Only 9 Customers Have Complained About Bending iPhone 6 Plus, Says Apple

The bending iPhone 6 Plus epidemic has been vastly overstated, with only nine users having filed complaints, Apple said in its first statement since the controversy erupted earlier this week.

Apple said that, with fewer than 10 complaints out of more than 10 million iPhone 6 and 6 Plus devices sold, the bending problem is "extremely rare."

The statement read: "With normal use a bend in iPhone is extremely rare and through our first six days of sale, a total of nine customers have contacted Apple with a bent iPhone 6 Plus. As with any Apple product, if you have questions please contact Apple."

It said that the new iPhones are built with "steel/titanium inserts" to "reinforce stress locations," and that it uses "the strongest glass in the industry" to prevent the very same structural deficiencies that are being paraded about on social media.

Apple: New iPhones feature steel/titanium inserts to reinforce stress locations and use the strongest glass in the industry. (via @jonfortt)

— CNBC Tech (@CNBCtech) September 25, 2014

The company also hit out at the many durability tests that have been performed on the new iPhones, saying that deliberately trying to hurt the device will of course more likely damage the device than ordinary use.

As is normal for mass-market smartphones, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus were tested for durability, including bending and other kinds of stress, even over extended periods of time.

An Apple representative told The Next Web that bent iPhones qualify for warranty replacement if they pass a visual mechanical inspection by someone at the Apple Store.

The bending iPhone story, dubbed '#bendgate' by the Twittersphere, first emerged from Apple forums such as MacRumors, but many pictures and videos of the warped device have since been posted elsewhere.

And it's not as though this is the first time a new iPhone release has sparked an online uproar; there was the iPhone 5 scratch scandal, and iPhone 4's antennagate.