
IPad Screen Burn-in and Apple’s Billions of Dollars– The Carton - thecarton
http://thecarton.net/2012/04/06/burn-in-and-billions
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sirn
If only they could provide this kind of customer service worldwide. I've been
fighting with Apple (Asia) about screen burn-in since 2010 (which I've already
given up); I can never ever open iPad keyboard more for than 5 minutes without
getting a burn-in since the first day since I bought it. The only thing they
ever did was denying the problem. I love Apple products, but never have faith
in their customer service.

~~~
Zombieball
"I can never ever open iPad keyboard more for than 5 minutes without getting a
burn-in since the first day since I bought it."

Could you clarify what you mean by this? Not sure if I understand.

~~~
sirn
iPad on-screen keyboard. The burn-in is very noticeable after few minutes
especially in landscape mode (for some reason).

~~~
X-Istence
That's not how burn in works ...

Burn in requires a static image for a long period of time (months/years). It
doesn't just magically show up after 5 minutes of use.

~~~
Jacked
Sounds like he's referring to "image persistence", which is similar in
appearance to burn-in, but a different mechanism.

Burn-in is more likely to be found on CRTs and can take a long time to occur.
Image persistence can happen in seconds or minutes and is what is seen on
LCDs. It's usually temporary or reversible. (And plasma owners can experience
both, yay! :)

~~~
sirn
Hmm, you're right. I did choose a wrong word, my problem is more of Image
Persistence[1][2] than CRT-type burn-in, which in my case, did magically
appears after few minutes of use and took a long time to disappear.

This doesn't deny my point of Apple support is awful outside US, though. I
also have issue with horizontal line on 2009 iMac screen that they refuse to
acknowledge the problem until very recently (October 2011). I'm happy that
it's finally fixed, but it shouldn't took two years.

[1]: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_persistence>

[2]: <http://compreviews.about.com/od/monitors/a/LCDBurnIn.htm>

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shangrila
Aside from degradation, the difference the poster noticed in the display
quality between the two different iPads can also be explained by two other
phenomena:

\- "Silent" hardware revs: Apple will frequently rev the hardware to fix
issues without actually changing the model number (other than perhaps changing
the range of numbers or adding a trailing suffix indicating the new revision).
They certainly don't announce these announcing anything. The changes can
include new parts, new firmware (which can be rolled out to existing hardware
as an update if Apple considers it important enough), or fixed / updated
boards. A newer iPad may have several improvements over an older one, even if
it's ostensibly the same model.

\- Multiple suppliers for the same production runs: even within the same
revision, you can get two different instances of the same hardware with two
different manufacturers for the same part. You could go to the store in a
single trip and pick up two iPod Touches and end up with one that has a Sharp
LCD and another one that has a Samsung LCD.

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pacaro
I love Apples customer service, they are a shining example, just like
Nordstrom.

Their misuse of the word "genius" is beyond irritating.

My wife's solution...

main = putStrLn $ "The Genius Bar" ++ "f"

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wjamesg
I've had several similar experiences: (1) iPhone replacement for uneven LCD
edge lighting, (2) iPhone replacement for quirky physical button problem, (3)
Replacement of white Macbook due to malfunctioning iSight camera (even got
away with newer unibody model).

Sometimes you've got to know how to approach the situation to skip past the
standard questions and get the ~5min response time. As mentioned, you pay for
it up front. With other brands, these sort of things aren't even considered
issues.

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esuen8
I have this problem with my Macbook pro screen described here:
[https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2793446?start=0&tst...](https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2793446?start=0&tstart=0),
and the laptop is about half a year passed warranty. Do you think they will
fix the problem as easily and for free?

~~~
X-Istence
I had an issue with the nvidia graphics card that wasn't technically covered
by the nvidia warranty replacement program, Apple replaced the motherboard 3
years after warranty ran out on it. No problems, just ran their little
diagnostics (or tried to, the machine just wouldn't boot anymore).

They ended up shipping it off, came back as good as new besides the screen
being off (there was a line going down the middle now that wasn't there
before) that would show up sometimes when you would tilt the screen a certain
angle (no, I wasn't trying to bend it too far). Sent it out again, got it
back, brand new screen.

Yes, being without it twice kinda sucked, but it was my secondary machine. In
the end Apple fixed everything that was wrong with it long after the warranty
ended.

Now, one thing I would say is that all of my laptops always get checked in
under my personal business name, so each time I get a "Apple's business
department is here for your business" spiel and a business card attached for
when I want to upgrade.

Couldn't be more happy with Apple, I have been extremely satisfied with my
purchases to date and enjoy using their products daily.

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manojlds
One more thing to note is that Apple earns a lot (more ) from the services on
the iPad. The apps you buy, the books you buy etc. So it is also in their
interest to make sure you are back to buying these as soon as possible.

~~~
easp
I think you dramatically overestimate Apple's profit frm apps and content
relative to hardware sales.

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ams6110
Nice story, but try getting them to fix a MacBook after you spill a soda on
it.

Edit: well after a second of reflection I guess that's not really comparable.
Screen burn-in is at least arguably a defect in the product. Spilling a coke
on a MacBook is your own fault (even if accidental).

~~~
tptacek
I just did. Cost a couple hundred bucks. What went wrong for you? I had mine
back in a couple days.

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douglee650
you should understand that they just push cost around, and put a better face
forward by focusing on the 'valet' type service model. you actually pay for
this, for eg. when you pay an extra $100 for 16gb of ipad memory; which should
really cost you $15 as an sdhc expansion.

~~~
stretchwithme
You absolutely pay for it. And I totally expect to pay for it. Its not free.

When I bought my first MacBook, I wanted someone to stand behind it and just
handle complex, hard-to-diagnose problems.

Downtime can be very costly. You pay for that too.

~~~
crikli
Yup. Upfront cost is of negligible importance. Reliability and support have
far greater financial impact.

