Exploding iPod blows up in Apple's face
By Nilay Patel 
posted Aug 3rd 2009 2:02PM
posted Aug 3rd 2009 2:02PM
Now, it's no secret that lithium-ion batteries like those used in the iPod have a long history of overheating and exploding, and Apple's certainly had large-scale problems with defective cells -- the first-gen iPod nano has been recalled in Korea and Japan, for example. It's also obvious that the sheer number of iPods sold means there are more exploding iPods than anything else -- and while we're sure some accountant at Apple has a spreadsheet showing the exact failure rate is acceptable, all we've got right now is story after story of these things blowing up with zero context. So here's our suggestion to Apple: maybe instead of having lawyers draft individual settlement agreements full of impenetrable and scary legalese for each and every jilted iPod owner out there, why not simply fess up to the problem, let people know exactly how common it is and how to avoid it, and provide a dead-simple replacement option for people who've had their iPods go up in smoke? That would put everyone at ease, and make these types of stories much less likely to blow up in a media feeding frenzy. Or, you know, do nothing because overwhelming market share inevitably leads to arrogant laziness -- your call.
[Via TUAW]
It's like the RROD for Apple
Maybe I'd rather have a BSOD
A joke so bad, even a caveman can do it.
what poor Microsoft has to do with evil Apple ?
how lame Engadget
neither Yahoo
Lame !
How can Apple's stock still be going up after this came out, it should drop like a mofo.
What about the ninjas?
It's just like the RROD, if you had to kick your 360 down a flight of stairs before the RROD popped up. This guy dropped his iPod, causing it to crack open.
@bobby: It has this to do with Microsoft: "...because overwhelming market share inevitably leads to arrogance and laziness..."
I would rather take the RROD then have my car explode.
@ Techie:
Stock price isn't affected because, despite what the media wants you to believe, this isn't that big a deal. Every product will have defective units shipped; no manufacturing process has a 0% failure rate. As Engadget noted, because Apple ships so many of these, there are bound to be more defects in iPods than anything else, and because Apple stories tend to get more attention than others, the likelihood of these defects being reported is higher. Investors don't care because it's not going to affect the bottom line.
Maybe if this reaches the rumored "30% units affected" mark like the RROD does. Until then, I think many of us have an iPod that has NOT exploded.
Even if they do blow up, a face full of exploding iPod is still better than owning a Zune.
@Jeff:
If that was the case, the high volume of Windows and its "security" flaws would be ignored and Microsoft's stock would be going up as well. Ratio-wise, it's no different from other systems out there.
It's not hit because Apple's a "hot commodity" and looked at as the very definition of "hip" to this generation.
@ tangocat:
Microsoft's stock isn't going up because Microsoft isn't offering much to the investment community. Earnings are down for the first time in history. Microsoft is being faced with increased competition on all fronts, including Windows and Office. Vista flopped. Consumers don't generally hold its brand in high regard. Its only profitable businesses are Windows and Office; everything else relies on these two to be profitable.
Maybe it'll go up if Windows 7 sells well; maybe it won't. There are a lot of factors that affect stock price, far more than we can imagine. That's basically why I was saying Apple's stock isn't going down because a statistically insignificant percentage of iPods were defective and got a disproportionate amount of media attention.
This is just not Apple's day... or week.
Is this Microsoft getting a jump on the Windows 7 launch by spiking the web with Apple Haterade?
Not that I don't find it kinda fun to jump on the bandwagon!
I wonder if the legal letter mentioned how the other apple guy committed "suicide" after being tortured.
This is a fake story. The MS fanbois would do anything to take marketshare away from apple. The iPod is a perfect product that never malfunctions.
uwaga dude. spoken like a true iDB ^_^
But I thought Steve Jobs designed the iPod to *perfection*. He won't make a netbook because it would deliver an "inferior" user experience. Every curve and every material has to meet his perfecting standards.
Yet batteries explode, Apple gets lawsuits, Apple's the target of an FCC investigation, it loses not just a board member but the board member who's a CEO of a company that they're publicly friendly with... Bad karma anyone???
But OH YEAH THAT'S RIGHT - their stock keeps going through the roof!!! In fact it's about to hit 170 and soon it'll be at $200/share again and it will break Apple's all-time record again even though we're still in a recession??
(is it just me or did hell freeze over)
That's sound advice but I think they'd rather push the illusion of infallibility. I think they're a great company but the pedestal they've been placed on may have them act in more mysterious ways rather than the "hey, shit's fucked up so call this number."
Lol, it's not like they're breaking the story.
One Word: Liability
Seriously. The lawsuit rate will only go up for any company that runs around advertising that their product occasionally explodes.
Even for explosives.
You know, because those are supposed to ALWAYS explode, not only occasionally.
I wonder what is the liability insurance at Apple's manufacturing plant?
One thing about that whole who should be responsible thing - if you read the original UK Times source, the device was dropped/damaged first, just before it exploded. I'm not saying that we should expect things to explode when you drop them, but I think there's a difference between an ipod/laptop/whatever just overheating and exploding versus it becoming damaged and then exploding. Crappy compensation in either case!
The original description from Times
"Ken Stanborough, 47, from Liverpool, dropped his 11-year-old daughter Ellie’s iPod Touch last month. “It made a hissing noise,” he said. “I could feel it getting hotter in my hand, and I thought I could see vapour”. Mr Stanborough said he threw the device out of his back door, where “within 30 seconds there was a pop, a big puff of smoke and it went 10ft in the air”."
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/personal_tech/article6736587.ece
I dont care what they did, I dont care if it wsant under warranty. If it exploded, the iPod should be replaced or refunded. Apple should send them a check, no strings attached. If they want to sue Apple, and Apple settles with them, a gag order in that case could be understood.
Great article. Thumbs up. A+++ would read again.
"It's also obvious from the sheer number of IPods sold means there are more exploding IPods than anything else."
Let's look at that sentence: "also obvious" qualify that phrase please and "means" equals a very weak word.
"Until Liverpool itself goes bankrupt." Cute. You need to get a book on urban myths and the hysteria of the masses. Problems? Probably, but because of the sheer numbers involved, meaning sales, its truly obvious that the product as designed is beyond safe. Even that woman from Seattle, despite being burned by an IPod, (she claims) lets her children, five of them, go to bed with with IPods.
Look, let me help you here. You're obviously trying to ride a story that has already been created. How about doing some research instead of repeating things that are already in the press? Cal Apple for god's sake! Have you done that?
No, of course not, you're an intern.
Assuming every product has an equal failure rate, more iPods have exploded because Apple's sold orders of magnitude more units than anyone else. Sounds like Engadget agrees with you that this is hysteria, but is suggesting that Apple actually take steps to deal with the meme instead of ignoring it.
"Let's look at that sentence: "also obvious" qualify that phrase please and "means" equals a very weak word."
I think you need to look at that sentence again.
^ How to be a dick.
Chill man.
Because they happen to be fanboys. Never take anything fanboys say seriously........it is a policy that works quite well. Unfortunately you happen to be a fanboy as well, so this will most likely fall on deaf ears, but hey.
I wouldn't liken it to RROD.
I would be concerned about the language in the settlement agreement.
So don't sign it. He didn't either.
If you had it in your back pocket and it exploded, RROD would be most likely IMO.
@whynot
The fact that Apple would put wording like that in a confidentiality agreement should be disturbing to anyone.
Lawyers are like that. If you don't like it, don't sign it. He didn't.
I don't need to be worried because he isn't being compelled to sign it. If he accepts a free iPod to replace his (that he broke on his own), then he has to do something in return.
I personally probably wouldn't find the $250 iPod enough inducement to sign away my ability to talk about it, so I wouldn't sign it. If others want to make the opposite decision, it's not my place to criticize.
I remember when it was cool to hate on Windows and Vista. :(
What are we going to pick on once Windows 7 is out? Vista will be "history"... Snow Leopard is aparently good too... Maybe it's Linux's turn to take a battering... oh wait, it has done most of its life.
I remember when Apple were cool.
its still cool to hate windows vista. Its just growing cooler to hate apple due to their rising usage/profits. People will always hate rich and powerful corporations, the more money one makes the more people there will be out there that dislike you. Personally if i was the boy with the exploding ipod i would rather not accept the deal and sell the story to the newspapers for more.
The guy dropped his iPod, triggering the smoke. This isn't even something to fess up to.
Why should there be a dead simple replacement system for people who abuse their iPods?
Seems like maybe engadget has some market dominance going on here, because they sure have the arrogance.
If you drop an iPod it will start to smoke...it's an enhancement help you find it! Genius!!
It's a PMP and should expect to be able to withstand some abuse. So rather than getting riled up that someone dropped the thing, you should be more concerned that the product failed under "normal" conditions. You should be even MORE concerned that parts started burning. I guess if it's not your 11 year old it's no big deal though.
You're kidding me, right? It's one thing to hope your device survives being dropped, it's another to blame someone else when things don't turn out so rosy.
If $250 is enough of a loss to you that you would be tempted to sign away your ability to speak out to recover it, then you should learn to treat devices that are worth $250 better so you are less likely to end up in this conundrum.
Maybe part of the problem is people seem to think it's okay to spend what is to them a small fortune on a device that can be easily dropped, lost or stolen. Just because you can do so, doesn't mean it is wise to do so or that someone else should make your problem go away when it doesn't turn out so well for you.
I can't quite understand how dropping an iPod Touch could reasonably result in such a reaction though. I've dropped my Zune (2nd Gen) more times than I can count, usually bouncing off a treadmill or gym floor and it's just fine. No cracks, smoke, no damage of any kind.
Dropping an iPod on the ground is within the scope of a normal event. My expectation is that it should just break and that's it. No smoke coming from the device thank you very much. If by some miracle it survives, well happy day.
@whynot
You are totally missing the point. The iPod should not start BURNING just from being dropped. That should concern anyone. That family had every right to contact Apple about this incident.
Put your cynicism on break for a sec and look at the big picture.
I agree with CJ here...
Yes it's totally his fault that he dropped it...I think he's fine with the fact that it broke and could ACCEPT that. I think the part he couldn't accept was when it started hissing, smoking, heating up, which required him to get rid of it like a grenade...before it EXPLODED like a grenade.
But that's just me. If you're cool with your PMP exploding, or accepting that your PMP might explode, that's fine...Just not something I expect during the normal course of my day.
@why not the LS2LS7?
I'm not sure if you're being purposefully obtuse, or you really don't get it.
If I drop my cellphone and it breaks, oops, time to buy a new phone.
If I drop my phone and it catches fire, that's a slightly larger problem. Just how big a shock can these things take? If I'm talking on the subway when someone bumps me, and my phone hits the wall as I steady myself, is it going to blow up next to my face.
Handheld devices are designed with drops in mind. If they weren't SSDs and various other hardware wouldn't advertise G thresholds for damage.
Dismissing the RRoD analogy is also disingenuous, as more than a few have been caused by the console living in less than acceptable locations. Which is just as much abuse as dropping a PMP.
So should I expect a Porsche Cayenne to hold up the trails I take my Jeep on? Lumping all devices of a category and saying they should meet the same expectations is stupid. Should a macbook air be able to take the same abuse as a toughbook? I mean, they're both notebook computers. If I leave said air out in the rain should I expect apple to replace it with no questions asked? For an ipod even if its in warranty and shows signs of abuse they won't replace it.
Sure one would EXPECT a device to take a reasonable amount of abuse, doesn't mean that it will. But for something thats out of warranty, and that cheap (in the grand scheme of things) I wouldn't sign anything either just for risk of getting into something deeper.
Carl, I don't think asking that my PMP not catch fire when I drop it is asking to much. Do you, honestly?
How many products are you ok with smoking up and exploding when you drop it? I hope you work in any QA positions.
Your iPod doesn't catch fire when you drop it, usually. I've dropped mine several times and it has not caught fire.
But sometimes, because it has a lithium ion battery in it, it might catch fire. Any device with a battery in it can do the same. It's not going to happen in the course of a normal day, but it might happen to one person in their day once in a while. It then ceases to be a normal day.
My car isn't likely to catch fire when I run into something, so I still use it. But it could. Is this a cause for me to say a car is useless? Poorly designed? If 100M cars are sold and 10 catch fire, does it mean I'm supposed to raise holy hell? To say the product is no good?
Of course the family had every right to contact Apple. They did so, Apple said you can have a free replacement for the price of your silence and they said no. Who was wronged here? Why am I supposed to get excited? I was on a car forum for years, one guy was raising holy hell about his car not working, he bitched and bitched and eventually Audi replaced his car for him. Suddenly he no longer wanted to talk about what happened with his car, he clammed up completely. Why? The same reason, it doesn't take a genius to figure it out. His car was fixed, but he had to agree to stop talking about what happened.
To answer your question, I am neither being purposely obtuse nor do I not get it. You don't get it.
The idea that the RRoD thing is the same is absurd. Microsoft budgeted $1B to fix RRoD 360s. At $200 a piece, that means they expected 5M 360s to fail out of the 10M they had sold. This seems to indicate the problem goes beyond abuse. I would add my own experience with my 360 breaking (and those of a dozen of my friends) even though I know I didn't abuse mine and I believe them when they say they didn't abuse theirs (perhaps some of them are lying, but not all of them, we are talking about a preponderance of evidence here, so one liar doesn't break the whole assertion).
My phones, PMP and even my old laptop have all suffered falls now 'n then. No hisses or explosions till date.
All electronic devices are designed to withstand reasonable abuse and manufacturers do stress tests on them. A drop from a couple of feet is a very plausible occurrence in the life cycle of a handheld electronic device and if it kicked the bucket JUST FROM THAT, the fault lies solely with the manufacturer and their piss poor QC and/or Stress testing.
Damn...Apple just cant get a break lately.
I'm actually starting to feel sorry for them.
Why is ENGADGET of all places continuing to make me regret my recent Apple purchases?
You recently bought an iPod, or iPod Touch?
You DO know they're getting a refresh next month, right?
No way, now is a great time to buy. If they improve it like they improved the 3GS then now is the perfect time to get a slick pmp for a discount price!
So, person drops ipod and most likely causing internal damage to a battery that contains explosive materials. Device explodes, and it's somehow apple's fault?
Chicks are always blowin up my iphone.
Who would've guessed your number was so similar to the one of that "unwanted pregnancies" clinic from across the street huh ...
The FAA must forbid any apple product on any flight, or the next news will be some terrorist using a ipod to take over a plane.
Sent from my iBomb
Well written article - thanks Nilay! Also quite the difference from the TUAW article where the fanboism completely missed the essence of the story.
So the first time I looked at an iPod I thought to myself this would make a good hand grenade.
No its not like the RROD because it doesnt blow up and hurt you. News like this makes me wonder about the devices we carry in our pockets everyday. Whats next nuclear power devices? I think we are getting out of hand with electronic gadgets.
Wow, Engadget writers (and apparently lawyers) must live in their own bubble where real world corporate considerations do not apply. See in the real world, making an admission like this:
"maybe instead of having lawyers draft individual settlement agreements full of impenetrable and scary legalese for each and every jilted iPod owner out there, why not simply fess up to the problem, let people know exactly how common it is and how to avoid it, and provide a dead-simple replacement option for people who've had their iPods go up in smoke?"
could have unintended consequences like class action suits.
I want customer satisfaction as much as the next guy, but get real. This is not "Leave It to Beaver."
Apple is being backed into a corner and beginning to think like an animal and lash out! nooo!..... poor apple
I love how you try to distract from the actual story here with this pre-emptive strike. That's some good rhetoric there, and more than effective for most of the mob.
I'll just ignore your attempted re-direction of the commentary (biased or not, who really cares? Someone will get pissed on one side or the other and the standard flame war will ensue.) This is some ugly PR on the part of Apple. I do like the pic on the Times site of the kid holding her shrapnelized iPod. Also nice is the parent's commentary that reads like a live grenade was found in the house and just barely thrown out the door in time.
Very curious if the kid's Touch had recently installed the 3.0 update, as I have a suspicion that's what's been causing the case discolorations on the 3GS's. No citation or backup on those claims, just suspicion. Grassy-knoll type suspicion.
If you don't want your ipod to explode then don't throw it around, and don't leave it in your hot car. Problem solved.
He dropped it..and it caught on FIRE. If it only broke, he would say "damn that sucks" and move on with life. what if he dropped it on carpet? would the carpet catch on fire? That's not reasonable to expect
combine this with the investigation from the FCC and one would think that Apples stock would go down but apparently these are reasons for the stock to go up ....WTF?!?
Their laptops're purdy :P
I read somewhere that the stocks of Google/Apple jumped a bit when they announced the whole board of directors thing today.
the most important part of this story is that the dad DROPPED THE IPOD BEFORE IT BLEW UP!!! is it possible that the impact had something to do with the failure of the device? i think so!
I disagree. I've dropped my cellphones (different ones different number of times) and my MP3 players and they never started smoking, burning, and exploding. Besides, the main point of this article is not about how it broke, but how Apple tried to "bribe" the customer to keep it hushed that their product exploded.
EB, you must've missed the part of the article that informed the readers that trying to keep things like this quiet are normal and commonplace with such events. Furthermore, we can't even begin to know how many times this thing has been dropped or under what circumstances. For all we know it's been dropped 137 times and the battery finally broke, or the father could've been griping at his daughter (with ipod in hand) with his hands flailing wildly around when the ipod slipped out of his hands and hit a concrete wall going 35 mph.
Of course, the consumer won't admit to any mistreatment of the device and will say in either event that it was simply "dropped, began smoking, and exploded."
Glad I got a Zune & not an iBomb!!!
Apple is far too arrogant to give a sh&!. Class action all the way.
Let's pretend. You're the Department of Transportation, and you discover that our company intentionally did nothing about leather seats cured in third world countries with chemicals we know cause birth defects? Brake linings that fail after a thousand miles. Fuel injectors that burn people alive....
That is what Apple does! They suppress anything negative about their company. They ban journalists who reports anything bad about them, they delete any threads on forums on defectives or problems, and this. While the public perceives them as the perfect company. Thats why they have a big Marketing budget, for these RIAA type lawsuits.
1. All companies do damage control. All. It's nothing new.
2. You obviously have never been to the Apple forums. You see complaints there like any other discussion forum.
Get over the Apple hate and focus on battery safety. Not long ago there were a rash on Laptop battery explosions. What needs to happen is all companies need to tale when a consumer calls them about these issues that they take it seriously and resolve it without hastling the consumer.
Save the iPod save the world!
As usual the typical Apple bash. The title of the article I guess is meant to satiate those haters. I hope engadget was just a whitty wel the various laptop batteries we bursting into flames.
Maybe you guys should write an article about how ALL these manufacturers need to have better policies when it comes to these batteries. instead of making this a gotcha moment.
Such stories have already been written. Maybe you should go and increase your reading comprehension. The crux of the matter here is how threatening Apple's lawyers were in handling the hush-up.
Sure the headline is about getting pageviews, but this is hardly a typical bash. As it is Apple is merely becoming a victim of its success and sublime marketing. People expect Apple product to just work and be virtually flawless because that's how Apple markets it. So when even the tiniest thing goes wrong (an explosion is no joke) regardless of who's at fault people are going to get riled up about it. Seriously, how often have you heard about this or that Apple iPhone or iPod catching fire or exploding? Now how often have you heard about Zunes (tiny marketshare, I know) catching fire or exploding. Heck the only reason Zune gets mentioned anywhere is because it's from Microsoft. And make no mistake, I do prefer my Zune over a iPod any day of the week.
Confidentially for a $300 refund? Who the fuck are they kidding. These people should find a lawyer and sue the shit out of Apple.
Nillay: You're such an Apple fanboy / apologist. Everything Apple written submitted by you always includes some Apple defensive text in every sentence.
What am I apologizing for?
For the record ... Nilay's articles are always top notch and have a good legal insight.
Nilay rocks and you are composed 96% of fail.
This story isn't about trouble with batteries, it's already well known that Apple's products have battery problems.
This story's about Apple trying to bribe people with hush money.
"Or, you know, do nothing because overwhelming market share inevitably leads to arrogant laziness"
Yah because Apple wasn't lazy before this. Nope not at all. *rolls eyes* I'd define just making things smaller and with less buttons and calling it NEW! REVOLUTIONARY!
Pretty dang lazy. Again Apple is the new Microsoft. Now with more evil.
I think that you have a problem with technology and advancement.
I also think that said problem is that you have no clue what any of it is.
Okay...I'll bite...
iPods have been burning and exploding for years...yet it took countless other sources to report an 11 year-old who barely escaped severe burns...and who then ended up forced to either write-off her iPod or have her family sign an NDA backed with threatening (and potentially bankrupting) legal recriminations if they happened to slip and mention the explosion in their back yard one day...before we saw the story here.
In contrast, if a *single* Palm Pre battery exploded, it would be front page news here and re-referenced for months every time the Pre hit the news.
Of course, a recall on a Palm Pre battery would just involve Palm mailing you a new battery since you can replace it yourself...after snapping off the Pre's nice matte black back cover, which ships with the Palm Touchstone induction charger, but now I am just being mean spirited. ;)
So no one's going to question the '10ft in the air' claim?
I think we need to do some scientific tests to determine what the real range of these things are.
Maybe if you drop it from the second floor, the explosion will hurl it higher? Who wants to donate their Ipod to the cause?
Apple shouldmail everyone a warning sticker for the back of the Ipod saying something like "after you pull the pin, count to 10 and then throw...."
"Of course, this won't matter. The Apple Haters will still finds ways to blame Engadget for bias"
@Paul Chapel Actually no, "Paul", as one of the ranks of "apple haters" around here (by *your* definition, not mine, since I do call out engadget for over hyping Apple products in a way they never do for e.g. Nokia) I applaud them for their balanced coverage when it happens (it does happen often here, unlike at Gizmodo which is why I stopped reading their blog and started reading this one.)
nice try in trying to stoke a pointless flamewar with empty strawmen though.
It just works...
@Paul Chapel
Okay, that's funny. :)
Of course, apple used highly stylized, limited pallette commercials for years that said nothing about their product...but just showed a pair of headsets dancing...but that's cool because it's apple right? ;)
Yeah, the pale chick is creepy...and Pre folks hate those commercials, but Palm is trying to create advertising that conveys an entirely different message than the message normally conveyed for techo-devices...and smart phones especially. Your life is not "on* a Pre like it is "on a Blackberry." Instead, the Pre adjusts to *your* life and grabs information from where you already have it.
http://www.precentral.net/palm-pre-ads-inspires-better-or-worse
Sure, she is creepy, but she is at least speaking to those topics...not just dancing to U2. Those commercials are also getting people talking, which is important to Palm because they don't have a huge advertising budget...or a soul-crushing army of lawyers. You know what they say, any PR is good PR...but I'll agree that the pale chick pushes the envelope. I expect that you will see new advertising fairly soon.
Oh well, enough fanboy-ism for me. Besides, I need to go over to PreCentral and decide which of the three Google Voice apps available for the Pre that I am going to install. ;)