“In response to reports that its largest iPhone is bending in the pockets of users, Apple Inc. said the cases of an iPhone warping through normal use are ‘extremely rare,'” Daisuke Wakabayashi reports for The Wall Street Journal.
“Since going on sale Friday, Apple said only nine customers have contacted the company about a bent iPhone 6 Plus — the larger and more expensive of its two new iPhones. Apple said both the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus passed a series of tests meant to check the products’ strength and durability to withstand every day, real-life use,” Wakabayashi reports. “‘With normal use a bend in iPhone is extremely rare,’ an Apple spokeswoman said.”
“Along with those complaints, the company is confronting a botched software update. In a rare move Wednesday, Apple yanked an update to its latest iPhone, iPad and iPod software hours after making it available. Some owners complained the software had disrupted their phone’s ability to make calls and disabled the TouchID [sic Touch ID] fingerprint sensor used to unlock devices,” Wakabayashi reports. “The company has declined to say how many people initially had downloaded the software.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Hey, who woke up Apple PR?
Well, okay, better late than never!
So, with 15 million* iPhone 6/Plus units out there currently, 9 units equals 0.00006% of all iPhone 6/Plus units.
In other words: The odds of having an iPhone 6/Plus bend are 1,666,667 to 1.
The odds of winning an Olympic medal or being struck by lightning are 662,000 to 1 or 576,000 to 1, respectively.
*A rough, likely low estimate. Your chances of bending your iPhone 6 Plus are, however, higher than being stuck by lightning while wearing your shiny new Olympic medal.
Related articles:
U.S. stocks decline most in eight weeks as Apple stumbles and tumbles – September 25, 2014
Wired reviews Apple’s 64-bit iPhone 6 Plus: ‘Too big to fail, but not to bend’ – September 25, 2014
Apple CEO Tim Cook’s banana skins: U2, ‘Bendygate’ and iOS 8.0.1 – September 25, 2014
Video: Apple iPhone 6 Plus bend test – September 23, 2014
Apple granted two new Liquidmetal production patents – August 26, 2014
Apple extends Liquidmetal exclusivity deal through February 2015 – May 21, 2014
The whole thing was an marketing campaign orchestrated by a bunch of London based “creative” companies. They were all patting themselves on the back on Twitter and elsewhere for the “success” of the campaign.
Just ask JWT London how much they made from this… or Spreading Jam, or other companies in the WPP group (who unsurprisingly work for Samsung)
Yes, but who benefits from these campaigns? Which companies can only compete by FUD campaigns? Who’s behind the “creative” companies? Apple needs a PR strategy to battle orchestrated “viral” campaigns to weaken it’s image. It’s critical.
Happens all the time with Apple and Samsung. Apple tries to take the high road which of course leaves the fast lane for Samsung. Samsung responds quickly at the smallest opening to attack Apple. Whether real or not. I’m not sure how Apple can prepare themselves for criticism ahead of time? And to be honest, knocking your competitor is just business. They all do it to some degree. Even Apple. But Samsung takes it to another level. Sometimes ignoring criticism is the best way to go. Sometimes it’s not. Tough to make that call. But clearly Apple has had a poor PR presence for a number of years. Hopefully Tim can straighten that out. The recent retirement of the head of PR would indicate that is being addressed. But they need to do a much better job going forward. Own up to mistakes and never make alibis or excuses. Defend when appropriate. And be much faster to respond. At least as fast as Samsung is to attack.
Those are pretty easy questions:
– who benefits from these campaigns?
Microsoft
Which companies can only compete by FUD campaigns?
Microsoft
Who’s behind the “creative” companies?
People who buy the products.
Now your comment: “Apple needs a PR strategy to battle orchestrated “viral” campaigns to weaken it’s image.”
No it doesn’t. If you had to pay attention to every distractor out there there would be no end to it. Just keep on making the great products.
I’m not a corporate lawyer, but if these allegations are true then this is grounds for a libel/slander shareholder class action lawsuit against these and other possible co-conspirators such as Bloomberg, Yahoo, Comcast (parent of CNBC and NBC), etc. for the sum of the lost market cap over the last two days – $20B or so plus punitive damages if applicable. This is absolutely egregious, if true, and the parties involved must be severely punished.
Freedom of the press is one thing, but freely spreading lies to a worldwide audience which affects shareholder value needs to be swiftly addressed with the harshest sanctions available.
A class action suit? Oh come on don’t worry about that this is Amurderca you are talking about, land of the Megalaw.
Yes that’s right folks, you don’t have to worry about the law in Amurderca, cause they’ll change it to suit their purposes. Heck they’ll probably pass a law just to say that journalistic integrity includes blowing up rumors out of proportion, arming themselves with disinformation as long as the battle it out with a war or words in true Amurdercan fashion.
I mean after all this is a so called country that will say let’s “look forward, as opposed to looking backwards.” when it comes to pursuing those from the George W. Bush’s administration for torture and other illegal conduct basically depriving the world justice from a war criminal akin to Adolph Hitler.
I’m sure they will do the same for their jouranalistic pals and their whore street buddies.
They will have a good time until the reckoning comes. Oh karma is going to be such a bitch and the news about it…well jouranalists are used to bending over, that’s why it’s called Bendgate.
“Hey, who woke up Apple PR?”
Great take!
I disagree. I don’t think Apple needs “a PR department” or a “talking head” in the manner MDN and others endorse. Apple has rarely “shot from the hip” or gone off “half-cocked” in the past. Their modus operandi is to get the facts and then issue a calm, reasoned response to any particular issue raised by FUDsters. This is what Apple did about antenna-gate. There is absolutely no reason to start arguing without facts. And the facts should speak for themselves. In my view, Apple has just totally shut down the FUDsters with their factual response. More “PR” is not the answer; that’s what other companies, like BP, do. The approach taken by Apple works for me. They think different. Go Apple!
Thank you Apple and MDN: some perspective at last. Pure FUD
Thank the WSJ. Then again, just a little bit of thinking and testing supplies a great deal of perspective.
I saw that video yesterday. I do not know how Apple will be able to afford to replace 9 bent iPhones 6 Plus devices. It is like Antennagate all over again. People do not see the improvements over the prior design. Did anyone comment yet about how well the glass and screen held up on a very bent iPhone 6 Plus? Did it crack? Did it keep working? Did the iPhone short out? Did the battery catch on fire? No! Even when the damage exceeded any possible real life damage from normal use, the iPhone kept working and was safe!
Apple will beef up the area around the volume buttons or move the buttons. It is a small engineering fix or revision to the design. It was painful to watch damage to my 401K. But, my 401K will recover from this soon. Did anyone cancel their order? Did they just switch it to the smaller iPhone 6 that doesn’t bend in someone’s hand in a video? Ok, that changes the back order and sale from one iPhone to the other iPhone.
9 iPhone cost investors $8.28 billion today. Oh FUD!
and out of those 9, how many actually tested bending their iphones with force?
Thats something i would like to know…
And how many lied about what they did to their iPhone 6 plus that caused it to bend. “I was just walking with it in my front pocket” my a*s*s.
Upon further research, it was learned that 3 work for M$, 3 for Google, and 3 for Slamdrunk.
Asinine and stupid MDN take again… You somehow assume they new this instantly? Give me a break. Heads should roll at MDN for lame commentary
Yes, MDN strikes me as bipolar when it comes to things Apple.
Someone’s off his meds.
This just occurred to me: Is MDN also perhaps responsible for some of the lame troll-bait comments?
Hahahahahaha!
NINE. FSCKING. REPORTS.
Can all the fandroids please go drown themselves now for making this into the issue it isn’t? Asshat Samsung plants and such…
I’m gonna go find a story where a Kit Kat bar was tainted and then start posting how that’s the norm. Fscking candy company needs to stfu.
Apple should just change their name to Benghazi. Then they can kill people and there will hardly be a peep in the MSM.
I’ve heard someone refer to the recent situation as “Bendghazi”.
Hardly a peep? Fox News mentions it several times daily. Or are they still not MSM despite bragging of ratings higher than CNN and MSNBC combined?
Nine out of ton million in the week send alone influenced fundamentalist brokers to bring down the stock price. Funny ha but the Arab spring caused same response.
As usual, Apple waited until they had facts before opening their mouth – something no one in media seem capable of.
I expect a knowledgeable response from Apple, not a knee-jerk, fact-free reaction.
Exactly. It’s like people need to hear Apple say, “Nu-uh!!! Nope! No it didn’t!” The only downside, as I pointed out elsewhere, is that lies and rumors spread like herpes; the truth is treated with skepticism and cautiousness.
Thank you!
“As usual, Apple waited until they had facts before opening their mouth ”
Too bad the same couldn’t be said for you and everyone else.
This really shows how bad what is commonly referred to as “the news” is nowadays. Zero fact checking and just repeat whatever the hell they see on the internet. How can NINE out of the millions sold be construed as “widespread”? This kind of bullshit really gets on my nerves.
Years ago I was at a journalism conference and a lady from MSNBC did a session on how news gathering and reporting has changed since the advent of the Internet, social media and cell phone cameras. She effused how wonderful it is that people can send in stories and they get on the website right away. Asked by a student what that speed meant to fact checking, the MSNBC gal responded just as excitedly that this is the beauty of the web: They can change the story as published instantly as more information becomes available. The crowd got pretty restless, murmuring that MSNBC doesn’t post “retractions” and has no way of getting back to initial views who got the story all wrong. How’s that for journalistic ethics?
News reports are often just reports of what some blog is reporting. That’s an odd sentence, but that is the media echo chamber. Website A says, “Some vid shows iPhone bending.” Then, Website B says, “Website A reports problem with bent iPhones.” Then, Website C says, “There are increasing reports of bent iPhones.” Eventually, the stupid Yahoo and Fox etc. start reporting, “The internet is exploding with reports of bent iPhones.” There it is, the media echo chamber. It’s so idiotic.
One wonders how an accuracy index could be designed and implemented for news sources AND financial analysts.
How about make a video of putting a Samsung or any other plastic phone on a hot stove and see which one survives? does it melt?
The only thing that need to happen is to remove the people who bend their iPhone 6+ from the gene pool… And first in line should be the ones who do it on purpose to get online exposure…
Love the MDN take: “with 15 million* iPhone 6/Plus units out there currently, 9 units equals 0.00006% of all iPhone 6/Plus units.”
Now compare this with the headlines on the MDN page.
Total headlines: 50
Total headlines containing/alluding to bent iPhones: 12 (more than the actual number of users returning their iPhones).
That’s 24%, that’s the power of the press, not only can they make a mountain of a molehill they can keep their job. The moral? Slime sells.
Other side of that coin….
MDN’s math is over one week. Multiply that times the life of a phone…let’s say 100 weeks.
Now that goes from 1 in 1.6 mil to 1 in 16,000.
Just sayn.
But that is still pretty few.