As preparations continue for the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, many consumers are wondering how Apple will overcome Bendgate headlines. But it seems increasingly clear that Apple has been planning for this eventuality, and a suggestion that analysts have been making for sometime will indeed come to fruition.
Series 7000 aluminum mooted
It has been suggested for some time that Apple may decide to include its proprietary “7000 series” aluminum in the build of the iPhone 6s. This material was so successfully introduced with the release of the Apple Watch earlier this year that it is not considered virtually a certainty that Apple will construct the iPhone 6s from this material in order to avoid further Bendgate embarrassment.
Not only is this a logical move from a construction point of view, but it also fits into the general ethos of Apple. The Apple Watch was offered as a very much a companion device for the iPhone when it was released, and there seems to be an increasing desire for Apple to share common characteristics between its smartwatch and flagship smartphone series.
Thus, the inclusion of 7000 series aluminum would be another example of this strategy in the iPhone 6s, which is also strongly expected to integrate the Force Touch technology that was so popular in the Apple Watch earlier this year.
The aluminum in question is a specialised alloy that will ensure that the iPhone 6s is significantly stronger than previous iterations of the series. This would seemingly guarantee that it will be nigh on impossible to bend the iPhone 6s unit, thus enabling Apple to circumnavigate any embarrassing Bendgate headlines.
This will be particularly important to Apple with the iPhone 6s, as the corporation will unquestionably be looking to maintain the sleek appearance of the smartphone. Apple has always relied on outstanding design parameters in order to sell its smartphone, and there is no doubt that the Bendgate furore was damaging to the corporation’s image.
The impact of Bendgate
Nonetheless, Bendgate also had an extremely limited impact on the actual sales of the iPhone. It could be suggested that this was because it came to light only weeks after the iPhone had been released, and by that stage momentum had already been built up by the smartphone. But it is clear that consumers still hold the iPhone in extremely high regard, and Apple will obviously wants to retain this fondness by avoiding any suggestion that the iPhone 6s is vulnerable to bending.
It remains to be seen whether the Bendgate headlines that were generated by the last generation iPhone will have any significant impact over the iPhone 6s. It is possible that some consumers who either experienced this particular problem, or absorbed it via the media, will be turned off by the prospect of purchasing the next generation iPhone 6s unit. Apple has also been keen to emphasize that for all of the bluster that this issue generated at the time, there were only ever a tremendously small number of units actually affected by by the Bendgate controversy.
Apple claims that the series 7000 aluminum is 60 percent stronger than the standard metal that has been used in previous versions of the iPhone. But this increasing durability is not delivered at the expense of practicality. Apple also states that the metal is actually lighter than standard aluminum, ensuring that the iPhone 6s will be able to retain its sleek and light visage.
With the metal having already been utilized in the Apple Watch, consumers of the iPhone 6s may expect the device to feature a similar appearance to the smartwatch. However, leaks from close to the Apple supply chain suggest that the aluminum utilized in the iPhone 6s will feature a slightly more uniform finish than in the newly released Apple smartwatch.
Bendgate was not the first time that Apple has experienced a particularly embarrassing problem with one of these iPhone units. The iPhone 4 found it difficult to escape the “Antennagate” signal problems, which were probably considerably more serious than Bendgate. In the case of Antennagate, a much larger quotient of units were affected by diminished Internet connectivity, and Apple certainly had to overcome some major technical problems in order to ensure that this wasn’t repeated in future versions of the device.
But Bendgate also generated as many headlines as the problems with the iPhone 4, probably due to the slightly amusing and unusual nature of this problem. Bendgate featured prominently on late night light entertainment shows such as ‘Tonight with Conan O’Brien’. Although the issue was the source of much mirth to the audience, this was not shared by Apple executives, and according to reports the hierarchy of the corporation began investigating how to overcome Bendgate almost as soon as it was reported.
iPhone 6s set for September 9 unveiling
With the iPhone 6s due to be unveiled in a matter of days, Apple-followers are waiting with baited breath to see what the corporation delivers with the next generation smartphone. The fact that it is widely anticipated that the Apple device will feature the 6s moniker, suggests that this will be something of an upgrade to the existing iPhone 6, as opposed to a genuinely revolutionary handset. But there is still room for the iPhone 6s to impress, with some significant innovations having been suggested by analysts.
Central to these, as mentioned previously, will be the migration of Force Touch technology to the iPhone series. The iPhone 6s will thus benefit from this technology that enables different functions to be accessed via different severity of pressing on the unit. This was generally considered to be a nifty feature of the Apple Watch, and has even wider potential in a complex device such as the iPhone.
Apple is also expected to increase the screen resolution of the iPhone 6s, with a quad HD phablet particularly mooted. A 12-megapixel camera has been widely anticipated by analysts, and Apple will also probably double the RAM memory included in the iPhone 6s, while battery and processor upgrades are almost certain.
This will be one of the most important technology releases of the year, and it seems likely that Apple has solved the Bendgate issue which plagued the iPhone 6.
