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TechCrunch reports on a lawsuit being brought against Apple by owners of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus who say a design defect causes the touchscreens to become unresponsive. The loss of responsiveness is often preceded by a flickering gray bar appearing across the top of the screen. iFixit discusses a few possible sources of the "Touch Disease" problem, with the most popular theory being that the Touch IC chips lose contact with the logic board due to the phone bending.
The complaint [PDF], filed in California's Northern District federal court, alleges that Apple is aware of the design flaw and has concealed it from consumers by refusing to acknowledge or repair it. It also suggests that the 5s and 5c protected against this problem in various ways, so it's not as if Apple didn't know it was a possibility. The 6s and Plus got stiffened to prevent bending, as well.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 30 2016, @09:44PM
If it didn't die during the warranty, you don't have ground to complain or sue.
This is half correct... maybe only a one-fourth correct.
For suing, I am not a lawyer, but I would expect you are probably right that once a system is out of warranty there is few grounds for suing (assuming it doesn't do something silly, like starting a fire). However, I imagine there could be some implicit warranty or some such based on the set of laws you are operating under... maybe...
However, complaining is another question entirely. Imagine if the day after warranty, every Toyota (or Ford, or whatever) car just stopped working. Every single one. I'm sure there would be outrage, and rightly so. There is a societal expectation that cars will run for years, so the social and moral outrage would be absolutely justified. Whether it is legally actionable is another question, but a complaint is absolutely in order.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 30 2016, @10:01PM
You can sue for defective products, which is basically a form of negligence under torts law. There are also various consumer protection laws that are a bit more specific.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday August 30 2016, @10:38PM
Agreed, I should have specified "file a complaint" (official) rather than "complain" (anyone can get pissed when their toy breaks).
Legal minimum warranties are typically a year for consumer products, with some exceptions. I don't know of any jurisdiction which has extended minimum warranties for phones, but I'm open to learning something new today. (got a vague memory of someone mulling a two-year one for electronics)
On another note, there are indeed social expectations with regards to some products and services, and justifiable calls for boycott of companies who violate them. But in these post-religious years we live in (at least as far as companies are concerned), we are not done hearing about the likes of Shkreli.