Exploding iPhones are "isolated cases", Apple tells EU

Apple has responded to the European Commission’s enquiry concerning widely reported cases of exploding iPhones, saying these are “isolated incidents”.

Officials in Brussels this morning confirmed Apple to be investigating possible causes for these few incidents in which the iPhone screen reportedly spontaneously shattered. Meanwhile the company insists there’s no general problems with its product, said a commission spokeswoman, Helen Kearns.

"At the end of last week, we asked Apple and the member states where the incidents occurred to provide us with information on the matter," commission spokesperson Ton Van Lierop, currently charged with the industry and enterprise dossier, told EUobserver.

The move followed reports of at least three iPhones or iPod music players overheating and exploding in France and Britain.

According to French financial daily Les Echos, witnesses to the most recent incident in Aix-en-Provence, France, reported that an iPhone suddenly began to "crackle and pop like a deep-frier" before breaking apart and hurling pieces of its screen everywhere. Bits of glass hit an adolescent boy in the eye, according to his parents.

If you have Real Player installed you can watch the EU briefing on the matter this morning right here.