In yet another hit to its reputation for quality, Apple this week admitted to a manufacturing defect in the iPhone 8. And it will now repair affected devices for free.
“Apple has determined that a very small percentage of iPhone 8 devices contain logic boards with a manufacturing defect,” an Apple support document explains. “Affected devices may experience unexpected restarts, a frozen screen, or won’t turn on. Apple will repair eligible devices, free of charge.”
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Don’t be fooled by the language: Like any company, Apple can’t publicly admit to a widespread manufacturing issue as it would leave the firm open to lawsuits.
But Apple also has a rich history of pretending the problems are minor. The iPhone 4 suffered from an endemic reception problem and numerous other issues, and Apple bamboozled the public into thinking there was nothing wrong. More recently, Apple issued a fix for equally endemic issues with the previous two generations of MacBook Pro keyboards, but the firm pretended that the fix was only designed to dampen an overly loud typing sound.
So let’s just call this what it is. Another in a growing list of examples where Apple doesn’t always deserve the high grades it continues to receive from the very customers that it’s harming with poorly-designed products. Quality, very clearly, is slipping.
Anyway, if you do own an iPhone 8—and not an iPhone 8 Plus, which is unaffected by this issue—and live in Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Macau, New Zealand, or the United States, be sure to check whether you’re eligible for a free replacement. You have three years from the date of purchase to make the fix for free.
And be sure to give Apple an A for its customer service. They’re relying on you.
skane2600
<blockquote><em><a href="#312771">In reply to nbplopes:</a></em></blockquote><p>Sadly there's been a sharp rise in defects in technology products in recent years, but Apple isn't any less likely to experience them than any other company. </p><p><br></p><p>Warranties are a reasonable plan B, but what people really want is products that work properly from the start and have good reliability. </p><p><br></p><p>As far as Microsoft is concerned, decades of writing and maintaining software obviously has nothing to do with expertise in hardware design and manufacturing. </p>
skane2600
<blockquote><em><a href="#312872">In reply to GT_Tecolotecreek:</a></em></blockquote><p>Isn't "Reality Distortion Field" an Apple trademark? Better be careful.</p>
skane2600
<blockquote><em><a href="#313092">In reply to nbplopes:</a></em></blockquote><p>Consequences for mistakes in technology aren't driven by whether the problem is in software or hardware, but rather related to the seriousness of the problem and the harm that is caused. Nor in serious cases do license agreements always exempt a company from liability. VW had to pay out $25 billion dollars to resolve their software-based diesel emissions cheat.</p>
skane2600
<blockquote><em><a href="#313179">In reply to nbplopes:</a></em></blockquote><p>"The idea that software malfunction has minimal consequences in comparison with hardware it’s a lie."</p><p><br></p><p>Thanks for the nbplopes-splaining. I have extensive experience developing software for medical devices and have participated in multiple hazard analyses that includes software.</p>
skane2600
<blockquote><em><a href="#313370">In reply to nbplopes:</a></em></blockquote><p>There is no broad legal precedent concerning the validity of software license agreements. Often such "no liability" statements are as much about discouraging litigation as it as about creating a real legal barrier to prevent them. </p>
skane2600
<blockquote><em><a href="#313426">In reply to nbplopes:</a></em></blockquote><p>I'm not going to participate in a meaningless HW vs SW debate, however software was adopted only because of the impracticality of implementing multiple complex functions in HW. Even many microprocessor architectures use microcode to implement their instruction set rather than implementing those instructions using soley logic gates. </p><p><br></p><p>On the one hand, HW excels at implementing relatively simple structures on a large scale with high speed. Thus we have devices like RAM. On the other hand, HW also excels at implementing more complex, very specific functions that are standardized. Thus we have disk controllers, network interface devices, etc. Then again, even these devices may contain software for some aspects of their operations.</p><p><br></p><p>Because hardware usually implements simpler functions or functions that are very well defined by standards, they are in general inherently easier to test than software. </p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p>
Stooks
<blockquote><em><a href="#312852">In reply to Andi:</a></em></blockquote><p>"Safe to say that any current Surface product is better than the current Apple equivalent."</p><p><br></p><p>Woh, easy on the Kool-Aid there Andi. What are you basing that on? Surely not sales? </p><p><br></p><p>The surface laptops have been plagued with issues. They constantly get multiple firmware updates. Paul reports on those firmware updates all the time. I know people with Surface laptops (various models) that still get the sleep/hot bag issue with drained batteries a issue that has been around since the first Surface Book.</p>
Stooks
<p>Using Edge right now on my iPhone X. Did you know it’s built in content blocker allows you to view this site without ads?</p><p><br></p><p>Paul thanks for the Edge for iOS tip!!</p><p><br></p><p>Oh and how is your third (?) Pixel 2 phone doing? My launch day iPhone X is the best smartphone I have ever used. Looking forward to iOS 12 on it!</p>
skane2600
<blockquote><em><a href="#313055">In reply to nbplopes:</a></em></blockquote><p>As Apple says on the box, "Designed in California, Assembled in China". Hardly the poster-boy for "Made in America".</p>
skane2600
<blockquote><em><a href="#313178">In reply to nbplopes:</a></em></blockquote><p>The "Made in America" technology ship has sailed decades ago and it didn't start with computers. Whether a tech company is legally considered US-based or not, they usually employ at least some foreign engineering talent, use components from all over the world,assemble their product in other countries, and have foreign workers answer technical support calls.</p><p><br></p><p> I consider how an individual company divides up their activities between the US and elsewhere to be trivial and I simply don't care.</p>
dontbe evil
<p>wow apple customer care is so good… after how many class actions did they decide this?</p>
PeterC
<p>Ha! well this has been a hot bed post of fruity comments! Marvellous fun.</p><p><br></p><p>If I have a point and its a little loose really, its that i'd say mass manufacturing in general has been SOOOO POOOR across the board for some 10 years. Theres loads of reasons why, mainly extracting more profit but also some political and so not for this comments board.</p><p><br></p><p>But – My surface pro 3 was a catalogue of errors/faults/replacement. My Lumia 950/950xl were a mess for the first year at least, they still make good hand warmers. My Google nexus 5x was a Frankenstein monster of garbage – its still in a boot loop in a draw, my original Surface dock was awful, my new surface dock "brick" is woeful too. Apple has had their fair share of rubbish too as much as anyone – no ones immune from it. Look at Pauls pixels, the list is endless……. and weve not even got to HP…</p><p><br></p><p>Its funny seeing the old Apple/MS hate rear its head but basically were all suckers for paying for this BS. And we keep doing it…. but oh if we pay for extra cover … blah blah blah blah</p><p><br></p>
Stooks
<blockquote><em><a href="#313243">In reply to TEAMSWITCHER:</a></em></blockquote><p>"Google" anything appears farm more than Microsoft or Apple. I will say basically anything about Apple on this site is pure sophomoric negativity.</p><p><br></p><p>I remember the day Apple surpassed Microsoft in terms of market cap/revenue and profits. The first thing I thought about was "dam that sucks for Paul Thurrott". I used to love his rantings about how Apple was bad and Microsoft dominated them with their PC sales and such. It was always about how small the Mac market share was. At one point iPhone sales alone generated more revenue than all Microsoft products combined.</p>