Journojulz]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Which sources?

https://www.macrumors.com/2010/10/12/iphone-4-more-prone-to-accidental-damage-than-3gs/

People with glass phones should know not to drop them.

I'm prrrrrrrrretty sure that people know that they shouldn't drop their iPhone. It's not like it's a choice, you know.

Yes. They know they shouldn't drop their phone. Which is why they should man-up when they do - and not go crying to a lawyer like a petulant child.

These idiots are too cheap to buy a bumper, take out insurance and instead create a new job for a lawyer on a Monday that leaves him looking for something else to do on a Tuesday.

These people are drains on society we would be better off as a culture if most of them died in their sleep - or at least pursued a more productive and socially acceptable trade, like parking attendant or tax collector.

We need less leeches in our society.