Brussels last week asked Apple to explain the phenomenon after a French teenager’s claim that an Apple iPhone shattered in his face and a case in Britain of an exploding iPod portable music player.<\/p>\n
“Apple has come back to us this morning. They consider that these are isolated incidents,” said commission spokesperson Helen Kearns.<\/p>\n
“They don’t consider that there’s a general problem,” and are seeking more information on the reported cases and will carry out any necessary tests, she told reporters in Brussels.<\/p>\n
For its part the commission has asked the 27 EU nations to keep it informed of any such cases.<\/p>\n
A US television news station last month reported that an “alarming number” of iPods “have suddenly burst into flames and smoke, injuring people and damaging property.”<\/p>\n
The station said that Apple lawyers tried to stop it from getting hold of hundreds of pages of iPod-related documents which included information on “15 burn and fire-related incidents blamed by iPod owners on their iPods.”<\/p>\n
The cause of the trouble appears to be overheated lithium ion batteries, according to the Seattle-based KIRO television station’s review of the paperwork.<\/p>\n