Tim Cook’s smiling face was splashed on the cover of Bloomberg’s Businessweek magazine on Monday. Inside, the Apple’s chief executive enthused about the launch this month of new, bigger iPhones and the iWatch. One suspects, however, that his grin had disappeared by the end of this week.
First, reports surfaced on social media suggesting that the thinner iPhone 6 and the slightly larger iPhone 6 Plus could be bent in trouser pockets. Actual numbers of people affected by, for instance, inadvertently sitting on their mobiles were not forthcoming. But the discussion spread worldwide, amplified by a video in which one blogger managed to bend the large iPhone 6 Plus, apparently using only his hands. (The video’s legitimacy has been questioned: the time displayed on the phone that bends jumps about, suggesting some sort of editing.) “Bendgate” became an internet meme, even meriting discussion on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
To add to its hardware hassles, on Wednesday Apple created one with its software when it issued a minor software update for its iPhones and iPads. Such updates are common practice to tidy up after a major software release, as it had done on 17 September with its annual update to its iOS software.
Except the 8.0.1 revisions killed the mobile connectivity and fingerprint-operated unlocking system on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Other devices were unaffected, but Apple apologised for the “great inconvenience” and released 8.0.2 on Friday to fix the problems. It said only 40,000 owners had been affected.
By midweek, Apple seemed to be spiralling into a publicity black hole. It was reminiscent of the furore that followed the September 2012 launch of its Maps product, which had substandard coverage of many parts of the world; or the release in 2010 of the iPhone 4, which lost connect ivity if you held it lefthanded, blocking its external antennae. With the latter, Steve Jobs, the Apple co-founder, cut short his holiday to hold a press conference. He insisted the problems were overblown, but offered iPhone 4 owners a free protective case to reduce the problem.
Cook’s Apple is a different beast from Jobs’, though. With Maps, Cook penned an apology and fired the executives responsible. This time round, Apple has apologised for the software update but has hit back at claims that the phones could be bent by normal use. Its first salvo was to say that nine people had complained about their phones bending. It was not clear what those owners had done, but the industrial aluminium alloy used to make the devices is one of the strongest available, from a formula also used in bridges and cranes.
The iPhone6 Plus, dubbed a “phablet” because it is a hybrid of the tablet and the smartphone with its 5.5 inch screen, might bend if you sit with it in a front or back pocket. However, as Apple showed journalists at the testing facility near its Cupertino headquarters this week, it is tested for precisely that scenario – and worse. “It’s extremely rare [for bending] to happen in real world use,” Phil Schiller, Apple’s head of marketing, said.
The nine complainants are dwarfed by the 10m iPhone 6 and 6 Plus phones sold in their first three days on sale in just 10 countries. The question remains, however, whether this week’s welter of bad news will damage Apple. So far, the financial community doubts there will be a long-term impact. No analyst is downgrading estimates of how many handsets Apple will sell after this week. Having sold 51m phones in the 2013 Christmas quarter, some think the figure could hit 60m for the final quarter of 2014, with the 6 Plus doing particularly well in China.
“Like any new consumer technology product, the iPhones and software therein come with issues that are revealed in the days following a release,” said Kevin Restivo, of research company IDC. “Like the iPhone 4 antenna placement issues that affected few users, the iOS 8 update and bending phone problem will soon be forgotten.”
In fact, Restivo added, “when competitors pounce on Apple for minor though pertinent issues, it only serves to reinforce the iPhone maker’s leadership position.”
Francisco Jeronimo, IDC’s smartphone analyst, chimed in: “This is particularly true when the device sets record sales. All devices have problems. Some are more exposed due to their volumes.”
Indeed, Apple is not the only company that has had problems with its phones, nor even with its phones bending in use. Sony and Samsung have experienced the latter. But because Apple chooses to attract as much attention to its device launches as possible, and because those devices sell in large numbers, they are the object offocused attention – by users, rivals and those who dislike Apple.
Under that microscope, any flaw becomes a reason that this time, finally, Apple will fail. In 2010, it was the antenna; in 2012, the Maps software, and reports that the iPhone 5 scuffed easily; in 2013, claims that the new TouchID system could be “spoofed” by laserprinting your fingerprint on to a transparency film. Yet none has stopped it selling more and more handsets, and grabbing more share of the mobile phone market’s revenues and sales.
As Ross Rubin of Reticle Research told the Associated Press, the iPhone 6 Plus is “a large, thin device. That’s not to say customers should treat it gingerly, but it’s still an electronic product and it’s an investment, and it should be treated as such.”
As for the investment itself – Apple’s stock fell sharply on Thursday from a high of $102.87, just short of its all-time high of $103.30, to be trading just below $100 early on Friday. However, analysts still expect Apple stock to perform strongly.
“Earnings is what drives the stock the most,” said Walter Piecyk of US-based financial researcher BTIG. “It’s too early to say what the impact’s going to be [of the hardware and software reports], but it does not appear to be something that would impact the company’s ability to deliver on earnings.”
Cook might be smiling again when Apple announces its latest quarterly results next month. But this week has been a reminder that Apple’s position is never unassailable.
The iPhone 6 underwent 15,000 separate tests to make it “the most tested product we have ever done”, according to Apple. It is not the first Apple product or software update to suffer a glitch.
iPhone 4 antenna Soon after the launch of the iPhone 4 in 2010 customers complained that calls were dropped when they held the phone on the lefthand side – blocking the antenna, which was built into the casing. Steve Jobs, Apple’s late co-founder, admitted the phone dropped slightly more calls than previous models and offered customers free cases to solve the problem. “This has been blown so out of proportion that it’s incredible,” he said. “There is no Antennagate.”
Apple Maps Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, apologised to customers in 2012 for problems with its new mapping app, which replaced Google Maps. Apple’s maps initially gave unreliable directions and mislabelled landmarks.
MobileMe Launched in July 2008, MobileMe was Apple’s first move into cloud computing before iCloud. Apple promised MobileMe could sync emails, calendars, contacts and photos across iPhone, Mac and PC. But it got off to a bad start with delays transferring data meaning some users couldn’t access anything. Apple acknowledged that some people lost 10% of their emails during one outage. “The MobileMe launch clearly demonstrates that we have more to learn about internet services,” Jobs said in a leaked internal memo. “And learn we will. The vision of MobileMe is both exciting and ambitious, and we will press on to make it a service we are all proud of by the end of this year.”
The buttonless iPod shuffle In 2009 Apple released an iPod with no buttons which users were meant to control via headphones. The line was discontinued in September 2010 when Apple reintroduced buttons.
iPod nano Within days of its launch in September 2005, some customers said the iPod nano screen could scratch or crack. Apple responds that the problems are limited to a “very small number” of devices and offers to swap any affected. The nano went on to be its best-selling iPod.
iPhone 5 With its black anodised aluminium shell and slightly longer shape, the iPhone 5 was criticised when it launched in September 2012 for scuffing easily so that it showed nicks. A handful of customers claim to have bent them - apparently after sitting on them. The iPhone 5 went on to become Apple’s best-selling phone so far.
iPhone 5S Apple introduced TouchID, its fingerprint-based unlock system, last year. Within days, a German hacking group showed that it could unlock the device using a photograph of the user’s fingerprint laser-printed on to a transparency film. Apple did not respond. The 5S went on to become Apple’s best-selling phone so far. Rupert Neate
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