Analyst: Apple iPhone screen problems may get worse – the dreaded “dead strip”
By Will Park on Friday, August 10th, 2007 at 5:44 PM PST In Apple, Devices, Research, Technologies, iPhone, iPhone OS
Just when we thought it couldn’t get worse (seriously, we thought it would stay an isolated and rare defect), Nomura International analyst, Richard Windsor released a note to clients indicating that the iPhone’s “dead strip” display problem could become more widespread.
Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) bought the rights to the screen technology used in the iPhone from a Finnish firm. Finnish firm reported that usage led to the same unresponsive display problems after some time. Apparently, 3 to 6 months of “extensive use” would start to degrade the technology and cause a lose of sensitivity to touch-inputs. This suggests that the relatively new iPhone fleet in the US could start to exhibit similar problems with time.
With technologies as advanced as multi-touch, and production volumes as large as they are, hardware faults could very reasonably start to crop up.
We’ll keep a close eye on this problem for you guys, but should you find yourself facing the dreaded “dead strip,” drop us a line and let us know. Seriously, we’d appreciate it.
Update
The iPhone does not use heat chemical deposition technology, nor does it detect inputs based on heat.
[Via: The Inquirer]
I see a lawsuit coming up… It qould be quite interesting to see the hundreds of thousands of people that bought iPhoney file a lawsuit against the fruit company
Maciek
http://www.symbiosis60.com
Wow… a Finnish company.. must have been MyOrigo which had a proto with touch and tilt sensitive UI a couple of years ago, as well as heptic (?) feedback used by e.g. Moto in the new Razr2.
Heh, wouldn’t be ironic if the mighty iPhone became a flop because of this? Let’s wait and see what happens.
It would really be a shame if a significant portion of the iPhone fleet starting showing these problems. I’m crossing my fingers for my own iPhone.
iPhone’s touch interface is capacitive, not thermal. Use a leather object or certain types of rubber and it will work, just like a finger. I still wouldn’t buy one though.
my iphone is doing this
Sorry to hear that
When did this start happening? What part of the screen is affected?
The bottom 2-3 rows of my iphone are acting up right now. The problem seems to happen on and off. Started this past Friday and now I can’t access the Back/Forward buttons in the browser or the Space bar when typing.
I started a bet about this on Blubet:
http://www.blubet.com/bet/Will_iPhone_displays_wear_out_in_3_6_months_1
Take it into an Apple Store right away. I hope they replace it for you. Good Luck!
A few days ago my touchscreen would not pick up any of my input. A reset and a restore wouldn’t fix the problem, nor any other fix. I could only send it to Apple for replacement. I hope this isn’t a start of further issues.
This doesn’t sound too good for Apple, if this problem is widespread, they could face a class-action lawsuit.
WOW, i am not buying a phone if its easy to break the buttons off. Why don’t they make a phone you can talk to and it calls someone like without having to push buttons.
Hello
I am having this problem fro the utube to wather buttons.
I wnt to Apple today and they want to charge me 30 dollars for a rental phone. I took my phone and left
Kent
One of my school friends just went through the “Dead Strip.” He brought it to the apple store and they replaced it for him on th spot.
I’m the type of person that didn’t want people to see my iPhone freeze the slightest bit because I am such an Apple mark.
However, I just shipped my iPhone because the touch screen went completely unresponsive! Not just a strip at the article suggests. I couldn’t even unlock or shutdown the phone!
I want to puke, because I scoffed at everyone that told me to wait to buy one until all the bugs were worked out. I hope the repair will last longer than the original.
This happened to me last night. I took it out of my pocket, tried to click the “phone” button on the bottom, nothing. I’ve had my iPhone for about a month.
Here’s what is really strange: I can use slide to unlock, which covers the same area on the screen that lets me push other buttons that are now “dead.” That made me think this was a software problem.
I’m off to the Apple store for a temp fix.
I am heading to the store tm.
the bottom 1/2 inch of the touch screen is not working, which is the space bar on e-mail and any entry.
Funny thing is the back button works on the broswer.
I will let everyone know how they handle it.
Fellow Iphone fans or owners, I recently experienced a cracked screen after a drop from a distance of less than a foot. I called apple and they wanted to charge me $300 for repairs. Talked to a supervisor and they are fixing it for free. Dont take no for an answer talk to supervisors and dont pay any money to get your phone fixed, the videos from pcworld mag on youtube are fake. The iphone is not a resistant phone!!
Last night all of the sudden I went to use my phone and the top half of the screen wouldn’t repond?! At first I thought if I just restarted the phone things would be better…well definetly not. I am going to take it into Apple today and hopefully they will fix it. Any ideas on how to make sure they do without paying a massive fee? Thanks!
Tell them that you know that this is a known issue. You want a replacement, and you would like a loaner. If they hassle you about a fee for the loaner, ask to talk to the manager. But, be cordial.
Good luck!
Same thing happened to me today i pull out my iphone today and south beach and only my bottom row wont work
but i can unlock on the lower row something is really wrong with these things
My iPhone just started doing this over the weekend. I took it into the apple store and they wouldn’t even look at it until Thursday (two days later) unless I paid for the upgraded service plan. I just walked out. This is going to get really ugly for Apple and AT&T, guranteed.
my iphone has the dead strip now i noticed it 2 days ago. the top row of keys do not respond. i have not taken it to apple yet. the people at my apple store tend to be dick heads about stuff like this.
Mine just started doing this over the weekend. Started with the dead strip and is now the whole phone. I do a lot of traveling and depend on my phone for a lot. Not being able to make any calls has cost me REAL money. This is quite frustrating. I called apple to find out what to do and spoke to “Travis”. He said that he can’t guarantee that the store will give me a free replacement but that he could give me one that will be here tomorrow morning. I’m going to try the apple store in a few minutes and see if they can replace mine for free. I’ve always been a PC guy and this is my first venture into the Apple world…hasn’t been a good experience…I may be switching to the Nokia N95..
So I make an appointment with the Apple store for 7:45 to have my iphone swapped out because of the deadstrip. They said they had an iphone they could swap out with me. I drive the 35 minutes across town to the Apple store and ….here’s how it went…
Me: I’ve got the deadstrip problem and I called earlier and you guys said you had an iphone you would swap out with me.
Genius: Not a problem sir. I’m really sorry about this.
Me: Here’s my iphone.
Genius: Oooohhhhh…you have a 4 GB iphone.
Me: Yeah…and….
Genius: We don’t have any 4 GB iphones…
Me: You’ve got to be kidding me.
Genius: I’m sorry sir, I can order you one that will arrive in 2 to 3 days.
Me: Travis (see above comment) from apple said he could have one here tomorrow morning and they can’t get one to yall for 2 to 3 days?
Genius: I’m sorry sir.
I turned around and walked out. I’m now on hold with another guy from apple who is now GIVING ME A HARD TIME about replacing the phone. I STRONGLY suggest NOT getting an iphone.
:evil:
I MISS MY CINGULAR 8125!!!!!
All these complaints are making me reconsider about getting the iPod Touch when its released. Should i?? Argh
I just got my replacement iphone today…I’m figuring the reason they aren’t making any new 4GB iphones is because they probably have the issue with the touch screen whereas the 8GB phones have all been fixed. It’s probably ok to go ahead and get the new ipod. I’m betting they’ve got the technology fixed by now.
I am having this problem as of last night. The top row of buttons do not work on any screen (which caused me a great disturbance when flying yesterday when I could not get the phone into airplane mode for a flight!)
This sucks!
This morning I awoke to try the Weather button and it did not respond, nor did the entire row of buttons, YouTube, Stocks and Maps. I noticed in the apps that I could open that the same area was non responsive. My IT guy sent me the link to your dead strip story which is exactly my problem. I just made an appointment to meet with a Mac genius at lunch. Wish me luck!
Interesting, was your touchscreen fully functional before you went to sleep? It’s strange that the touchscreen would just cease to function overnight.
Either way, Good Luck!
It was working fine but I am a heavy user of my phone and functions. Must have just worn it out?
I have just started having the same dread strip issues. The same area of the screen works in some applications and not in others. May be a software issue after all
call apple…it will only get worse. They’re very good about replacing the phone and giving you a spare while they repair yours.
They replaced mine at the Apple Store with no questions. Actually the only question they asked me was if I had gotten it wet, which I hadn’t. Make sure to back up your info to your hard drive so you can reinstall after you get the new one because they don’t do that for you. You also get the remaining warranty time on the new one, not another full year. Good luck!
Just lost the botton two rows of touch sensitivity. Come to think of it I have noticed over the past two days have to touch the bottom icons twice or three times for action.
What a pain in the a*s!!!!!!
I woke this morning to find the bottom strip (phone, mail, safari, ipod) non-responsive, even though it worked fine last night. Funny that the unlock slider still works. I’m heading to the Apple Store later this afternoon. Very disappointing…
The top row is unresponsive for me now. I cannot get back to the text message menu or change the date display in the calendar or get back to the main message windows in email. I have an appt with the apple store tonight. Wish me luck.
Good luck Paul. They have been pretty good at replacing the phones so far.
I bought my iphone on the launch date. I have no hacks and my touch screen Died early this morning while tryng to do a google maps search! Between the lack of simple features like cut and paste and search, I am sooo disenchanted with this product up to this point.
Sorry to hear that. Take it into Apple and let them know how disappointed you are with the device. Hopefully the Apple Store techs will be able to redeem themselves and the iPhone with great service (ask to have your iPhone swapped out for a new one).
Good luck!
Thanks WillPark,
Now I wish that they would allow the device to cut and paste and search, then I guess the only other gripe I have would be the spotty coverage with the AT&T network,which is not apple’s fault!
You are correct Apple is very proactive at the store and the GENIUS BAR immediatly resolved the issued for me by swapping me out with a new phone. They have again redeemed themselves!
Thanks!
Glad to hear everything worked out for you!
The dead strip problem seems like a pretty serious issue right now, and it makes sense for Apple make good on the iPhone. Apple’s always had tremendous customer service, which is why I would suggest that everyone just take their dead-strip, un-responsive iPhone into an Apple Store ASAP.
So for all you guys who’s screen have had the deadstrip is this a problem limited to the 4GB model or is it also including the 8GB models too. I want one but Im gona wait until the 2nd generation comes out and see whats going to happen with that one.
my back buttons and upper rows dont work
Going into apple tomorrow…
Dead strip is a great way to describe it – mine is about a 3mm high swath across what would be just below center of the display. It is active and works fine as long as what you need to touch isn’t inside this area.
Going to the store this weekend. Dead area somehwere in the middle of the screen. Had the iphone since early September, never been dropped.
my bottom row of iphone buttons stopped working today. I took it to the apple store and they replaced it. I feel the warranty expiration breathing down my neck. Hope this one will last.
Nov 12th, just lost my bottom row last night at a concert while trying to take a photo… restarting the phone allows me to access the top applications, but being as the “unlock slider” is at the bottom, once the phone locks up I’m screwed again and have to restart. Can’t make calls either of course.
My “bottom bar dead zone” has led to some creative workarounds while I wait for a GeniusBar appointment: if you need to make a call, you’ve got one option that I can see.
First, go into settings and under your General Settings, set the phone to NEVER lock itself automatically. This’ll save you from having to restart the phone every time you want to call.
Then, open up the an SMS of someone you’d like to call, then scroll up on the SMS list to the alternate call button at the top. If you don’t have that person on the list of previous SMS threads, then you’ve gotta send that person a text FIRST, and then open that SMS thread up to call. Keep in mind that when you’re entering in the person’s name, you can’t misspell it or else you have to go back to start since you’ve also lost your “delete” button functionality, hehe.
Make your call as usual. When the call is over, be sure not to have any private conversations for a sec, because that you can’t actually hangup from your end (because the end conversation button is at the… bottom).
Hope this helps some desperate folks out there while waiting for Apple to help them.