Apple's latest iPhone & iOS embarrassments
Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone 6 Plus is not even a week old but it’s probably the most popular star on YouTube this week and the most talked about topic on tech blogs. Even my 10-year-old niece knows about the bendable 6.22-inch long and 3.06-inch wide phone and she doesn’t own an iPhone.
A viral video on Youtube’s Unbox Therapy channel shows host Lewis Hilsenteger testing the rumors that the phone can bend when stored in front or back pants pockets. He tries to bend his iPhone 6 Plus with his bare hands, and succeeds.
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“It’s embarrassing,” says Yahoo Finance’s Henry Blodget. “Apple is insane about making phones light and thin. Maybe they went a little too far here.”
The iPhone 6 Plus is very thin and light — at just 0.28 of an inch and 6.07 ounces -- compared to the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 (0.32 inch and 6.21 ounces).
At this point, Blodget says, it’s not clear how widespread the bending problem is, but if many phones are affected Apple might have to redesign the iPhone 6 Plus, and that would be incredibly expensive.
Bending is not the only issue with the new iPhones. The latest update to Apple’s operating system – iOS 8.01-- is also having problems. Reports of dropped calls and a touch ID fingerprint sensor that doesn’t always work led Apple to pull the update and advise users to re-install the previous version of the software. Apple subsequently apologized for the “great inconvenience "and said it is “working around the clock” to fix the problem.
Blodget expects this software problem will be fixed “very fast” but adds that it “hurts credibility when they [Apple] say 'everyone does it first but we do it right.'”
Apple iCloud hack raises questions ahead of big release
Perhaps three is the charm-- these latest problems for Apple follow the hacking of Apple’s iCloud storage system, which resulted in the release of nude celebrity photos earlier this month.
At midday Apple shares were down 2.9% at $98.79 – more than double the 1.25% drop in the Dow (^DJI). Whether Apple’s stock continues to fall may depend on how widespread the iPhone 6 Plus problem is and how costly the fix. In the meantime Apple sold a whopping 10 million new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus models worldwide during their first three days of sales.
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