Apple has finally admitted that Touch Disease is a real problem. Which is progress. However, it's not accepting the blame for this fault that's out there right now killing iPhones. What's more, it's charging customers to repair the problem. Which is the opposite of progress.
In August of this year, a rather serious flaw with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus reared its ugly head. Labeled Touch Disease, this flaw turns your iPhone into a rather expensive brick. What starts out as a flickering gray bar at the top of your touchscreen eventually renders your phone unusable.
The clever bods over at iFixit quickly identified the problem, and others have since confirmed the ultimate cause of Touch Disease. It's claimed it all leads back to the integrated circuit chips which power and control the touchscreen, and the way they're soldered to the logic board.
If this is true, then Touch Disease is caused by a design flaw. Apple changed something, and it may have directly led to iPhones stopping working. Perhaps Jony Ive should have spent less time putting together Apple's $300 coffee table book and more time designing the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
Apple Will Fix Touch Disease... For a Price
Apple has stayed silent on this issue for months. If a customer complained that their iPhone had stopped working they were advised to simply buy a new iPhone. So people turned to third-party iPhone repairers instead, who were able to fix Touch Disease without too much hassle.
Now, however, Apple has launched its "Multi-Touch Repair Program for iPhone 6 Plus". Which sees Apple offering to fix your iPhone for just $149. Unfortunately this only applies to iPhone 6 Plus owners, with Apple still refusing to even admit the iPhone 6 is adversely affected.
So why is Apple charging you to fix a problem it caused in the first place? Because Apple is refusing to take the blame, claiming that iPhones are suffering catastrophic failure "after being dropped multiple times on a hard surface and then incurring further stress on the device". In other words it's all your fault. So pay up or else.
Samsung took a lot of flak for the Galaxy Note 7's exploding batteries. But at least it (eventually) admitted the problem and issued a global recall of all handsets. Apple won't even admit it might be at fault here, let alone offer to fix the problem for free.
Do you own an iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus? Have you had to deal with Touch Disease? If so, do you remember dropping your iPhone immediately prior to the problem occurring? What do you think of Apple's attitude to this whole thing? Please let us know in the comments section below!
Image Credit: Judit Klein via Flickr