Controversial "fine fabric": end for Apple's vegan leather?
Expensive, not very durable, quickly scratched: Apple's leather replacement is criticized. Many wonder whether the material should be taken off the market.
Anything but fine: FineWoven aka fine fabric after some use
Expensive – and unfortunately also bad: not only cynics summarize the properties of Apple's new "miracle material" FineWoven aka "fine fabric", which is supposed to be a kind of high-quality leather substitute. The idea: Apple is replacing the climate-damaging leather with a recyclable, woven plastic mixture. The problem: anyone who buys one of the iPhone cases available from the manufacturer from 69 euros will only enjoy it for a short time. At first you notice scratches on the back that can no longer be removed, later the whole material disintegrates from the edge (see picture).
Silent withdrawal?
To date, Apple has not provided any information as to why this is happening, how quality control could have failed in this way or what else the company intends to do with customer frustration. According to reports, the iPhone company is at least silently taking back or at least replacing FineWoven products in the event of complaints. However, this does not solve the fundamental quality problem.
Videos by heise
Accordingly, there is repeated speculation that Apple could simply put an end to the misery – and take the "FineWoven" off the market. Most recently, the well-known Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman, who has good contacts at Apple headquarters, spoke out. According to him, stocks of FineWoven products are "at an all-time low" at Apple.
Rotten banana
However, FineWoven accessories can still be bought, which is probably also due to the fact that the products are rather unpopular. The low stock means that the manufacturer has either decided to bury the whole "vegan leather" experiment or, alternatively, to overhaul the entire product line. It remains unclear how the latter could happen – Apple would presumably have to take a completely new approach to the substitute material in terms of material science and, above all, establish proper quality control for the product line, which is currently still failing completely.
Rarely has an Apple product received such harsh criticism. The Wall Street Journal summarized its experiences with the "fine fabric" in the newsletter of gadget journalist Joanna Stern last spring in a memorable sentence: "The edges peel off, the fabric is scratched like an old CD, and it turns brown like a rotten banana."
Empfohlener redaktioneller Inhalt
Mit Ihrer Zustimmung wird hier ein externer Preisvergleich (heise Preisvergleich) geladen.
Ich bin damit einverstanden, dass mir externe Inhalte angezeigt werden. Damit können personenbezogene Daten an Drittplattformen (heise Preisvergleich) übermittelt werden. Mehr dazu in unserer Datenschutzerklärung.
(bsc)
