Apparently, there is a growing concern in China about iPhones catching fire. Will it follow in the footsteps of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7? Let's hope not.
Where It All Started
According to the source, a notice was posted on Dec. 2 by the Shanghai Consumer Council (SHCC), a consumer watchdog group chaired by a Shanghai member of the Municipal People's Congress on its official website. The notice was about eight iPhones "catching fire" from Sept. 1 to Nov. 30. Though the report was about iPhones, the iPhone 6 and 6s Plus were the most highlighted by the group.
In the report, there was a case about a man named Mr. Zhang who reported to the SHCC that the iPhone 6 he bought back on November 14 just suddenly started smoking and exploded in standby mode on Sept. 30 this year. There was also another case of a woman named Ms. Chen that the iPhone 6s Plus she bought last March of 2015 also just suddenly self-combusted and ended up shattering the phone's screen and leaving the phone's back and battery blackened. It was also detailed in the report that Apple replaced Ms. Chen's iPhone 6s Plus without offering a detailed explanation.
Apple's Response
Upon hearing the report, Apple conducted a series of tests on the devices and found no cause for concern for these products. In their test, the giant tech company concluded that the reported cases were not caused by the iPhone's performance, but were caused by "external factors" like external physical damage which led to the thermal event. Even one technology analyst told BBC that she does not believe it to be a widespread problem.
Other Problems Regarding The iPhones In China
Just recently, it was reported that many iPhone 6s users in China have been suffering from what Apple calls an uncommon battery problem. According to the users, their iPhone 6s shuts down unexpectedly even though there was still battery life left. To fix this problem, Apple launched a battery replacement program for free, but only limited to iPhone 6s units that were purchased between September and October of 2015 and falls within a certain serial number range.
