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Analyst: iPhone Touch Screens May Degrade Over Time

Monday, August 13th, 2007 at 10:20 AM - by

The revolutionary touch screen on Apple's iPhone may not maintain its sensitivity over time, according to Nomura International analyst Richard Windsor. MarketWatch reports that Mr. Windsor is concerned that the heat-sensitive chemical layer in the iPhone display that detects touches could degrade over time, leaving users with dead spots that no longer register their fingers.

The touch sensing technology used in the iPhone display came from a Finnish company. The company went bankrupt trying to bring the technology to market while trying to overcome a problem where displays would lose their sensitivity after three to six months.

Apple bought the property rights to the technology, and according to Mr. Windsor, likely worked to fix the sensitivity issue before bringing the iPhone to market. Recent reports of dead spots on iPhone displays, however, are raising concerns that the company wasn't able to fully resolve the problem.

The displays that are failing now have lost touch sensitivity in a half-inch wide strip. In at least one case, the problem manifested itself after about 20 days of use.

So far, Apple has responded quickly to address user concerns and replace the faulty displays.

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vasic said:

member since 09 Aug 2005 with 279 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Aug 13, 2007 12:33 pm

It may or it may not. The failure rate is, at this point, no greater than failure rate on any other component. This is just normal for any manufacturing process. Apple has very tight quality controls (as we all know), and because they make and sell very heavy volume of devices, there must eventually be a few bad ones.

The article is just speculation and the issue is practically non-existent.

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deasys said:

member since 08 Apr 2003 with 296 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Aug 13, 2007 1:08 pm

Were you people sleeping when you decided to publish this nonsense?

That idiot Richard Windsor hasn't the slightest clue of what touch technology Apple is using. Here's a hint: It has nothing to do with heat sensing. It is a capacitance-based technology.

http://www.edn.com/article/CA6463808.html?nid=2551

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/iphone.htm

In any case, do you really think Apple would bet the farm on a technology known to be flawed? Incredible...

Unless you consider it your job to disseminate pure FUD, pull this article.

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Biff said:

member since 08 Apr 2004 with 1479 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Aug 13, 2007 2:08 pm

Yeah but what about the isolated cases of screens having problems? That PROVES this guy's point!

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon Aug 13, 2007 3:42 pm

Jeff, you should either add editorial commentary to this article or remove it entirely. It is based on factual errors. Leaving it here just hurts your credibility and that of iPod Observer.

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Bosco said:

member since 03 Jun 2002 with 1002 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Aug 13, 2007 8:33 pm

I agree with guest. With unfounded speculative trash like this, iPO can never hope to surpass TMO for Mac News coverage.

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