On September 19, Apple released their new phones, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Unless you live a life completely devoid of social media, you’ve probably heard of “Bendgate” or, if you don’t know it by that name, the design flaw of the iPhone 6 Plus. It bends. There is a specific part of the aluminum bezel, located right below the volume down button, that when a specific amount of pressure is applied (according to Apple’s stress tests, 90 pounds of pressure) causes bending.
The reason this is such a big deal is because the phone is not supposed to be able to bend. According to 9to5mac, a blog devoted to all things Apple, one reason for this is the lack of titanium and stainless steel reinforcements that are located along the inside of the bezel behind other areas in need of strengthening. Apple has remained quiet as far as having any kind of press conference to address the issue but has said that nine people notified them with bent iPhones and they agreed to replace phones with the problem. Apple has also said, according to a statement made to business insider, “With normal use a bend in iPhone is extremely rare. The new iPhones feature steel/titanium inserts to reinforce stress locations and use the strongest glass in the industry.”
Apple also mentions that it has performed rigorous tests on the iPhone, but the tests focused on the center of the phone (where it was reinforced) and not on the part of the device being affected by the problem. For Apple to release a statement on a problem that is only affecting nine people is odd. However, after a video of a man bending his iPhone 6 Plus was posted on YouTube and it went viral. The video currently has over 52 million views.
With approximately one-sixth of the American population having watched the video, it makes sense that Apple would be worried about the public perception of the device. In the video, you can clearly see the man bending the iPhone, but I think it worth noting that a considerable amount of force was needed in order for him to achieve the bending, as you can tell by how much his hands are shaking during the process. In the video he also addresses the problem of iPhones bending through normal use in someone’s front pocket saying, “I guess that depends on how tight your pants are.”
It is unknown exactly how many devices have had this problem, but what Apple has done in the past to address issues with their devices is to give some incentive to the customers currently experiencing the problem (replacement phones in this instance, cases to fix the antenna reception with the iPhone 4) and then they quietly updated the device to fix the problem. I expect this will be no exception to that pattern. Apple has an event planned for October 18 where they could possibly address this issue, but it’s more likely that they will introduce new products to take the mind of the public off the problem at hand.