Increased iPhone 5 Quality Control Standards to Address Scratches Slowing Production

[samcraig]

Apple is replacing units that have scratches out of the box.

As for the one product, my Galaxy S1 came with a small shatter-like mark on the plastic out of the box. (Not to mention the scratch in the carbon fiber back 2 days in after treating it like a gem)

Yes, Apple needs to make these phones with more care than they were, but I don't see the big deal if they're replacing them and upping the QC.

I don't see the big deal if they are replacing them either. The way I see it - if it comes scratched, you should be able to get a replacement. If it scratches easily afterwards - that's a user issue and those people will just have to live with it or return it within 30 days.

That being said - I think we both know (and can see from this thread) that Apple's loyal fans will/can justify a lot. I don't think (and I could be wrong) that if a Samsung device had this issue - that people would be pointing the finger in any other direction than Samsung. But here - people will shift the blame. One person (who I was replying to) even suggested the issue wasn't "on the line" but rather in shipping. Which is ridiculous since the reports already state it's a QA issue.

 

[joelvega125]

Another good reason to not buy on launch day. Ill sit back until Apple irons out the wrinkles of the latest iphone.

 

[cotak]

Sorry to break the news to you but realistically there are only 3 basic materials to use for a phone and each have their own advantages and disadvantages:



Plastic = easiest to scratch and easy to crack and split on hard impacts but cheap to make

Glass = Hardest to scratch, but shatters on hard impacts

Aluminum = easier to scratch than glass, but difficult to break on hard impacts and can be made thinner


Apple has already gone with the plastic and the glass idea. Not much else to choose from.

What?

Kevlar/Carbon fiber and plastic composites: Hello Moto and others, Apple supposedly looking into this

Ceramics: They can already make ceramics tough enough to armour a tank. I have ceramic plates that don't break when you drop them. It's possible.

And good quality plastics: The galaxy nexus that my wife has (she never uses cases) has a scratch in the aluminium bit that goes around the camera lens but you can't see scratches in the plastic back. She's dropped it a few times the flexible plastic back is still perfectly intact.

Just because Apple hasn't used other materials doesn't mean there aren't any other options.

 

[dcorban]

I really wish that photo would stop being used so often. What is the point of showing an intentionally damaged phone? It would be like showing a photo of a phone with the glass screen intentionally hit by a hammer and writing about how fragile the screen is.

 

[joelvega125]

I understand the need to make the device thinner. But why did it need to be lighter therefore prompting the use of aluminum? Was the iPhone 4/4s really that heavy? Did people complain about carrying it? It seems a few grams(28g to be exact) would be an insignificant advantage. I think I would be willing to trade 28g for a harder, scratch resistant material.

iPhone 5 = 3.95 ounces (112 grams).
iPhone 4s = 4.9 ounces (140 grams)

I hear ya..I dont think we need devices that are any thinner or lighter. Seriously, this is getting ridiculous. I understand thinness to a point, but I think we have reached a threshold where they can just improve what they have and quit diking with things to make it thinner and lighter.

 

[iGrip]

So in summary, Apple should use the cheapest materials possible?

The customers are nutjobs and only people that matter are the institutional investors. Would you be a shareholder by chance?

No, Apple should use the materials which yield the highest total profits. The cheapest materials might not sell as well, and the most expensive materials might cost too much. Apple knows how to choose materials which yield both high sales and high per-unit profits. That is how they please Wall Street, which is their raison d'etre.

They are not some kind of a charitable institution. They do not exist to make fussy people happy They are a business. They exist to generate profits for investors.

----------

So what your advocating is annoying your customer base so you can impress your shareholders with the quarterly earnings report....

This is what's wrong with American companies a lack of a long term strategy that you stick to. iToys are AAPL's business don't kill the golden goose for Q4 FY12 profits.

No, I advocate generating the highest possible total profits.

Rarely can one accomplish that by annoying your customer base. What Apple does is to generate high profit percentages from a moderate amount of sales, unlike other companies who make little profit on each piece and sell zillions of them, and unlike other companies who generate huge profits on small numbers of sales.

So far, it has worked very well.

Apple is neither like Wall-Mart, who uses the first strategy, nor like Ferrari, who uses the second strategy.

 

[nsayer]

This will minimize disappointment when people open the box, but they are not addressing the real issue: This thing SCRATCHES EASILY. So if the poor Foxconn employee makes a scratch free unit, it is only a matter of days (hours) before you yourself scratch it!

scratch << crack. It's much, much easier to accept that you've scratched your phone than cracked the glass. It may be easier to scratch, but the result is far less catastrophic. And if you keep your phone in a case, it's essentially impossible to scratch (it's going to be damaged some other way first).

 

[ReetC]

When I received in IP5 I kept the clear plastic protective cover on back of the phone until my IP5 case arrived in the mail a few days later. Not one scratch.

What case?

 

[Homersapien]

What's their excuse for happily boxing up and selling phones that rolled off the assembly line with defects? Premium product

 

[hollowplayer]

all phones scratch, get a case.

 

[samcraig]

all phones scratch, get a case.

I'm still baffled by comments like these. It's an obvious statement. Of course all phones scratch.

The article isn't about phones that are getting scratched "in the field." It's about QA being stricter because phones that are scratched were getting through to the customer. That's not acceptable. Whether blame should be put on Apple or Foxconn is another matter. But the issue of whether or not phones gets scratched with use is irrelevant.

 

[Ubele]

Although I've always found it ridiculous, some people pay a premium for factory-distressed blue jeans, leather jackets, and guitars, because it gives the impression that those people have been out doing cool, rugged things with their products when they really haven't. Anyway, Apple should sell the scratched iPhones as the Adventurer™ iPhone, charge an extra $25 for it, support it with ads showing some Indiana Jones-like character using it out in the bush, and give the extra proceeds to Amnesty International or some other charitable organization. That way, iPhone production rates would stay high, Foxconn workers wouldn't stress so much, image-conscious buyers would get a trendy iPhone, Amnesty International would get some money, and Apple would get good PR. It would be win-win-win-win-win.

 

[Rogifan]

When I received in IP5 I kept the clear plastic protective cover on back of the phone until my IP5 case arrived in the mail a few days later. Not one scratch.

I've done the same thing. Just removed the top piece where the camera is. I bought a clear case but didn't like it (and it scratched right away ) so I never used it. Have had my device for two weeks now and not a nick or scratch.

 

[samcraig]

Although I've always found it ridiculous, some people pay a premium for factory-distressed blue jeans, leather jackets, and guitars, because it gives the impression that those people have been out doing cool, rugged things with their products when they really haven't. Anyway, Apple should sell the scratched iPhones as the Adventurer™ iPhone, charge an extra $25 for it, support it with ads showing some Indiana Jones-like character using it out in the bush, and give the extra proceeds to Amnesty International or some other charitable organization. That way, iPhone production rates would stay high, Foxconn workers wouldn't stress so much, image-conscious buyers would get a trendy iPhone, Amnesty International would get some money, and Apple would get good PR. It would be win-win-win-win-win.

Think that would work with Jaguar or Mercedes?

 

[baummer]

And your source to back that up? Other than out of your butt?


Thought so. You can't back up your guess anymore than the blogs or even Bloomberg can back up with they are saying via actual sources.

Aluminum scratches. Any scientist will tell you that. It is a fact. And that is what Phil said.

As for the contention that they don't want to admit to a problem. Even if it existed, they don't have to. The blogs and forums have hyped up the issue so much that Apple 'admitting' it isn't going to do much to change things since everyone and their uncle is returning the phones for even a spec of dust on it already

Not sure why the hostility, but I never claimed what I said as fact, so I don't need to provide any sources. It's an educated guess based on how Apple has handled things in the past. I never said aluminum doesn't scratch, but if you know anything at all about anodizing, you know there are different levels and there are levels of anodizing that will have much better scratch protection. It appears as though Apple is using a weaker form of anodizing that has a side affect of being easy to scratch.

 

[MJD Dawg]

Let me get this right. Phil says its normal and now they want to slow production for quality control. Can you say Phil is a stone faced liar!!!!!!!!!!!


James

He's not lying...he's just managing the message. It's what marketing guys do, whether he believes there's a real issue or not.

 

[MJD Dawg]

I hear ya..I dont think we need devices that are any thinner or lighter. Seriously, this is getting ridiculous. I understand thinness to a point, but I think we have reached a threshold where they can just improve what they have and quit diking with things to make it thinner and lighter.

Exactly. Why not keep the same thickness for the iPhone 5 as they had for the iPhone 4 and use the extra space gained from the smaller components and extra height to add a larger battery. All day and night on a single charge would be a killer feature!

 

[manu chao]

Titanium + Glass > Stainless Steel + Glass

The steel part of the steel+glass combo was never a problem (except maybe a little bit regarding weight). And there is always the good question whether making 99% of your customers happier because they have a phone with a scratch-free back and making 1% of your customers less happy because they have to pay for a replacement back is better than the aluminium solution.

 

[tb5]

Statistics and Big Numbers

Do you think if apples quality control would ensure that 99,9% of all phones are perfect, that this would be enough? Would that satisfy you?

With 10 million phones shipped at a rate of 99,9% perfect phones, this would mean that 10.000, yes ten thousand! phones would be defective or scratched. With 99,99% it would still be 1.000 scratched phones!

So it is just the numbers. Think about it, do you not make mistakes in 99,9% of the task you do? Great.

But with these numbers, there would still be a huge pile (in weight of the iphone 5 more then 2.200 pounds) of junk you produced...

 

[samcraig]

Do you think if apples quality control would ensure that 99,9% of all phones are perfect, that this would be enough? Would that satisfy you?

With 10 million phones shipped at a rate of 99,9% perfect phones, this would mean that 10.000, yes ten thousand! phones would be defective or scratched. With 99,99% it would still be 1.000 scratched phones!

So it is just the numbers. Think about it, do you not make mistakes in 99,9% of the task you do? Great.

But with these numbers, there would still be a huge pile (in weight of the iphone 5 more then 2.200 pounds) of junk you produced...

If those 10K or even 1K get into the "wrong" hands - it doesn't matter if it's 1 percent or 50 percent defect rate. Meaning if a dozen or so wind up in the hands of the media - or someone who is "loud" on message boards, twitter or FB - that's really all it takes. Perception and reality are two different beasts.

 

[tb5]

If those 10K or even 1K get into the "wrong" hands - it doesn't matter if it's 1 percent or 50 percent defect rate. Meaning if a dozen or so wind up in the hands of the media - or someone who is "loud" on message boards, twitter or FB - that's really all it takes. Perception and reality are two different beasts.

that is exactly what i mean!

people think with a few thousand defective phones, there would be a lousy quality control, whereas it is probably already very tight.

but it will be unavoidable with such huge numbers, that there will be some strange and totally unexpected occurrences (apart from scratches) in any business

 

[samcraig]

that is exactly what i mean!

people think with a few thousand defective phones, there would be a lousy quality control, whereas it is probably already very tight.

but it will be unavoidable with such huge numbers, that there will be some strange and totally unexpected occurrences (apart from scratches) in any business

Again - doesn't matter though what "reality" is. If people perceive there's a problem - then there's a problem.

Think of it as the RDF in reverse

 

[msimpson]

Jony like Ah-loo-MEE-noom

Apple announced today the new special iPhone 5s - with custom all silver aluminum case.

Rumors out of FoxComm in China are workers are much happier now, and have promised to stop scratching the black iPhone 5 cases. FoxConn also promised to not make them all work through the national holidays next year.

Cost will be $25 over iPhone 5 prices, but a portion of the proceeds will go to the "Milk the Memories of a Great Dead Man" fund to pay for long-term care of all the writers and media organizations who will be out of work when the memory of Steve Jobs has faded and they can't make money off of re-telling someone else's recollection of a story 20 years ago.

RIP Steve. Thanks.

 

[davelanger]

It's a non issue since the scratches wipe off

 

[StyxMaker]

Don't you have to pay more for 'distressed' blue jeans?