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October 30, 2013

Short Battery Life Plagues Handful of iPhone 5S Models

Mobile devices live and die by the strength of the battery life that can be brought to bear, and when the mobile devices in question can't put out sufficient life, well, that makes for some very unhappy users. When the device in question is an iPhone 5S, meanwhile, that just makes things even worse, and for a few iPhone 5S users, the worse—maybe even the worst—has come to pass.

Reports have emerged suggesting that a small, though unquantified, number of iPhone 5S units have experienced a slight defect in manufacturing that results in batteries discharging too rapidly, leaving users out in the cold with a dead phone. What's more, said phones will not only discharge faster, but will also make recharging more difficult.

Statements from Apple suggest that only a few thousand phones were impacted by this defect, and given that reports suggest that nine million such phones were sold in the first weekend of availability alone, this certainly does seem like a simple manufacturing defect. To Apple's credit, though, the company is “...reaching out to customers with affected phones and will provide them with a replacement phone,” as described by Apple spokeswoman Teresa Brewer.


This isn't the first time Apple has had issues with batteries; some likely remember 2006's incidents with batteries containing cells that, in some cases, were exploding. While some users likely thought there was an issue with the battery—certainly a good starting point for an investigation into why a phone is rapidly and unaccountably losing charge or taking unusually long to recharge—the issue is actually related to the phone itself.

Indeed, comparing nine million sold iPhone 5S models—in just the first weekend—against even 9,000 phones with the defect is a profoundly small percentage. Given these numbers, it would make Apple devices on average five-nines effective, which is about the top of the heap for many systems. Mistakes are made, accidents do happen, but what Apple is really showing here is a great commitment to customer value. There is an issue, and the devices are having trouble, so Apple is acting rapidly to replace the devices that are having an issue. Indeed, it may well be that Apple will eventually repair the devices with the defect and offer up said devices as refurbished later, but that's strictly conjecture. What's important here is that Apple is acknowledging that there was a problem—none of this “you're holding it wrong” business like when the iPhone 4 came out—and is working quickly to make it right with the users. That's a valuable lesson for any company to take away, especially one so dependent on customer service such as Apple.

A good lesson is here for anyone who wants it: when mistakes happen—and mistakes almost certainly will happen—be ready to fix those mistakes quickly, and the value of that product or service will climb to match.




Edited by Blaise McNamee


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