Exploding iPhone incident follows iPod reports

A French teenager's claim that an Apple iPhone shattered in his face is a first involving the device but similar incidents have occurred with the iPod according to a US television station.

Marie-Dominique Kolega, whose 18-year-old son was struck in the eye by a piece of glass when the screen shattered on his girlfriend's iPhone, has threatened to file a complaint against Apple following the incident.

According to Kolega, the phone began making a hissing noise and the screen suddenly broke, sending pieces flying in the air.

"My son was frightened but he did not lose an eye," Kolega, of Aix-en-Provence in southern France, told AFP.

The report is the first such incident involving an iPhone.

But US television news station KIRO reported in late July that an "alarming number" of iPods "have suddenly burst into flames and smoke, injuring people and damaging property."

The station said that Apple lawyers tried to stop it from getting hold of hundreds of pages of iPod-related documents from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) in California, where Apple has its headquarters.

It said the 800 pages of documents included information on "15 burn and fire-related incidents blamed by iPod owners on their iPods."

There were no reports of serious injuries, and the cause of the trouble appeared to be overheated lithium ion batteries, according to the Seattle-based television station's review of the paperwork.

The CPSC indicated that the number of incidents was low considering the tens of millions of iPods sold and that such reports diminished after Apple evidently changed the battery technology, according to KIRO.

There was no immediate response from Apple to AFP requests for comment.

(c) 2009 AFP