Several technology writers in Australia have been left red faced after they reported that one of Apple’s new iPad Air tablets had burst into flames at a Canberra Vodafone store.
It now turns out that it was an old iPad and not one of their wafer thin new iPads that caught fire.
“It was an earlier generation iPad with Retina display model – not one of the more recently launched devices. Apple is investigating the cause,” a Vodafone spokesperson said.
A Vodafone employee said “Apple has taken the device for investigation, so we won’t know any more until they do.”
After organisations like News Corporation wrongly reported that an iPad Air had caught fire several global media Companies reported the story without talking to either the Vodafone store or Vodafone Corporate Affairs sources at Vodafone said.
Initial reports claimed that the tablet was an Air, though that information was unconfirmed when the story was initially written by News Corporation.
Experts said that had it been an Air, the news could’ve potentially been damaging to sales, since the Air was only launched November 1st and is moving into the critical holiday shopping season. The issue is likely battery-related; Apple has had to fix overheating batteries for several past products, although such problems are still relatively rare in practice.
