Big surprise: Media overreacts to reports of exploding Apple iPhones

“Media attention to product safety is understandable, especially when the product in question comes from Apple, maker of some of the most popular computers, music players, and cell phones on the market. But coverage of recent reports of iPhones and iPods allegedly gone awry verges on overkill,” Arik Hesseldahl reports for BusinessWeek.

“In case you’ve been subject to a media blackout, European officials are looking into reports of two exploding iPhones in France. Apple calls these isolated incidents and says it wants to analyze the products,” Hesseldahl reports. ‘We are aware of these reports and we are waiting to receive the iPhones from the customers,’ an Apple spokeswoman says. ‘Until we have the full details, we don’t have anything further to add.'”

“The reports in France follow an account of an iPod in the U.K. that, after being dropped, made a ‘hissing noise,’ became very hot, and suffered an explosion that sent it 10 feet into the air,” Hesseldahl reports. “There, too, Apple wants to examine the device before commenting further.”

Hesseldahl reports, “But some in the British press focused less on the event itself and more on Apple’s request that the customers in question sign a nondisclosure form. That’s standard procedure any time a company settles with a customer for anything more than a refund. The Times of London referred to the document as a ‘gagging order,’ which in blogs morphed into a ‘gag order,’ which is something only a court can issue.”

Hesseldahl reports, “On this side of the pond, a local TV station in Seattle carried out an ‘exclusive investigation’ by filing a Freedom of Information Act request for complaints about iPods to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. The result: 800 pages detailing 15 incidents where iPods reportedly overheated, sparked, or burst into flame. The TV reporter called it an ‘alarming number.'”

“Really? I wouldn’t wish to downplay anything truly alarming. But come on,” Hesseldahl writes. “Since 2001, Apple has sold 218 million iPods worldwide. Let’s say there were 1,500 documented cases of these incidents—100 times the number cited in the news report. That would still amount to only 0.0007% of the devices sold.”

MacDailyNews Take: Here’s what we wrote back on August 3rd: Fifteen. Yes, 15 incidents. Out of 218 million iPod units sold to date. That’s quite the small percentage; statistically insignificant, in fact… Does this statistical insignificance deter Amy Clancy working out of that TV station that’s based in – ahem – Seattle? No, of course not… [We] suggest that one of the real stories, besides Apple’s stellar, unbelievable and nearly-perfect record with what are historically finicky and problematic lithium ion batteries, is that some government agency felt it necessary to waste U.S taxpayer’s money to produce 800 pages in order to report 15 incidents. [As for “gagging orders,”] this is standard legal procedure that any company with even a partial clue would take in such a circumstance. And, in the case of Apple, where anything, even the statistically insignificant, obviously, is cause for attack, it would be foolhardy not to take such a precaution… Apple offers refunds with a standard confidentiality agreement in order to protect themselves from exactly the type of yellow journalism that [we’ve] just finished exposing here.

Read the full article, in which Hesseldahl explains that your iPod is far safer than your standard lamp and wonders where the media outrages is over lamps, here.

MacDailyNews Take: We’ve already written it:

If we had to guess, based on the noise and the expansion, we’d guess this is an isolated battery issue (you can’t mix up tens of millions of batteries and not have one or two imperfect samples) that wouldn’t even warrant a mention from Reuters or any other media outfit if the product involved didn’t have an “Apple” logo on it.

In other words, if and when this happens with other devices, people sort of expect it and/or the media doesn’t scramble to blast out headlines like Reuters’ “Apple probes iPhone explosion reports” because “Sharp” or “LG” or whatever doesn’t sell papers or trip website visitor counters. – MacDailyNews Take, August 18, 2009

As a frequent and major disruptor of multiple markets, Apple has always been subject to a nasty double standard (not to mention planted hit pieces). It’s nice to see a publication like BusinessWeek recognizing this and pointing it out.