The European Union has stated today that it is taking the "exploding" iPhone issues very, very seriously. EU consumer watchdog Meglena Kuneva has explained that if national authorities find out that manufacturing faults are the cause of the issue, the iPhone will face an EU-wide recall.
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Member since:2006-04-03
What a crock of crap. That's like saying "well we've found a problem with tyres made with this additive but it's only a problem if you drive on bumpy roads so we're only going to recall 4WD tyres that use it". If there is a fault found with the battery then EVERY product that uses the same type / style of battery would have to be recalled - if it's truly about customer safety. If the EU didn't they would certainly find themselves in one hell of a discrimination suit...
Member since:2009-02-19
That's not necessarily unreasonable. His point is that other devices may not be putting as much load on those batteries, or may have a better thermal environment. If a different phone uses the same battery, but has better thermal dissipation and draws half the power, then those batteries may still be fine in those phones. Or, to use your example, if a given tire doesn't hold up under the weight of a hummer, that doesn't mean that it wouldn't work well on a mini-compact.
Although I'd probably want new tires anyway.
Edited 2009-09-29 23:17 UTC
Member since:2008-01-06
Any battery will explode under the right conditions. Hell, for all we know it's not even the battery. It could be some funky power management/charging unit with buggy firmware. Remember, microcontrollers are used EVERYWHERE.
Don't be so quick to run to judgment on the issue. It's hard to tell who is at fault in cases like these. It could be abuse, it could be batteries, it could be software, it could be firmware, it could even be ROM burned into some itty bitty microcontroller responsible for charging the battery. Hell, that code might not even be written by Apple.
There's a lot of points of failure in modern electronics.
Member since:
2005-07-06
A resulting recall could be logistically challenging, maybe the biggest recall in history.
That would be extremely annoying, but in most cases much easier to fix, as most other cell phones have user replacable batteries. The service process would be as simple as mailing a new battery to the consumer.
Even if the same battery is found in other devices, that doesnt nesesarily mean that they are at risk, as these devices may have different cooling conditions, and different energy consumptiomtion e.t.c.