Apple has offered to replace faulty on-off buttons on the iPhone 5, a rare glitch which it admitted affected “a small percentage” of the previous-generation smartphones for free.
Apple said on its user-support page that “iPhone 5 models manufactured through March 2013 may be affected by this issue,” in which the button, also known as a sleep/wake mechanism, stops functioning or works only intermittently.
”Apple has determined that the sleep/wake button mechanism on a small percentage of iPhone 5 models may stop working or work intermittently. iPhone 5 models manufactured through March 2013 may be affected by this issue”, the statement said
To see if your phone qualifies for a fix, owners can type in their iPhone serial numbers on Apple’s website, then either take their gadgets to a store or mail them in to be repaired.
“Apple will offer the service free of charge to iPhone 5 customers with models that exhibit this issue and have a qualifying serial number,” spokeswoman Teresa Brewer said in a statement on Friday.
In a 2010 incident dubbed “Antennagate,” the company famously admitted that its iPhone 4 may experience signal loss when handled a certain way. The company subsequently offered free phone casings to correct the issue.
Apple began selling the iPhone 5S and the cheaper 5C in late 2013. In the first quarter, it moved a better-than-expected 43.7 million phones, helped by the gadget’s increasing popularity in markets like Japan and China.
As of April 25, 2014, the replacement process will be available in the U.S. and Canada. In other countries, it will be available as of May 2, 2014.
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By Nixon Kanali
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