Who’s excited about the new iPhone release? Has it ignited a desire so white hot you spent the end of last week camped out along a major high street or furiously locked in a silent digital bidding war? No? Here at BuyMeOnce HQ, we’ve been left reeling from the latest revelation that, according to Apple, the lifespan of an iPhone is really just one year.
Apple is currently embroiled in a class action lawsuit following a slew of customer complaints around the poor responsiveness of its iPhone 6 model. An issue rather worryingly called ‘touch disease’ (unsurprisingly a term not adopted or acknowledged by the brand itself) renders the screen essentially useless after not very long at all. What’s surprising about this news isn’t necessarily the fact that Apple customers have been experiencing issues with their iPhones; it’s true that with innovation comes risk. What’s extraordinary here is that Apple have actually admitted to a flaw with this phone, yet they fail to offer support. Apparently, as the fault materialized after one year, they have no responsibility to their customers. Right.
To the more jaded among you, this is pretty obvious stuff. Apple don’t bank on any of us using our iPhones for longer than a year because really, they’d like us to keep buying into the newer, shinier, sexier phone on offer. But hold on, don’t Apple state that their phones are among the most durable on the market? If that’s the case, then how can this be justified? They’re manufacturing and releasing products with the knowledge that they will fail and even before a 24-month contract term is up.
None of us expects a phone to last a lifetime yet. We’re still waiting on more manufacturers to follow the fine example set by Fairphone and create devices with longevity locked in. But is it really unreasonable to expect an expensive piece of kit, particularly one that’s marketed as the pinnacle of excellence and high quality, to last longer than 12 months? For the plaintiffs, in this case, there is a resolution but with a pinch of salt. Without acknowledging the issue, Apple will support in their typical fashion. They’re making a refurbished phone available to complainants – if they fork out $149.
Safe in the knowledge that you have neither reasonable coverage beyond one year nor the Right to Repair your Apple device, you should think carefully before committing to yet another iPhone. Apple can do better, and you can too.
