“Shares of Apple Inc. edged lower premarket Friday, after another report of a problem with an iPhone 8 Plus,” Ciara Linnane reports for MarketWatch.
“Chinese state media reported that a device delivered there had split open, 9to5Mac reported, reigniting concerns about the battery,” Linnane reports. “Earlier this week, a customer from Taiwan and another from Japane reportedly sent pictures to Apple showing their phones split open, which was thought to be caused by the battery swelling due to gases inside the device.”
Full article here.
“Via ThePaper.cn, Liu reportedly took delivery of an iPhone 8 Plus on Thursday only to find that its case was split as soon as he opened up the packaging,” Benjamin Mayo reports for 9to5Mac. “The front screen piece is clearly bent, leaving the device in a non-functional state with the internal components partly exposed.”
“Again unconfirmed, but it is believed that an expansion of the internal battery is causing the devices to split open. Due to the minute tolerances of phones, it only takes a small increase in the size of the component to cause the iPhone to separate,” Mayo reports. “Although details remain murky, it does not appear that any of these devices are delivered in a dangerous condition (it’s not like the battery is about to combust) but it does cause inconvenience and create some bad PR for Apple.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Reuters reports that “an Apple spokesperson said the company is looking into the matter and declined to comment further.”
Keep in mind that the failure rate is unknown. With millions of units already shipped to happy customers and only a handful of reports of battery swelling, the rate could be normal – or even better than normal – but Apple will, of course, being Apple, receive more than its fair share of reporting on this issue.
SEE ALSO:
Apple reportedly investigating reports of swelling iPhone 8 Plus batteries – October 4, 2017