TORONTO – Apple has finally broken its silence on #Bendgate.
In an attempt to put the kibosh on widespread reports of bending iPhone’s, Apple released a statement Thursday stating only nine customers have contacted the company with complaints of bent devices.
“With normal use a bend is extremely rare and through our first six days of sale, a total of nine customers have contacted Apple with a bent iPhone 6 Plus,” a spokesperson said.
According to Apple’s statement, the company preformed “rigorous” tests on the iPhone 6 Plus during its development to ensure its strength and durability, adding the device was put through 3-point bending, pressure point cycling, sit, torsion, and user studies.
“iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus meet or exceed all of our high quality standards to endure every day, real life use,” read the statement.
READ MORE: #Bendgate: Reports of Apple’s iPhone 6 bending in users pockets
Reports of bending iPhone’s began surfacing early this week as users took to online forums claiming the device bends when pressure is applied to the body of the smartphone for a prolonged period of time.
One user on the forum MacRumors complained that his iPhone bent after having it in his pants pocket for 18 hours, and posted pictures of the bent phone.
The iPhone 6 is the thinnest model in Apple’s smartphone history, measuring a thickness of 6.9mm and 7.1mm for the larger iPhone 6 Plus model. The case of the phone is made from a solid piece of aluminum.
As the complaints went viral the hashtags #Bendgate and #Bendghazi started trending on social media.
Apple’s competitors have been quick to take part in the social media frenzy, using Bendgate as an opportunity for viral marketing. Samsung, LG, HTC and even Nokia took turns at making jabs at Apple on Twitter.
Even BlackBerry got in on the shots.
“I would challenge you guys to bend our Passport,” said Chen during the BlackBerry Passport launch in Toronto Wednesday.
In addition to the Bendgate controversy, Apple’s stock fell nearly 4 per cent Thursday after the company was forced to withdraw an update to its new iOS 8 mobile software because of glitches that affected iPhone 6 and 6 Plus users. iOS 8.0.1 caused some devices to lose cell service and disabled the use of the Touch ID fingerprint scanner.
Apple released an update correcting the issues Friday, apologizing to users for the inconvenience.
Though it may have been a tough week for the tech giant, some suggest Apple won’t be left with a black eye for long.
Carolina Milanesi, chief of research at Kantar Worldpanel, said she thought the company suffered more harm a few years ago, when it was slow to acknowledge complaints about poor reception and dropped calls that affected new iPhone 4 models when they were released in 2010. The company eventually offered a fix for the problem, after then-CEO Steve Jobs initially suggested users just needed to hold the phone differently.
“There wasn’t any of that this time,” Milanesi said. She noted that Jobs’ successor, CEO Tim Cook, had also taken responsibility and apologized for initial problems with Apple’s Maps software when it was first released.
– With files from The Associated Press
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