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New iPhone Problems Threaten September Launch

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Ahead of Apple's iPhone 7 launch event, there is growing public scrutiny over a  problematic design issue in the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus handsets. The smartphones are experiencing a defect that is causing touchscreens to fail and a flickering grey bar show up along the top edge of the screen.

That's the claim being made by iFixit. In a detailed blog post, Julia Bluff talks about the increasing number of flawed units being reported not only on the Apple Forums, but also by third-party repair centers:

Lots of repair pros are experiencing the same influx of faulty iPhones—most with flickering gray bars and all with glitchy touch functionality. Rami Odeh, a repair tech from New Orleans, sees up to 100 iPhone 6 and 6 Pluses a month that don’t respond well to touch. About half of the repairs sent to Michael Huie—the specialist behind Microsoldering.com—show symptoms of the same problem.

iFixit claims the error is not in the touchscreen, but in two of the touchscreen controller chips on the logic board of the smartphones which interpret the touch events from the screen for the software. The chips are slowly being leveraged away from the circuit board through the flexing in the device. Apple has moved these chips to a different location in the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus.

As with previous issues such as the 'Error 53' security lock-out of the TouchID mechanism or the examples of the iPhone 6 Plus bending under minimal pressure, it is hard to quantify the number of units involved. Those who are experiencing the issue will be incredibly vocal on support forums, blogs, and social networks; while those unaffected will simply carry on without posting 'everything about my iPhone is okay'.

What is clear is that iFixit's coverage of the issue lends these reports a huge amount of respectability. The Apple forums are very much a walled garden to all but the most dedicated of iPhone users, but a public posting from iFixit, with a detailed breakdown both on the visible signs of the flaws, the probable cause, and the worrying note that the Apple Store Genius Bars are not able to repair the affected units in-store all adds up. This could quickly escalate into hysteria if Apple does not move quickly to control the story, answer the allegations, and details a strategy to repair the faulty units.

The timing of this story is one of the worst possible moments in the iPhone's yearly product cycle. The launch ofthe iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus is expected to be in less than two week's time. The internet is hungrily looking for information on the iPhone to decide if Apple's handset will be their next purchase, or if they look towards a number of innovative Android handsets such as Samsung's Galaxy S7 Edge or Note 7. Instead they will come across stories of faults that show up long after purchase, with Apple not offering repairs, and the (incorrect) myth of electronic devices being designed to last until just after the warranty period expires.

The issue of 'touch disease' is going to sour Apple's expectation of a smooth iPhone launch in early September. While it's not going to derail the launch it will chip away at Apple's previously impregnable reputation of being a company that is 100 percent focused on the user experience, revealing 'just another electronics company' at its heart.

No doubt a fix and an explanation for the issue will be forthcoming, hopefully with a smoother PR experience than the Error 53 issue. Apple's reputation is not so easy to repair.

I've approached Apple on this issue, and will post an update when there is a reply.

Now watch what we know about the iPhone 7:

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