Since reports have surfaced of its iPhones
exploding randomly across the European continent, Apple has been trying to keep
a low profile while dealing with the situation.
Earlier in August, a European Commission spokeswoman said Apple was looking
into a situation it considered to be “isolated incidents” and said it was aware
of the media reports, which include a case in which a teenager in France
was slightly injured when his iPhone began to make a hissing noise before
shattering.
Now it seems Apple has determined “external force” to be the primary culprit
in the crackups. Following the opening for an investigation by French
authorities in the wake of numerous cases of reported iPhone malfunctions,
Apple determined there is nothing in the manufacturing process, and certainly
nothing wrong with overheating batteries.
“In all cases the glass cracked due to an external force that was applied to
the iPhone,” London-based spokesman for Apple Europe Alan Hely said in an e-mail to Bloomberg
news service. “There are no confirmed battery overheating incidents for iPhone
3GS, and the number of reports we are investigating is in the single digits.”
However, according to AP, Herve
Novelli, France's
secretary of state for trade and consumer affairs, met with Michel Coulomb,
Apple's French commercial director, to discuss the "causes of the
implosion of these devices and eventual measures they could take." Novelli
has since confirmed Apple's interim findings, but also said non-Apple experts
in the United States
are examining three problematic iPhones brought from France
and are planning additional tests.
"The first results show, according to Apple management, that the
iPhones weren't damaged by a battery defect leading to an explosion, but that
there had been a prior shock that cracked the screens," he said.
Apple’s iPhone combustion issue may not be going away so quickly, however. AP
also reported Frank Benoiton, of Acheres-la-Foret south of Paris,
found his wife’s iPhone shattered without any prior warning. The phone’s
carrier, Orange, and Apple
originally declined to replace the phone, claiming the damage was caused by the
user, but he later learned from Apple his phone would be replaced for free.
"I am very satisfied about that. I wasn't trying to get a new phone, just
a new screen, but sure, why not," he said, adding, "It was not
dropped and experienced no unusual shock.”
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