iPhone 6 Plus Bendgate redux (uncut)

I’m not going to bother to link to the new “uncut” iPhone 6 Plus bending video (meant to address the conspiracy theorists regarding the inconsistencies in the original video) since it is easy enough to find on YouTube.

Note the original video has over 40 million views (and counting) so that’s a nice chunk of ad revenue for this guy.  Thus he has a vested interest in keeping this going for as long as possible.

Socialblade provides a rough estimate as to how much potential earnings can be monetized from YouTube videos.  The monthly statistics provide a low and high end estimate of each days earnings based on views.  The two 20+ million views are basically from his “bendgate” videos.

So at the low end, that’s over $20k in just a few days (his earnings potential is likely higher though).  So yes, he can afford buying phones to bend.

But yes, this new video is amounting to milking “bendgate” for all its worth now where it is just noise amounting to first world problems.  And it’s not going to have the same spontaneous viral effect the first one had.  This new video is not going to change anyones opinion at this juncture either.  Apple haters are going to run with it of course while this guy keeps destroying perfectly good/working product (he or whomever is sending/buying him these Apple iPhones just to destroy them is just one more sale as far as Apple is concerned unless of course, these are also counterfeit phones).

Maybe someone should goad and continue trolling him to go do a video of the entire purchasing experience at an Apple Store, unboxing it, turning it on to the “Hello” screen, and doing his bending trick in one single  uncut take.  Again, he can afford to keep doing this so long as people keep this whole thing alive.

If an actual product defect exists, it will bear itself out because people will end up using social media to show their own actual proof.  Likewise, if a hired PR firm feels they need to actually buy tens of thousands of iPhone’s and hire “customers” to purposely bend them, that is also fine (though any company that would have to stoop that low, has other issues to deal with).  But aside from a handful of actual honest cases of bent phones, I highly doubt there will be many legitimate cases of iPhones bending from normal use.

Note:  the following video is a perfect example of something that can legitimately happen (it’s what I mentioned in earlier post with how clothing can bind and create a leveraging effect that applies more force).  But it’s just one of very few legitimate postings in a sea of noise.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQxX_x3HTXQ

Apple will more than likely give him a replacement and be examining what phones they do collect

In the meantime, I wonder how many actual units of Note 4’s Samsung managed to move in its inaugural launch this weekend in Korea and China.  The curious amongst want actual sales to customers (not units shipped into the channel or sold to the 3 Korean telecoms).