said by stevennb :

I was reading the Consumerist website and came across this..

»consumerist.com/5031536/my-white···good-way

said by Jahntassa :

Suddenly I have memories of the Cube..

said by Titus Pullo :

Once you've got what would be a 'gold' device (or whatever the F they call it nowadays), you run a small batch of a few thousand and distribute them to company people or dupes folks who sign some life-ending NDF or something, and you test the damn product for, at minimum, a few months and see what's up. Hell, do it in some foreign hole in the wall in an underground vault ... whatever.

said by russotto :

ROTFL. Obviously, a man with no experience at all with this sort of thing. This sort of stuff happens even if you test that first batch of thousands and it passes. (And neither I nor you know if Apple did so). After that first batch, materials get substituted (by the manufacturer), manufacturing steps get skipped, etc, QA gets skipped, etc.

said by Titus Pullo :

I don't see the Chinese manufacturing plant's name on iPhones, so I don't expect folks will be in 'touch' with Chen Lee when and if it cracks.

said by The Dv8or :

They know EXACTLY where each phone came from because the serial number dictates what plant and what week the phone was produced. Just because YOU dont see a big label that says "Made in Ken Wei Plant in Shanghai" slapped across the back doesnt mean they dont have exact tracking of the source of each product.

said by Dogfather :

The change between prototyping and mass production will lead to discovered quality defects if for no other reason than the sheer quantity produced.

Snip ...

Of course Apple is still responsible for the obvious defect in workmanship and should replace/repair these devices without hassle.

said by yabos :

I can guarantee you they were testing them at Apple for a long time. Steve Jobs would have been using early versions as would have some employees working on it.