Apple to Replace Faulty Nano Screen

Sam Wil writes "Apple has acknowledged a flaw in the iPod nano screen that results in cracking, and attributes it to poor vendor quality. The defect affects less than one-tenth of 1 percent of all the nanos that have shipped so far. Apple will replace the screen of affected units for free." From the article: "However, the representative said that the screen-cracking issue is separate from reports that the slim new music player is more easily scratched than prior models. Complaints about both issues surfaced shortly after Apple introduced the flash memory-based Nano earlier this month. 'A few vocal customers are saying their Nano is more susceptible to scratching than prior iPods,' the Apple representative said. Apple said the Nano is made of the same polycarbonate plastic as the fourth-generation iPod and said it does not believe the scratching problem is widespread." You may recall we had a lively discussion about the screen-scratch flaw a short while back.

Comments

Quality is suffering

[billsoxs]

It used to be that any thing you bought from Apple was almost bullet proof. (ca 1995) I still have computers from that time that are running just fine. Since then they have gone to less expensive and hence cheaper parts, and this is no longer true. My five newer computers from Apple have ALL had problems. Apple fixed those problems but i'd rather have the old bullet proof ones. Still 0.1% is not a lot of defects but it will be expensive to Apple to repair.

Apple Appears

[duerra]

Such gadgets are that are clearly intended for everyday use should be designed with at least reasonable quality expectations in mind. For a product that is undeniably going to be rolling around in people's pockets, you would expect that a company would make sure that their product would not be easily abused.

From what I have read, the Nano is quite sturdy as far as the amount of physical abuse it can take, but the scratching is still a problem. It is not unreasonable for people to expect such products to be at least reasonably scratch-resistant. PDA's, cell phones, and other similar devices don't really tend to have the scratching problems that Nano adopters have expressed frustration over. The fact that there *are* so many people that have voiced on the issue (even though Apple doesn't really admit it) should give an indication to non-owners that maybe there really is a problem. There does appear to be a lot of non-owners that have come down on those that have complained about the issue, but from my analysis over the past few days, other Nano owners tend to sympathize with those people even if they haven't been bothered by it.

I definitely expect Apple to address the scratching issue internally, even if they don't publically recall the Nanos that have been easily scratched (though it does sound like most retailers are giving refunds without much hassle).

FIXED

[Chris Pimlott]

I agree,

Thin electronic items just snap ... if you SIT ON THEM! So stop carrying it in your back pocket!

Re:This issue is a serious one to Apple....

[MacGod]

I think if you're an Apple investor, you're probably happy enough about the near-quintupling in the last 2 years that a 4% drop isn't the end of the world.

Plastic things in my pocket

[el_womble]

iPod 3G - Scratched to hell
Nokia Phone - Scratched to hell, but ugly so scratches don't notice
Key Fob - Scratched to hell
Gameboy - Scratched to hell

My leather wallet is scratched. My keys have scratches.

If you put something in you pocket it will scratch. Now break? Thats a different story. If the screen on my phone, iPod or Gameboy had broken through what I would concider fair use - putting it in my pocket, I'd be kicking up a fuss.

Apple are doing the right thing by replacing the parts that have broken. If you don't want something to scratch, don't put it in your pocket, or let it touch anything else.

Re:Users with scratched screens are still out in t

[gowen]

If they're ending up terribly, horribly scratched, then you aren't taking care of it.

But Apple are marketing the nano as the ultimate in fits-in-your-pocket convenience. That's not much good if putting it in your pocket causes the screen to become unreadable, is it?

Re:Users with scratched screens are still out in t

[Darth]

Hmm...all Apple needs to do to verify the scope of this problem is open up a web browser. To say there's been a lot in the media about the iPod Nano and its butter-soft screen would be a masterpiece of understatement. Googling 'ipod nano screen scratch' yields 521,000 results.

Personally, i'm greatly offended with the amount of attention this is getting in light of so much more serious problems.
Almost nobody in this country seems to care about the rampant and unchecked violence of werewolves against the U.S. population.
The problem should be clear and obvious to the government and the population. One has merely to do a Google search on "werewolf attack 2004 u.s." to find that there were almost half a million werewolf attacks last year in this country.

That's just ridiculous.