Apple Labels Bent iPhone 6 Plus Issue As ‘Extremely Rare’

Apple has responded to claims that the iPhone 6 Plus is susceptible to bending if carried in a trouser pocket, calling such occurances as “rare” and stressing that  the highest construction standards and product testing of the new iPhone handset.

The iPhone 6 Plus with its 5.5-inch screen, is Apple biggest smartphone to date. It went on sale last week, along another new model, the iPhone 6. Apple said it has sold more than 10 million new iPhones in their debut weekend.

Extremely Rare

“With normal use, a bend in iPhone is extremely rare and through our first six days of sale, a total of nine customers have contacted Apple with a bent iPhone 6 Plus,” Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller reportedly said in an emailed statement.

“iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus meet or exceed all of our high quality standards to endure everyday, real life use,” Muller was quoted by Bloomberg as saying.

Apple also apparently pointed out that its iPhones feature stainless steel and titanium inserts to reinforce high-stress locations. It also said it uses the strongest glass in the smartphone industry, and comes with a “precision engineered unibody enclosure constructed from machining a custom grade of 6000 series anodized aluminum.”

The company added that it put the new iPhones through extensive testing, including “3-point bending, pressure point cycling, sit, torsion and user studies.”

Apple Misfires

Over the past week Apple has faced growing reports about how the new iPhone 6 Plus bends if it’s sat upon or enough pressure is placed upon it. Indeed, the issue now has its own Twitter hashtag #bendgate.

To be fair though, it is worth noting that handsets from other manufacturers have also reportedly bent in the past. But this is not the first time that the problem has reportedly hit Apple products. Last year from example, the Cult of Mac reported that the Apple iPhone 5S was also bending. That came after similar reports of the iPhone 5 also bending.

Apple has also faced problems with its iOS 8 update this week, after the software reportedly disrupted mobile coverage on iPhone devices, and prevented users from making or receiving calls. Apple apologised for the issue. Other recent misfirings at Apple include its less-than perfect Apple Maps application that was introduced in iOS 6 back in 2012.

But perhaps the biggest problem for Apple came back in 2010, when the company came under a lot of pressure when it was revealed that the iPhone 4 had an antenna problem. Dubbed the ‘iPhone 4 Death Grip’, users who held that device in the left hand with their palm covering the lower left part of the stainless steel band – which housed some of the antennae – often lost signal altogether, or experienced a much weaker signal strength.

Apple initially dismissed the issue – in an email to an iPhone 4 owner, Steve Jobs allegedly responded, “Just avoid holding it in that way”. Apple later issued a bumper case to solve the issue.

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