Phil Schiller Says iPhone 5 Scratching 'Normal' for Any Aluminum Product

[thermodynamic]

just buy a case....and you will not have any scuffing. Simple.

Wrong.

A company should have standards and step in if their subcontractor isn't complying with the submitted specs.

But then, had a rubber sheath not been enough to fix what a previous CEO was warned by an engineer long before he allowed the iphone 4 to go to market... and that CEO told customers they held the phone wrong... any one of us as a a marketer or CEO being so blatantly disrespectful to customers wouldn't last long, unless our customers were so entrenched that to migrate would be too costly... so if Apple consciously put out a product it knew had a problem, who's to say subsequent versions were made maliciously by the subcontractor to drive down the company image? It's just as probable Apple told foxconn to skimp on quality components to prevent their already low profit margins from shrinking farther... if you call 75% low, of course...

Or do you think it's okay for companies to pawn off every defect and to tell their CUSTOMERS to swallow it? So why do you enable such bad attitudes and behaviors? Why is it always the customer who gets to hear one thing but endure the opposite of it in the end?

Enough's enough.

Support moral and ethical businesses and tell the unethical to move to the land they love to exploit. They'd be a perfect fit, since we've all been raised that communism is unethical and immoral...

 

[jcbauerca]

bump

 

[MacGuffin]

How to handle unappreciative consumers: the Schiller Method

Schiller: Any aluminum product may scratch or chip with use, exposing its natural silver color. That is normal.​

There, little consumer. You've been handled!

 

[AustinIllini]

Playing the role of Steve Ballmer: Phil Schiller!

 

[sehnsucht77]

this is pretty minor. get a case and be done with it. the thing is gonna get used heavily anyway. all this complaining- whole lotta wah-burgers with a side of french-cries.

 

[jaysen]

You're scuffing it wrong.

Duh...

 

[69650]

I disagree. A scuffed phone is a perfectly usable phone—far more so than a phone that drops calls and shatters when dropped. The iPhone 5 hardware is performing impressively in every test they throw at it. Sure, it would be great if Apple could somehow improve the hardness of the outer coating… but this is nothing like the iPhone 4's antenna issue, which affected actual performance of the phone for many people.

The maps issue is bigger… but thankfully that's software and has the potential to be fixed retrospectively.

Form over function?? We're discussing superficial scuffing of the surface here, something which doesn't affect the function at all! By moving to the aluminium unibody design, Apple has given us an iPhone that is incredibly resistant to serious damage when dropped (see this article), so I would argue the opposite. Apple has sacrificed the aesthetics somewhat with this release to give us a much more durable phone—'durable' in a way that protects its functioning, not its superficial appearance so much.

We shall see. It seems like one problem after the next at the moment. So far we've had problems with scuffs/scratches and maps. I read today that there are problems with the lightning connectors and now it seems the camera produces a purple haze in certain circumstances. They've even managed to manufacture some units with the plus/minus volume controls the wrong way around. Not to mention the ongoing problems at Foxconn including the recent riots and deaths, for which Apple always seems to get the blame. I really don't like the thought that my iPhone 5 could be built by slave labour.

I don't know if these are just teething problems or a sign of something more but it does knock one's confidence in the iPhone 5. Even the share price has been tumbling the past few days.

I'm waiting for EE to launch the first 4G/LTE network in the UK later this year before I decide which phone to upgrade to. Let's see what else goes wrong before then.

PS I don't share your views on the scratching issue. If I'm paying a lot of money for a mobile phone the very least I expect is for it to be durable and not to scratch within a few days of using it. To me that is very poor design and/or manufacturing. It doesn't affect the performance of the device but it still should not be happening. It's never happened on any of the other mobile phones I've owned over the years and non of them cost anywhere near as much as the iPhone does.

 

[jaysen]

Wrong.

A company should have standards and step in if their subcontractor isn't complying with the submitted specs.

But then, had a rubber sheath not been enough to fix what a previous CEO was warned by an engineer long before he allowed the iphone 4 to go to market... and that CEO told customers they held the phone wrong... any one of us as a a marketer or CEO being so blatantly disrespectful to customers wouldn't last long, unless our customers were so entrenched that to migrate would be too costly... so if Apple consciously put out a product it knew had a problem, who's to say subsequent versions were made maliciously by the subcontractor to drive down the company image? It's just as probable Apple told foxconn to skimp on quality components to prevent their already low profit margins from shrinking farther... if you call 75% low, of course...

Or do you think it's okay for companies to pawn off every defect and to tell their CUSTOMERS to swallow it? So why do you enable such bad attitudes and behaviors? Why is it always the customer who gets to hear one thing but endure the opposite of it in the end?

Enough's enough.

Support moral and ethical businesses and tell the unethical to move to the land they love to exploit. They'd be a perfect fit, since we've all been raised that communism is unethical and immoral...

Very well said...

 

[69650]

this is pretty minor. get a case and be done with it. the thing is gonna get used heavily anyway. all this complaining- whole lotta wah-burgers with a side of french-cries.

It's comments like this that make me wish there was a "vote down" button on this forum.

A 700 quid phone that you still can't use without needing a case. Unbelievable.

 

[KdParker]

Wrong.

A company should have standards and step in if their subcontractor isn't complying with the submitted specs.

But then, had a rubber sheath not been enough to fix what a previous CEO was warned by an engineer long before he allowed the iphone 4 to go to market... and that CEO told customers they held the phone wrong... any one of us as a a marketer or CEO being so blatantly disrespectful to customers wouldn't last long, unless our customers were so entrenched that to migrate would be too costly... so if Apple consciously put out a product it knew had a problem, who's to say subsequent versions were made maliciously by the subcontractor to drive down the company image? It's just as probable Apple told foxconn to skimp on quality components to prevent their already low profit margins from shrinking farther... if you call 75% low, of course...

Or do you think it's okay for companies to pawn off every defect and to tell their CUSTOMERS to swallow it? So why do you enable such bad attitudes and behaviors? Why is it always the customer who gets to hear one thing but endure the opposite of it in the end?

Enough's enough.

Support moral and ethical businesses and tell the unethical to move to the land they love to exploit. They'd be a perfect fit, since we've all been raised that communism is unethical and immoral...

scuffing to communism....quite a leap.

 

[subsonix]

Is this for real? Let's put it another way, what materials don't scratch, ballistic steel and diamond.

 

[KdParker]

It's comments like this that make me wish there was a "vote down" button on this forum.

A 700 quid phone that you still can't use without needing a case. Unbelievable.

Then don't buy one...there are other choices.

 

[kalsta]

Sounds like you don't understand what anodizing is. It's not both.

The colour is applied after anodising using dyes. Look it up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anodizing#Dyeing

 

[kalsta]

PS I don't share your views on the scratching issue. If I'm paying a lot of money for a mobile phone the very least I expect is for it to be durable and not to scratch within a few days of using it. To me that is very poor design and/or manufacturing. It doesn't affect the performance of the device but it still should not be happening. It's never happened on any of the other mobile phones I've owned over the years and non of them cost anywhere near as much as the iPhone does.

Yeah, look I'm willing to accept that maybe it's a bigger issue than I first thought—with the black version at least. Personally, I'd be willing to accept the relative softness of aluminium (even anodised aluminium) for the benefits of this new unibody design—lightness and structural durability. It's performing amazingly well in drop tests, and some of that may even be due to the fact that aluminium is relatively soft and deforms slightly on impact, presumably absorbing some of the shock. But as soon as you colour the outer layer with black (or other colours, as is the case with the soon to be released iPod Touches), you draw attention to every nick and scratch. So I think that's the real issue here.

I thought I read someone saying that the old coloured aluminium iPod minis were a lot more resistant to scratching… Perhaps Apple really has compromised on the surface treatment here. That would be a great shame if it's true.

I was only thinking this morning that I'd buy an iPhone 5 which is white (uncoloured aluminium) on the back, and black on the front—if only Apple made that option available!

 

[kalsta]

Yea, because the back panel can be replaced in just a few minutes and it looks like brand new and can be sold as looking very new.

What am I supposed to do with a dented and gouged unibody housing? Replace the phone?

I guess you have more disposable money than I do.

Ha, ha… I wish mate. I'm still sporting an iPhone 3G! Remember those? It looks like rubbish, with a fair amount of dust now creeping in between the screen and front glass panel. And I wouldn't have a clue as to how to get the glass off and clean it up, or in the case of the iPhone 4 how to replace it. Nor would most iPhone owners. So I think a phone which survives a drop, albeit with a little superficial scratch or dent, is preferable to a shattered (and potentially dangerous) glass back. You say it can be replaced in 'a few minutes', but I'm sure you're not factoring in the time to source and purchase the glass, general downtime of your broken phone and associated inconvenience, etc. Then there's the investment of time associated with selling on eBay or wherever and trying to get that good resale price you're after. If you added all that up, I reckon I might still be ahead of you when I give or throw my iPhone 3G away.

 

[Skoal]

Every time there is a defect in its products, Apple call it a feature.

#iLost with Apple Maps is a feature. It will improve over time.
Antenagate is a feature; you're holding it wrong.
Aluminum back is easily scratched, it's normal.

Apple would never apologize, just like Mitt Romney.

Why should Apple apologize for you scratching the surface of your phone. They didn't do it, you did! I don't get your logic. Anodized metal will scuff and scratch. I'ts a given and anyone thinking that it wouldn't is dumb. Guess what. Glass breaks when you drop it too and on and on.

 

[sehnsucht77]

It's comments like this that make me wish there was a "vote down" button on this forum.

A 700 quid phone that you still can't use without needing a case. Unbelievable.

what is unbelievable is people expecting this material to be impervious to cosmetic scratches. looking at the iPhone5 makes ME wonder why this thread even exists in the first place. it is anodized Al- not scratch resistant, coated ballistic military grade stainless steel.

if cosmetic scratches bother so many people the answer is simple: spend your 700 quid on something else that CAN be used without a case.

 

[gmanrique]

Any naysayer out there

Can anybody with a mint condition black iPhone post a close up picture that looks anything remotely close to the pictures shown in Apple's website?

I returned mine because of the out the box cosmetic issues (no regular wear and tear), but if it looked anything like Apple's PR pictures I would have not returned it. This is a phone, not top models that need to be photoshopped to look perfect in pictures (I'm taking about the phone, not the picture in the screen).

By the way, I decided to return it after seeing again the iPhone 5 video from Apple's website. If they dare to say all the stuff they say in the video, they better deliver.

P/ before you call me anything, this is the first time I have retuned an Apple product as opposed to exchange it if there was a problem with it, and I have a lot of Apple products, mostly made of Aluminum. I took it to the store, they opened 5 boxes (no the full box but their supposedly new also service units) and all those were worst than the original one I had. So stop the 'it is normal' BS. This is not about aluminum being indestructible, it is about a manufacturing problem that makes Apple not delivering on their own call (again watch their iPhone 5 video)

 

[kalsta]

Can anybody with a mint condition black iPhone post a close up picture that looks anything remotely close to the pictures shown in Apple's website?

I returned mine because of the out the box cosmetic issues (no regular wear and tear), but if it looked anything like Apple's PR pictures I would have not returned it.

I don't suppose you happened to take a photo of your phone before returning it? I only ask, because I'd be interested to see and compare. I had my first look at an iPhone 5 today in a JB Hi-Fi store, half expecting it to look a little rough around the edges (based on all the talk), but I thought it looked really slick. (I couldn't get a really good look at the back though, as it was locked into their vice-like display stand.)

 

[smallnshort247]

Why should such a beautiful phone be put in a case? If you needed to "case it", you failed as a designer. SO much for Johnny Ive.

I agree. I normally don't like putting cell phones into cases. I tried w/ the 4S but a week or so into it I chose to go naked w/ the phone.

 

[gmanrique]

I don't suppose you happened to take a photo of your phone before returning it? I only ask, because I'd be interested to see and compare. I had my first look at an iPhone 5 today in a JB Hi-Fi store, half expecting it to look a little rough around the edges (based on all the talk), but I thought it looked really slick. (I couldn't get a really good look at the back though, as it was locked into their vice-like display stand.)

Actually, I just saw a couple of pics here at macrumors of phones with the invisible shields etc. I can tell you, the one I returned looked bad. The polished edge was not even flat, it was wavy an it had some dents that seem to be done before the black finishing was put on it because there was no paint missing in those spots. The other problem was areas with no black around the outer rim, mostly at the edge were the seams go, or in the back, at the edge where the aluminum meets the glass.

So, it seems there are some batches with problems from some production lines.

 

[kalsta]

Actually, I just saw a couple of pics here at macrumors of phones with the invisible shields etc. I can tell you, the one I returned looked bad. The polished edge was not even flat, it was wavy an it had some dents that seem to be done before the black finishing was put on it because there was no paint missing in those spots. The other problem was areas with no black around the outer rim, mostly at the edge were the seams go, or in the back, at the edge where the aluminum meets the glass.

So, it seems there are some batches with problems from some production lines.

Doesn't sound good at all. Must be frustrating for Apple's designers too, if it's a manufacturing issue, and not an actual design flaw. As a designer myself, I know how frustrating it is, when everyone has worked hard and done a great job, only to see the final product marred by some sloppy machine operator right at the end of production.

 

[that user]

So you're saying Apple taking a step back wards on exterior case resiliency is acceptable?


Do you have any stats to back up this claim?


Your acceptable level of standards/defects appear to be lower than the average if purchasing a new item with scratches is acceptable.
Where do you get that the percentage is only 1% that have reported/received scratched phones?

I am not defending the choice of materials at all. Yes, I am a bit surprised that they went back to a material that they knew would scratch so easily. I remember having a blue iPod nano with the silver color showing through on all the edges in just months.

I don't have stats on how long it takes to scratch a stainless steel Rolex. It is just my personal experience along with of friends and family. Watch retailers would also claim that it's normal but they have free steam cleaning and polishing services whenever you think your watch looks a little too worn.

I don't think purchasing an item with scratches is acceptable. It should be impecible out of the box. It is normal for an anodized aluminum phone to scratch. Should it be normal to make aluminum phones that scratch so easily? I don't think so. My view is that the issue is not the aluminum itself but the texture and color they decided to go with that made it so visibly scratchable.

Also, I'm not claiming that only 1% is complaining about the scratching. It was an example to show how even 1% is such a great number because it's an Apple product. There's never a small issue.

 

[Zach Vega]

Can't they add a protective layer?

 

[Geminist]

Noticed the area around the black band didn't get an even black finish. Only appears in one area of the four.

Not going to make an issue out of this, but it would be nice if it was properly done like the other three sides.