Could Apple’s iPhone develop “screen-deadness” over time?
Nomura International analyst Richard Windsor in a note to clients says that the property rights for the iPhone touchscreen’s chemical makeup were purchased from a bankrupt Finnish firm that could not solve degradation and loss of sensitivity that developed over time; typically within three to six months.
“While Apple should have been aware and fixed the problem, the broker said, only time will confirm that all is well with that touch screen,” Aude Lagorce reports for MarketWatch.
Full article here.
Charlie Sorrel blogs for Wired, “Reports are surfacing about dead spots on the iPhone touch screen, usually a strip about a half inch from the top. Restoring and resetting the phone don’t seem to help, so it looks like a hardware problem.”
Sorrel reports, “Apple employees are familiar with the problem and recommend sending the iPhone in for a three day repair, although if you want a phone in the meantime it’ll cost you $29…”
Full article here.
Philip Elmer-DeWitt blogs for Business 2.0, “Apple (AAPL) has responded swiftly to scattered reports of ‘dead spots’ on iPhone touchscreens — and received high marks from users for the speed and efficiency with which defective devices were replaced.”
“Customers who returned their iPhones with 14 days of purchase have been given a new one on the spot. Others have been issued loaner iPhones — sometimes for free — while their units were sent out for repair,” Elmer-DeWitt reports.
“So far the number of iPhones affected seems to be small… Although Apple has not yet responded to press inquiries, its support staff has been unusually pro-active, even monitoring online complaints and stepping in unbidden,” Elmer-DeWitt reports.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Vague Nomenclature” for the heads up.]
Apple investors: If you haven’t already, brace.
Apple has too much riding on this not to have understood the issue and have fixed the problem described by Richard Windsor. Likewise, Apple has too much riding on this not to diligently, appropriately, and rapidly fix any (isolated or widespread) problems that iPhones develop over time – touchscreen or otherwise.
“You could say that 2 puppies were killed for every iPhone made, and the stock would drop.”
THEY KILL PUPPIES!?!?!?
That’s it, I’m selling.
I think Apple is aware of what is riding on the iPhone’s success. I have a friend who’s iPhone fell out of the case onto the concrete and shattered the screen. Apple said because he bought the case at the Apple store and because it was clearly the fault of the case (bad design?) they would fix it for free. They would charge him $30 for a loner but hey, fixing that screen has to be more than a $30 expense.
PLEASE, I believe that Steve Jobs has had his iPhone for about 8 months by now. If it had a major problem, I think he would have had it fixed. What do you think??
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Classic Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt.
Someone will try to pretend that this is just a cautionary tale, a heads up for potential issues down the road.
But I think given the audacity of the Jim Cramer’s of the world, we can see right thru this kind of BS. It was my understanding that the actual technological partners behind the screen were relatively unknown?
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Apple will have a few thousand phones that have serious issues. And that expected percentage will get an unimaginable amount of press, while people have pretty much already stopped talking about the fact that the Xbox 360 has a 30% failure rate.
This sounds like nonsense. As far as we know, this screen is from Balda a German company. And, the touchscreen is not based upon heat, but electrical conductivity. Blow on your screen, the heat of your breath does nothing, other than alloow you to clean it. And, what’s up with the word, “film”, is he talking plastic film, which the iPhone does not use, or is he talking a chemical film, which is nuts, since you’d have to constantly reapply a chemical film.
@ I’m Braced
…
“Too much hype from his Steveness, loss of quality such as this iPhone problem, and enormous disaster in iMovie remake.”
“I’m Braced”, Your trolling motor is showing.
Jobs never HYPED the iPhone.
Apple hardly said anything about it before its launch except for matter-of-fact product type and timeline announcements.
Any excitement created was the result of techies and design-savvy consumers realising that if Apple was releasing a phone, it would be amazing. And they were correct.
A Short Poem for “I’m Braced”- by Missy Pants:
Back to your hole, troll.
– the end
Apple has something like 13 billion in the bank. Bust out some of that to hire many, good telephone support people!
Also, what are they going to do with all that cash? Some big R&D funding for OS 11? Some massive building project (over and above what they have going on now)?
FUD
“gee, my iPhone has dead spots on the screen after I dropped it down a flight of stairs.”
Just because Apple licensed the IP from that company, it does not follow that they are using the exact same technology. It very well could have been a starting point or it could have been so close to an internally developed technology that they bought the rights to avoid lawsuits.
bought 100 shares @ 121
But the anal-yst already has “brain-deadness”
Yet another scam to try and reduce the share price so that some losers can save a few cents whenthey buy them.
though I don’t disagree:
146 x 100 = 14600
121 x 100 = 12100
smells like a 2500 dollar savings to me
gosh I really believe this… Thanks for the report Mr Ballmer…
Yep,
Apple has been KILLING PUPPIES for years to appease their God and Satan’s cousin, Stan.
Stan, cousin of Satan, is a vengeful god who is helping Steve
dream up these new products and thus take over the world.
All Stan asks is, for every iPhone Apple sells 2 puppies must die a really really horrible death. Like a microwave or blender. No preference on breeds though, doberman, collie, poodle, its
just got to be young. Stan also says that this rumor about the
screens going dead is just a ploy to make the stock cheaper.
He will be up to 1 million puppies by next week, Stan willing.
Thats the scoop from the guy who knows the guy that cleans
Steve’s pool.
How about writing about problems that actually exist? It’s clear that prototypes of the iPhone existed for at least one year before the iPhone was released. Screen failure in three to six months would have been evident. And although multi-touch screens are new, touch screens of this type have been around for years. This is obviously another attempt to push down AAPL for rich clients who missed the boat. I’ll be buying some more.
See Digital Daily today:
http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20070810/iphone-deadspot/
I recall that during Steve Jobs’ original presentation on the iPhone, he explained that the screen reacts only to fingers, not fingernails, a stylus or a glove. That alone disproves the FUD spewed forth by this idiot.
I hope the SEC investigates this bastard for trying to short Apple stock. Frickin’ bear.
iPhone can be used with the cloth Apple provided to clean the glass. Go ahead and try it… I was surprised that this happened! Hold the cloth around your finger and “slide to unlock” then try and button you like. Now if they make a pad for your finger from the same material you’ll never smudge the glass again!
KenC,
The type of touch screen used on the iPhone is called a “projected capacitive” touchscreen. It is NOT based on electrical conductivity nor is it based on heat. It is based on the capacitive characteristics of conductive objects, i.e. your finger.
@ Ken C:
I thought it was magic.
There can’t be any problem with the screens, as the Analysts and Pundits have already revealed that there is “no new technology” in the iPhone.
“Do the numb nuts at Nomura really think Apple hardware engineers would purchase and use an obviously flawed component ?”
You mean like exploding batteries, discoloring plastic cases, whining motherboards and overheating MacBooks?. All reports of faults with Apple products in the past are just lies spread by Bill Gates. This will be shown to be the same too. Apple would never sell us faulty hardware!
Golly, everyone I know is having iPhone problems–seriously. So we rushed down to one of those giant blue boxes and all bought Zunes. We can’t wait until Surface comes out. I almost have $10,000 saved up in my piggy bank. [Please God let Apple stock go down so I can buy in…]
“Please God let Apple stock go down so I can buy in”
You will get your wish.
quote
Nomura International analyst Richard Windsor in a note to clients says that the property rights for the iPhone touchscreen’s chemical makeup were purchased from a bankrupt Finnish firm that could not solve degradation and loss of sensitivity that developed over time; typically within three to six months.
iPhone is a revolutionary new mobile phone that allows you to make a call by simply pointing your finger at a name or number in your address book, a favorites list, or a call log
http://www.iphone-converter.org