Apple Investigating Melting iPhone 7 Plus Incident As Company Stocks Drop


Apple stocks experienced an uncharacteristic drop on Friday trading, even going as low as jst above $134 per share. With the release of the iPad Pro 2 possibly coming in a few weeks and the iPhone 8 garnering a lot of positive attention, the dip in the Cupertino-based tech giant’s stocks appeared to be quite beguiling. As it turns out, however, there was a perfectly good reason why Apple’s stocks were falling.

Numerous Apple shareholders appear to have been disturbed by the contents of a video recently posted on Twitter. The short clip, taken from a bathroom, clearly showed an iPhone 7 Plus smoking, catching fire and eventually melting as it charged, according to a Forbes report. According to the iPhone 7 Plus’ owner, 18-year-old Brianna Olivas of Tucson, Arizona, she was just charging her smartphone when her boyfriend noticed that it was slowly catching fire.

What was particularly interesting is that Olivas actually brought the ill-fated iPhone 7 Plus to an Apple Store the previous day. According to the teen, the smartphone, which she bought last January, stubbornly refused to turn on. Upon checking at the store, however, the device was declared to be defect-free.

“It wouldn’t turn on so I took it into a store. They were able to get the phone on and ran diagnostics. They said nothing was wrong with it and everything was fine,” Olivas stated.

The next morning, however, she awoke to a pretty unpleasant surprise. A BBC report stated that Olivas’ boyfriend started noticing that the smartphone was slowly emitting smoke.

“I sleep with my phone next to me. It was on the bed right next to my head. My boyfriend actually moved the phone to the dresser and went into the bathroom. From the corner of his eye, he saw the phone smoking and heard a squealing noise coming from it. I woke up because I heard the noise and then he started raising his voice.”

Alarmed, Olivas stated that her boyfriend opted to take the smoking iPhone 7 Plus to the bathroom. It was at that point that the video of the device slowly melting was taken. Apart from the shock of seeing her smartphone catch fire, however, Olivas also stated that the device exuded a very unpleasant smell.

“Right when he put it there, it blew up and even more smoke was coming out. The phone smelt so bad. I can’t really explain the smell but it was really strong. It made the whole apartment smell.”

Cases of exploding iPhones have been reported over the years, and while the frequency of incidents pales in comparison to the widespread firestorm (quite literally) that was caused by the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, incidents of iPhones catching fire are nonetheless reported from time to time.

[Image by Sean Gallup/Getty Images]

Overall, Apple has not admitted to any design flaws in the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, though the Cupertino- based tech giant has stated that it is looking into Olivas’ incident. For her trouble, Apple has opted to replace Olivas’ iPhone 7 Plus, as well as her device’s protective case, which melted as the iPhone 7 Plus caught fire.

Smartphones and their tendency to catch fire have been a very notable issue in the mobile tech industry since Samsung’s high-profile failure on the Galaxy Note 7. Smartphones such as the iPhone 7 Plus and the ill-fated Galaxy Note 7 both utilize high-capacity lithium-ion batteries, which carry a lot of power but are extremely fragile and notorious for catching fire when damaged. Thus, in the case of Olivas’ device, there is a pretty good chance that the battery of the teen’s iPhone 7 Plus was damaged earlier, resulting in a malfunction and its fiery demise.

[Featured Image by Sean Gallup/Getty Images]

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