Apple's iPhone 6 Plus may Become a Huge Headache
Earlier today Apple's video noted above surfaced starring Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake. Timberlake represented the iPhone 6 Plus and his angle was to constantly push the iPhone's "Huge" factor. One of the things that Apple didn't want the iPhone 6 Plus to be known for is it being too light and causing the frame to actually bend over time when placing it in your pocket for everyday use. A new video released this afternoon and presented in this report, shows us that the iPhone 6 Plus could bend with medium applied pressure around the volume rocker switch. Ouch! That could add up to being a "Huge" headache for new iPhone 6 Plus owners and Apple. I can see the video spoofing on this point surfacing shortly, even if the issue is later to be proven false.
Unbox Therapy's iPhone 6 Plus Bend Test
I'm sure that Apple will say that they've thoroughly tested the iPhone 6 Plus and that this isn't a real problem. However, we know that Apple's PR machine can also sell ice to Eskimos. So we'll just have to wait a few days to see how this plays out. If it's a real problem, then it'll certainly ding Jony Ive's credibility for being a leading designer. Though for now, that's all hypothetical, even though the video is quite convincing on the surface.
At present the 4.7 inch iPhone is outselling the 5.5 inch version by a wide margin if the web traffic measured by Chitika is any indicator. It showed a clean 8:1 ratio in favor of the 4.7 inch model. That would seem to be in-line with what I experienced seeing at my local Apple Store over the weekend as I wondered around observing and talking to people just as a consumer and not as Patently Apple. So this current issue, if it's one to begin with, may only affect a minority of new iPhone 6 Plus owners.
In the end, will the iPhone 6 Plus cause new owners a headache with structural bending problems or is this all being blown out of proportion? Lou from Unbox Therapy says in the video that he was doing this for the "sake of science" but there was nothing "scientific" about the amount of force he exerted to cause the bend. Was the force unreasonable? We don't know.
If the issue is real, then I'm sure that Apple's executive team are in their war room looking into this matter at this moment. If it's something that could affect sales, they'll respond accordingly, be assured. So for now, we just need a little patience and in the interim, iPhone 6 Plus owners should use a protective case.
If you have a story to tell or an opinion on this developing story, send in your comments below. Sorry, Android rants will not be published for this report.
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Just a Note: Some younger fans missed a key point in our report. So let me clarify. We made it a point to note that the iPhone 6 Plus could be one-eighth of sales if you go by the new web traffic stats from Chitika that we linked to. So the amount of possible users experiencing a problem with the iPhone bending is small considering that only a few within that particular group were actually reporting a bending problem.
Our use of "huge" as in a "huge headache" is in context to Timberlake's use of of the term associating the new iPhone 6 Plus with "huge." We highligted the word to make that connection clear. So it's not that the problem is actually huge, but rather that the problem is associated with the iPhone 6 Plus model, which in context, was referred to in the Apple ad as being "Huge." We played off of this point and some actually took it literally. The iPhone ad was in our report for context. There was no reason to use that ad other than for context.
Cheers
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