Apple Dances Around Overheating Problems, So Who's Surprised?

(MoneyWatch)  Apple is claiming that reports of overheating and exploding iPhones is all a matter of outside pressure. In other words, Apple says it's all the fault of users. But carefully crafted language, denial, and then further silence may not be enough to keep the lid on a problem that has been developing for years.

Let's start with a short review of what's information has been coming out at least in the last few months:

• In June I wrote about a an iPhone and iPod overheating problem that was at least two years old, and that may have been limited in how far back I looked.
• In July, significant complaints started to surface about brand-new iPhone 3GS units overheating, some enough to discolor the cover of the white model.
• Later in July, news came out that Apple had been actively trying to keep reporters from seeing information about iPods overheating and potential battery problems.
• In August stories broke about Apple trying to muzzle at least one U.K. family that wanted money back for an iPod that allegedly exploded.
• A few days later, there were reports that Apple Europe was waiting to receive iPhones to examine to check the media reports. However, the Apple rep specifically didn't mention iPods, which had been receiving the majority of coverage in Europe.

and now, Apple is claiming that iPhones with shattered screens turned in by European customers showed that outside pressure had been the cause. Here's an official snippet from the company:

"In all cases the glass cracked due to an external force that was applied to the iPhone," Alan Hely, a London-based spokesman for Apple Europe, said in an e-mail. "There are no confirmed battery overheating incidents for iPhone 3GS and the number of reports we are investigating is in the single digits."

This appears to be such a devious use of language that it begs for dissection:

1. The media reports have been about overheating, not necessarily cracked glass.
2. Some of the photos that have been published by the media and by users, whether in Europe or the US, have showed other types of damage.
3. Many of the European reports have been about iPods overheating, something that Hely simply ignored.
4. Apple Europe's investigating reports "in the single digits" doesn't mean that it hasn't had more cases. It's simply investigating fewer than ten.

I cannot believe that such construction by a spokesperson for a company known to be highly secretive is even in the slightest accidental.

Because Apple is not forthcoming about problems, and even has shown itself to actively block, when possible, news about them, there is no way to tell how many reports it has received, the nature of the issues claimed by customers, nor the range of products that may be affected. Evidence from personal reports on the web suggests that there is a relatively extensive problem that Apple will not publicly acknowledge. But then, the liver transplant that Steve Jobs needed was passed off as a hormonal imbalance, even though Apple's own SEC filings say that his presence in particular is a critical issue for corporate success. Apple at one point tried to blame AT&T for its refusal to sell -- oh, sorry, continued study of -- Google Voice for the iPhone.

From a business viewpoint, this is a particularly dangerous time for the company as it works on its transition from niche computer manufacturer to power in consumer electronics, bridging the gap between every day devices and full computing. Its attitude and approach to investors, consumers, and business partners is non-productive and possibly self-destructive in the end. Or as my colleague Michael Hickins puts it more colorfully, yet no less accurately:

Apple doesn't stick up for its friends or its own principles, unless of course it's easy to do so. Kind of like dating the last person on earth.

Fire dancing image via stock.xchng user Januszek, site standard license.