South Korea considers investigation into shutdowns of Apple's iPhone 6s

AppleInsider

Regardless of Apple's public assurances, the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards is probing the matter of sudden iPhone 6s shutdowns in case they represent a battery safety issue, a report said on Wednesday.

"The agency is well aware of recent iPhone issues and is taking a close look at it," an agency official told the The Korea Herald. The person noted however that KATS hasn't yet launched a formal investigation.

Apple is currently offering free battery replacements for iPhone 6s units built between September and October 2015. Apple recently admitted that some iPhones "outside the affected batch" are experiencing problems as well, however, and this week's iOS 10.2 update is believed to be collecting diagnostic data.

The Korean government is likely sensitive about battery issues given problems with local giant Samsung's Galaxy Note 7. Possibly due to a too-tight design, supposedly rushed to beat Apple's iPhone 7, the Note 7 was prone to battery fires and even explosions, which Samsung was unable to solve even after a recall.

The phone was taken off the market at great expense, and Samsung is now offering refunds and exchanges. The company is even issuing software updates to deliberately cripple any remaining units.

wood1208

Apple already said battery got over exposed to air during manufacturing in certain batch and ready to replace,, Samsung probably paid someone in Korean government to do this.

macxpress

This was done at the request of Samsung.... /s

mark fearing

The Korean Govt. IS basically Samsung. 

lkrupp

Can we get real for once? Every single smartphone manufacturer on the planet has issues with batteries from time to time. They all use the same technology packaged in different ways. Many use the same battery supplier. If you go to other platform and OEM support forums you see the same complaints over and over again about the same issues, namely overheating, failure to hold a charge, failure to charge, etc. So why the overt focus on Apple products all the time? Don’t China and South Korea investigate other smartphone issues from other manufacturers? Do those other products have rabid “concern trolls” crawling out of the woodwork for every glitch? Do tech news blogs make those investigations front page news and obsess over them like they do Apple’s problems? How many users are actually experiencing these issues? We should know by now that the Internet amplifies negatives way out of proportion to reality. 

dewme

This is pure politics and an attempt to "save face" for Korea's national technology brand, Samsung. There is simply no other logical explanation. Unfortunately for Samsung and its fully owned subsidiary, the Korean government, the Note 7 was exactly a "smoking gun" and there was no way to suppress the truth. Even in an era when the truth no longer matters in politics there's no way to gloss over the reality of a smoking phablet.

No amount of state sponsored innuendo against Apple is going to wash away the scorch marks from Samsung's reputation. 

regurgitatedcoprolite

Korean culture strikes again!

coolfactor

lkrupp said:

Can we get real for once? Every single smartphone manufacturer on the planet has issues with batteries from time to time. They all use the same technology packaged in different ways. Many use the same battery supplier. If you go to other platform and OEM support forums you see the same complaints over and over again about the same issues, namely overheating, failure to hold a charge, failure to charge, etc. So why the overt focus on Apple products all the time? Don’t China and South Korea investigate other smartphone issues from other manufacturers? Do those other products have rabid “concern trolls” crawling out of the woodwork for every glitch? Do tech news blogs make those investigations front page news and obsess over them like they do Apple’s problems? How many users are actually experiencing these issues? We should know by now that the Internet amplifies negatives way out of proportion to reality. 

They likely do investigate battery issues by other vendors, but this is AppleInsider, so Apple news is posted here, that's all. It looks distorted simply because the site itself has a specific focus.

That said, I would not be surprised if Samsung is behind this headline a bit more than usual.

serendip

In all seriousness though this battery problem has been a very bad experience for me.  I've been suffering this issue for months and took it into the store 2 months ago.  They found nothing... I get that... issue hasn't hit critical mass yet but when they finally knew there was a problem I never got a "hey we found it!" email.  I had to find out about the battery fix on the web.  Then I ended up with a 2 week genius appointment and decided to walk in and maybe sneak myself in.  That worked but no parts so another 2 weeks with a busted phone.

Then comes the kicker... I walked in with a functioning phone with a bad battery and I had to shell out $140 to put in a new screen because they shattered the screen taking it off!  Wtf?  I had a small crack in the corner that was nowhere near the screen I'll admit but Apple broke it trying to fix their problem and I'm out $140?  

If I walk into a Toyota dealership for a recall on my brakes are they going to charge me $700 for new tires?!?  

Also, good luck if you had a 3rd party screen put in.  I've now talked with 3 ppl who said Apple broke their screens, said it was a 3rd part screen and then gave then the choice of walking out with a completely broken phone or paying the $140.

I've been nothing but an evangelist since iPhone 1 but this is just weak... 

iPhone 2,3,3GS,4,4s,5,5s,6+,6s. (Probably not 7)
iPad 1, air, 2xmini 2, pro
ATV 1,2,3
4xiMacs
4xmacbooks

entropys

I think it might a bit rough asking one party to replace for free a third party's parts installed on a device they originally manufactured with their parts. Similarly already damaged parts.

theothergeoff

serendip said:

In all seriousness though this battery problem has been a very bad experience for me.  I've been suffering this issue for months and took it into the store 2 months ago.  They found nothing... I get that... issue hasn't hit critical mass yet but when they finally knew there was a problem I never got a "hey we found it!" email.  I had to find out about the battery fix on the web.  Then I ended up with a 2 week genius appointment and decided to walk in and maybe sneak myself in.  That worked but no parts so another 2 weeks with a busted phone.

Then comes the kicker... I walked in with a functioning phone with a bad battery and I had to shell out $140 to put in a new screen because they shattered the screen taking it off!  Wtf?  I had a small crack in the corner that was nowhere near the screen I'll admit but Apple broke it trying to fix their problem and I'm out $140?  

If I walk into a Toyota dealership for a recall on my brakes are they going to charge me $700 for new tires?!?  

Also, good luck if you had a 3rd party screen put in.  I've now talked with 3 ppl who said Apple broke their screens, said it was a 3rd part screen and then gave then the choice of walking out with a completely broken phone or paying the $140.

I've been nothing but an evangelist since iPhone 1 but this is just weak... 

iPhone 2,3,3GS,4,4s,5,5s,6+,6s. (Probably not 7)
iPad 1, air, 2xmini 2, pro
ATV 1,2,3
4xiMacs
4xmacbooks

sorry to hear that, my situation was exactly the same problem, except my phone screen was cracked going in.  I was expecting to pay $140, but they were able to replace it without making it (much) worse (I had a screen cover on when it cracked and never took it off, it looks a little mussed up around the edges and more dirt is behind the film at those points.

But my data point was even though they made me come in 3 times (1st time denied the problem existed, the 2nd time there were no parts. but really 4 time sgiven that it took 3 hours to fix, so I had to leave it overnight), it was fixed for zero dollars.

viclauyyc

I feel embarrassed for Korean just by reading the title.

Don't they know everyone will think the opposite?

pscooter63

viclauyyc said:

Don't they know everyone will think the opposite?

They know.  They just don't care.