When I first heard about a Chinese woman being electrocuted to death by her iPhone 5 I admit I laughed. This story just can’t be real, I thought.
When I first heard about a Chinese woman being electrocuted to death by her iPhone 5 I admit I laughed. This story just can’t be real, I thought.
As consumers we learn to trust brands and I trust Apple – but the price of their products shocks me. The more I read, however, the more it appeared that the price of the product was not the only thing doing the shocking.
The young Chinese woman, identified as Ma Ailum, was reportedly killed from an electric shock when she picked up her iPhone 5 to make a call.
The phone was on charge at the time. A post made by Ma Ailum’s sister on China’s largest social media site, Weibo, soon went viral.
The post appealed to Apple to provide an explanation for her sister’s death blaming it on the device itself. We often jump to conclusions and this in my opinion is what happened here.
It can’t be the electrics in the home where she got shocked, or foul play – no, it has to be the phone!
The sister hoped that all those who read her post would refrain from using their mobile devices while on charge. And that is what they did.
People in China have either opted to sell their phones, or approached the devices with substantial fear.
The 23-year-old flight attendant, who was due to marry next month, bought her phone in December 2012.
The phone, along with all the in-box accessories, was handed over to the police. The police have not verified that the Apple device is to blame.
The question rising from this is do plugged-in phones present an electrocution risk? The short answer is no.
A Twitter follower of mine, Leonard Wright, observed: “@cohensarah the phone runs on low voltage DC power around 5V. The charger is electro/thermal protected, this is virtually impossible.”
CNN reported that experts confirmed that the likelihood of someone being electrocuted by a phone while the device is on charge is exceptionally low and phones charged from a USB cord have a voltage of 5 volts – certainly not enough to cause harm.
China is known to be flooded with authentic-looking Apple knock-offs. Go to China Mall in Johannesburg and you can buy a phony iPhone for as little as R500.
Will it last longer than six months? Probably not.
Wall Street Journal tech blogger, Paul Mozur, said that The China Consumer’s Association noted earlier this year that there were uncertified chargers on the market that these chargers could cause explosions or fires. Go figure.
Share your views with me on twitter @cohensarah.
