New lawsuit accuses Apple of turning blind eye to 'touch disease' on iPhone 6 & 6 Plus
A new class action lawsuit against Apple claims that the company has been aware of the so-called "touch disease" on 2014 iPhones for some time, and unfairly refused to repair affected devices at no cost.
The suit was filed with the U.S. District Court for Northern California, and accuses Apple of fraud, negligent misrepresentation, breach of implied warranty, unjust enrichment, and breaking the Magnuson-Moss and Song-Beverly Warranty Acts, according to MacRumors. The plaintiffs are listed as Thomas Davidson from Pennsylvania, Todd Cleary from California, and Delaware resident Jun Bai.
"Many other iPhone owners have communicated with Apple's employees and agents to request that Apple remedy and/or address the Touchscreen Defect and/or resultant damage at no expense. Apple has failed and/or refused to do so," part of the complaint reads.
Affected iPhones will develop a flickering gray band near the phone speaker, which can also potentially expand over time and gradually reduce a device's touch sensitivity and response. The problem has been linked to faulty controller chips, and/or their solder joints. The lawsuit specifically supports the idea that the lack of a "metal shield" over the logic board is allowing iPhones to bend too much, damaging components. The iPhone 5s and 5c had such shields in place.
AppleInsider recently estimated that 11 percent of Apple's retail iPhone troubleshooting may now involve the problem, which could potentially make for a costly outcome in the lawsuit if Apple loses or settles out of court.
The suit was filed with the U.S. District Court for Northern California, and accuses Apple of fraud, negligent misrepresentation, breach of implied warranty, unjust enrichment, and breaking the Magnuson-Moss and Song-Beverly Warranty Acts, according to MacRumors. The plaintiffs are listed as Thomas Davidson from Pennsylvania, Todd Cleary from California, and Delaware resident Jun Bai.
"Many other iPhone owners have communicated with Apple's employees and agents to request that Apple remedy and/or address the Touchscreen Defect and/or resultant damage at no expense. Apple has failed and/or refused to do so," part of the complaint reads.
Affected iPhones will develop a flickering gray band near the phone speaker, which can also potentially expand over time and gradually reduce a device's touch sensitivity and response. The problem has been linked to faulty controller chips, and/or their solder joints. The lawsuit specifically supports the idea that the lack of a "metal shield" over the logic board is allowing iPhones to bend too much, damaging components. The iPhone 5s and 5c had such shields in place.
AppleInsider recently estimated that 11 percent of Apple's retail iPhone troubleshooting may now involve the problem, which could potentially make for a costly outcome in the lawsuit if Apple loses or settles out of court.
Comments
How are you able to even work a computer?
Welcome to the internets...
People can say one should just expect it to last the warranty or buy an extended warranty, but is that what Apple sells? Apple touts the design, lasting endurance, and quality of their products as being above the competition. By so doing, they imply said products will perform well for a reasonable amount of time. Under 2 years or much less in some instances is not reasonable. Refusing to acknowledge the bending and flexing that seems to create this problem over time is what started this whole mess.
The 6+ was a first gen product, but a first gen that was sold, bought, and advertised as an iteration of a successful product. This reminds me of the iPad 3 which was not prepared to handle a retina screen. I owned it and while it managed, it certainly wasn't as advertised. In reality, both of these products were such major shifts that they really constituted something new, not iterative in the way the 4s to the 5 was.
For me (speaking only of my personal experience) this is a trend in Apple products. I had a 2010 MacBook Pro that had to be replaced after 4 logic board failures. It was replaced by a 2012 Pro that again was replaced after 3 logic board failures. I now have a late 2013 Retina Pro that has had its logic board replaced 2 times. All the failures from the 2010 through the 2013 have been in the GPU. My iPhone 4 had to be replaced due to failure. My iPad Air had to be replaced due to multiple button failures which was linked to the logic board by the geniuses. Now my 6+ is suffering with this problem and my 2013 Pro that had its logic board replaced last month is starting to exhibit some of the same symptoms it did in the months leading up to the GPU failure. I love how the Apple ecosystem works together. But it has become increasingly harder for me to use that system as the products that sustain it have failed to function. Just my 2 cents.
Please feel free to have a rest and mind your step.
Thank you and have a nice day.
Apple tracks failures, and since the release of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, this has been either a low rate issue; has been treated as a general touchscreen issue, or; is one of many issues that is caused by bending, and diagnosed by Apple as such. Apple defines it as "flickering" according to Mike in his previous AI article, which would be a pretty definitive symptom.
Coming from an iPhone 6+ user.
Oh well, they really know how to maximize shareholder value. Writing this on a thinkpad running linux, smooth as silk!
Also, based on what?
How many Samsung's are returned to the Wireless company? It's all relative.
When I worked for AT&T Wireless, the Samsungs and LG's would be frequently warranty exchanged, guess why? They were the free phone, therefor the most popular by "shipments." Little has changed in that regard.
If this touch disease is a real problem, this is on Apple to quit chasing the "thinner, lighter" unicorn. The 6/6Plus already suffers from not being structurally solid. I no doubt suspect the touch disease is a symptom of the phone being flexed, but not to the point that it damages the shape. Considering that 90% of the reports are from people with the larger 6Plus.
In fact this should be a warning to the other smartphone makers to stop chasing the "thinner lighter" unicorn as well. Apple can weather replacing the phones that develop the problem, everyone else will just throw them away in 3 years anyway. So one more year and they would have upgraded anyway. In theory. Having multiple products that continuously have the same problem is a bad thing, which is a lesson that Samsung and LG has never learned.
Ultimately my experience at AT&T Wireless is why I would never buy a Samsung or LG phone, because their previous feature phones had terrible build quality.
Apple has so far had "Antennagate" and "Bendgate" (Iphone 4 and 6 respectively, so four product lines apart) What does that tell people? don't buy the even-numbered iPhones.