Technology
Apple Knew iPhone 6 Would Bend But Released It Anyway, Says Report
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Apple was very aware of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus’s proclivity to bend, but chose to release the products anyway, according to a Motherboard investigation published Thursday.
The company discovered during tests that the iPhone 6 is 3.3 times more likely to curve than one of its immediate predecessors, the iPhone 5S, according to internal documents the tech-focused media outlet obtained. The iPhone 6 Plus was 7.2 times as likely to bend than the iPhone 5S.
Naturally, Apple almost always downplays reports of possible faults with its technology — something that seems to have occurred even more so in recent months. This instance seems no different, as Apple at first publicly denied any serious engineering or design problems.
Bending, besides its potential aesthetic downfalls, can cause such severe problems that they are described by observers as a technical epidemic. Specifically, so many consumers complained iPhone 6 and its larger version were becoming unresponsive to contact that people referred to the issue as “Bendgate” then eventually “touch disease.” The glitches led to Apple launching a repair program, albeit with a fairly steep cost.
Those measures at remediation, though, weren’t enough to stop a class action lawsuit of which the main grievance is the amount of time it took Apple to address the technical problems. Due to obligatory disclosure through court proceedings (known as discovery) for that case, Apple was forced to hand in the aforementioned internal testing documents to the court and plaintiffs’ legal representation.
“After internal investigation, Apple determined underfill was necessary to resolve the problems caused by the defect,” U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh reportedly wrote, referencing a polymer often applied to reinforce a printed circuit board (PCB), among other technical components. “Apple had used underfill on the preceding iPhone generation but did not start using it on the [touch disease-related] chip in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus until May 2016.”
The apparent delay likely allowed millions of devices to be sold before Apple was forced to address the issue.
Apple did not respond to The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment in time of publication.
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