A new problem with the iPhone: stress cracks


I noticed a crack in the back of my iPhone, between the mute button and the metal bezel. It just appeared, not caused by a drop or anything. Looking online, this is happening to a lot of people. The reason why this is happening, I think, is that Apple bonded a plastic back to a metal bezel. Metal has a much higher coefficient of thermal expansion than plastic, so it’s not surprising that the plastic gets stress fractures at the weak points. Also not surprising that it happened to me during the winter, as the phone goes from

I swear, sometimes it seems like Apple is all design, no engineering. It would be nice if, in addition to the mock turtleneck-wearing crowd that runs the company, they would hire a mechanical engineer or two.

From what I’ve seen online, if you have this problem, Apple might replace your phone if it’s in otherwise pristine condition (i.e. there is no evidence you have dropped the phone).


5 responses to “A new problem with the iPhone: stress cracks”

  1. Jon,

    It would be fantastic to see the money we pay for our iPhone actually go towards a product that lasts!

    Everything these days seems to be built for the short term. The engineers at Apple need to pick up the pace a little, especially considering the ‘cracking’ is now an epidemic amongst iPhone owners.

    • Tell me about it! Apple did replace my iPhone. However, the second one developed cracks in the same area within a month! I never dropped it, and it’s in otherwise perfect condition.

      Everything is disposable these days…

      • At least they *did* replace your iPhone, I bet there are many out there that weren’t so lucky and where deemed to not be in a so called “pristine” condition.

        It’s all about consumerism and getting customers to repeatedly spend on your product, and to think that dropping $300+ on an iPhone (model dependant of course) isn’t enough!

        Here here for poorly made products and we’re almost entering 2010.

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