iPhone 3G cracks start to appear. Literally!!!

By Davey Winder
Friday, 01 August 2008 03:40

Mobility

It all started with 9 simple words on the Apple Support Forums: "I have a small crack on the white plastic." But it could escalate into something of a crisis for Apple as cracks start appearing in more than just the MobileMe service, and right there on the iPhone 3G itself...

It's no big deal, they are just very small cracks after all. That's what many people might think, and some are actually saying. However, they are wrong, very wrong indeed. Because the cracks that have started appearing in some white iPhone 3G handsets, and within a few days of the phones being purchased, could be indicative of a bigger problem for Apple.

That problem is one of perception. Loyal customers are already feeling hard done by thanks to the whole initial problem with getting handsets activated, followed by the MobileMe fiasco, and now this. Consumers can only be wooed by the Apple magic for so long, and if cracks appear in the veneer of perceived quality at a price then Apple will be in for rocky times ahead.

Funnily enough there do not seem to be any reported problems of hairline cracks with black finish iPhones, just the white ones. It seems that Apple are replacing these if you take them back to the Apple Store as reported in the support forums.

"Took it into apple and they replaced it. I actually asked for a black one because I have not heard of this happening with the black phones but they could not, so they gave me a new white one" is typical of the posts being made.

The cracks appear to be of the stress variety, which would suggest a manufacturing fault as users are insistent that there have been no droppages or accidents with the handsets. They appear around the ring/silent switch and are 5mm or so long on average.

In Canada, some users are reporting problems with getting replacements when they take the iPhones back to the Rogers stores they purchased from. With one in the Apple support forums claiming he was told by a rep that it would be deemed as 'customer abuse' and charged for a new handset. The same user reports that Apple were happy to replace it free of charge, however.

Pictures of various cracked handsets with the cracks highlighted are being collected online from various sources.

If you are contemplating an iPhone 3G purchase the advice would seem to be to go black and avoid the crack...