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Class Action Lawsuit Filed Over iPhone 4 Glass Breakage

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anubis said:
On the one hand, if the guy was simply suing because his phone broke after he dropped it, it would be ridiculous. On the other, you do have to admit how the claims of "30x harder and 20x stiffer than plastic" could easily be interpreted to mean that the glass is 20x or 30x less prone to cracking than plastic when dropped, and if you had an all-plastic phone it probably wouldn't break with a 3-foot drop.
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You could argue that if you read into it something that wasn't actually said.
 
Kilamite said:
Does he think Apple has engineering some sort of magical glass that won't shatter? Apple says their glass is strong and scratch resistant, but some on, does he expect any phone's glass to not smash when dropped?

He's dropped his 3G more than once (similar heights, not similar height), his daughter's dropped her phone.

Maybe they should work on holding the phone so they don't drop it, or buy a case, because they seem pretty clumsy to me.
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harsh words from you. i had my phone drop off of a small table, less than 3 feet high, and the glass broke.

So... i am a believer that this is an issue. not just a lawyer trying to make $$
 
That's not the worst case for Apple. Just wait until they get sued for claiming that their devices are "magical". It's really not that hard to prove that they are not.
 
Good for him.
I'm not impressed with the glass "durability" either.

I have more fine scratches than my 1st gen iPhone got over 3 years of heavy use with NO CASE. I have been extra careful since I got the 4, but it mattered not.
 
I don't know where I stand with this, I can understand why the the person is filing a lawsuit. I know that glass isn't invincible but, I personally find it hard to believe plastic would break from 3 feet, I've got an ipod touch 2g, I've dropped it several times, and it didn't break..

So I guess its a bit false advertising on Apples part? because it says that its 20x stiffer, 30x harder then plastic..

Or maybe it was dropped higher then the 3 feet...

Either way, Apple replacing it would be a better way to go then dealing with a lawsuit..
 
Its a glass phone that sells for £500.
If you drop it - guess what is likely to happen?

Sheesh we need to get these idiots out of the gene pool.


Yamcha said:
So I guess its a bit false advertising on Apples part? because it says that its 20x stiffer, 30x harder then plastic.
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Such figures are scientifically measurable - they are either true or not.
 
Surely said:
They shouldn't market it this way. It causes people to believe that the glass is special and won't break.

From the iPhone 4 page on Apple's website:
View attachment 269165

Perhaps Apple should be held accountable for that type of marketing?

All I know is that if I were to drop a 3GS and an iPhone 4 from the same height, there is no chance that the back of the 3GS will crack. There is a good chance that the back of the iPhone 4 will crack. How does that make the glass 20x stiffer and 30x harder than plastic?
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yes - more SCRATCH resistance ... doesn't say it won't break if dropped, plastic also has the potential to break if dropped. No one said it is unbreakable - especially if you are careless and give it to your small child as toy as this guy did. Glas - even is scratch resistance - still will break if dropped on hard floor, no PhD required to understand this - just some common sense.
 
aperry said:
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.
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Understand that this may be exactly the same glass or the same treatment process to glass that is used in Helicopter canopies and Bullet Train windshieds. But, there is one MAJOR difference. The thickness of the glass. iPhone's glass is the same as helicopter canopies, but it is also only 1mm or so thick, where canopies are 1/2 in to 3/4 inch thick. It's strength is the same chemically, however, the thickness has a huge impact on it's durability and it's propensity to crack, shatter or chip.
 
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Exactly!! How does dropping the phone fall under "normal" use.
 
topomango said:
my phone fell down from 2 feet and the glass broke in a 1K pieces. I went to the Apple $tore and I had to pay $200 for a replacement phone. it sucks. Still I do not get why I have to return my broken phone and pay $200 on top, I think this is a scam, since that they make twice the money, replacing the screen and resell it.
btw, at the store there were tons of people with the same problem, we all had to pay, they do not give a .... the official scuse that they repeat as a mantra is : it is glass, it breaks easy. My iphone was inside an official sleeve when it fell. If it is so delicate, it is scary, putting a piece of so fragile glass so close to your intimate parts in the front pocket of my jeans. If the jeans are too thigh it may break and cause you serious damage, think about it for a second, you apple fanboy... would you put a champagne glass in your front pocket of your pans?
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You shouldn't have. I kept my broken 3G and used it as an iPod touch (carefully). Any time you upgrade you get to keep your hardware. Sold our 3G and 3Gs after I got the 4.
 
meh. it happens.. happened to my friends week old iphone4 when it came out. He was sitting on his couch and i was sitting across from him... he was texting and dropped it accidentally from 2-2.5 feet to the ground. It was carpeted, the hard industrial building type though, haha. It cracked the back side of his ip4. Then I proceeded to remove the casing on my 3gs and threw it next to where his ip4 had dropped.. face down.. and nothing. Not even a scratch on my nude 3gs. He did go back to get it replaced, w/o having to yell or argue his case. They just gave him a new one.
 
I just thought of something

Apple may want to conduct an investigation into the company making the glass and the company assembling the iphone. More than once (would take too long to find exact articles) companies (to increase profits) started cutting back on the material used and got sloppy with assembly to roll out products quicker and at lower cost. That is the risk with outsourcing. Sometimes the company did not know the company they outsourced to, did this until many complaints started coming in. By this time the damage was done, it was hard to go after the outsourcing company for compensation (if they are even in business anymore). the brand got a bad rap for selling the product. You did not really even hear about the company that made the component that failed. Look up "Dell Knowingly sold defective computers" It was caused by a bad / leaking transistor from a 3rd party company. The kicker - it effected everyone: Dell, Apple, HP, IBM, etc. Just Dell chose to cover it up and keep selling and delivering the defective machines with a 90% failure rate and hassling people over warranty.

At one company I worked for, they bought a server with certain specs. The hard drive failed 2 months later. They opened it up and found the server was made with laptop drives, not what was advertised. The server was made overseas and being sold through distributors under a big company name.
 
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If that is how he feels then he has every right not to buy it, but not to buy it break it then complain because it's made of glass.
 
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Kilamite said:
Does he think Apple has engineering some sort of magical glass that won't shatter? Apple says their glass is strong and scratch resistant, but some on, does he expect any phone's glass to not smash when dropped?

He's dropped his 3G more than once (similar heights, not similar height), his daughter's dropped her phone.

Maybe they should work on holding the phone so they don't drop it, or buy a case, because they seem pretty clumsy to me.
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I'm not defending the lawsuit, but if memory serves correctly, when Apple announced the iPhone4, everyone was speculating how tough this "new" glass would be.

As soon as fixit sites got their hands on the device they started testing these claims. Heck, much was said about how the back of the device scratches easily.

My point: as consumers, we were all led to believe before launch that this material was tough enough to withstand a beating. Even the "This changes everything" video, Ivey is promoting the design showing machines bending it without any breaks. I myself thought "WOW!" this is gonna be awesome.

My wife dropped hers from about 2 feet and the front shattered. We went to Apple and spent $199 to get it replaced.

I think their is some validity to the claim
we were all misled a bit on the strength of the glass.

With that said, I sport my iPhone naked style and wouldn't trade it in for any other phone on the market!
 
Well, it depends, I think it might be considered normal usage, I think everyone will drop an iphone or ipod once regardless.. I've dropped mines many times..

So I guess it depends on what Apple's definition of normal usage is.. And anyway, u have to admit that its quite expensive to have them repair it.. I don't know what warranty coverage is on iPhones but the iPhone itself is not a cheap phone..
 
Stiffer than plastic - yes
Stronger than plastic - yes
More shatter proof than plastic - heck no.
More scratch resistant - yes (but they never claimed that it was completely scratch resistant)

There's the end of the lawsuit right there. Where Does Apple say it's shatter resistant? The stiffer the product is, the more likely it is to shatter. The less stiff a piece is, the more like it is to absorb the impact of a fall.
 
yakkonvazn said:
meh. it happens.. happened to my friends week old iphone4 when it came out. He was sitting on his couch and i was sitting across from him... he was texting and dropped it accidentally from 2-2.5 feet to the ground. It was carpeted, the hard industrial building type though, haha. It cracked the back side of his ip4. Then I proceeded to remove the casing on my 3gs and threw it next to where his ip4 had dropped.. face down.. and nothing. Not even a scratch on my nude 3gs. He did go back to get it replaced, w/o having to yell or argue his case. They just gave him a new one.
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Yes it happens, I don't think anybody can honestly arguing with that. But when I dropped my old iPhone 3G and it broke, I sucked it up and payed - since it was ME who dropped it and broke it ... I didn't run around looking for someone to blame and make pay. You know, I learned long time ago that when glas objects hit some concrete floor that chances are it breaks.
 
I have a white iPhone 3G since more than two years and it looks like new. Not one single scratch in the glass even if you look carefully with a loupe and in all possible view- and light-angles. Although I tried not to put it into the same bag with coins and keys—I was not paranoid. I never used a transparent protective foil. When I went outside I used a Griffin Clarifi Case (leaves the screen unprotected but offers a frame).

The same with my new iPhone 4: Not a single scratch since Oct on both sides. Using original Apple Bumper Case since the very beginning (for almost all time and not only outside; highly recommended because it overlaps both sides with a 1-mm-frame—so you can lay it down flat surfaces without any chance to scratch). I never used a protective foil for my iPhone 4 as well.

I have some friends with iPhones (15-20) and it's generally the same with their devices. Just one guy managed it to smash his iPhone 3GS' screen and he had a really hard time to replace it by himself (needed not 2 hours as expected but 10 although he is technically well-versed.)

The glass is absolute high-quality. Not to compare at all with ANY plastic smartphone!
 
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Stupid

This guy ain't gonna win this one, methinks. Common sense tells you anything will break under certain circumstances.

A few years ago my wife was in Peru and staying at a hotel in the rain forest. When she went into the bathroom one night there was a huge tarantula on the wall. She slammed the door and called the front desk and complained. The manager told her, "Madame, this is the rain forest." She understood. She also stayed out of the bathroom.
 
I don't support this 'Glass Action' lawsuit.

However, I do wish the engineers over at :apple: would have made it super easy to replace either side of the case, 'in case' of breakage.

This fragile part should be user replaceable. I don't mind paying the price of the replacement part, just make it simple for me to do the job myself!

Engineered so that, "if you can change a light bulb, you can replace the glass yourself!"
 
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What an idiot. "Normal use" does not include dropping the phone from a height of 3 feet.

I've had mine since launch day. Looks great, works great. If I ever drop it and it breaks, I promise I won't file a lawsuit.
 
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