Author: (An)Dante | Date: 2008-06-24 16:30 | Section: Knowledge base | Source: Mobile-Review
Apple's latest patent is good for the manufacturers instead of the users, as it is a water sensor that helps identify phones that had water or some other liquid inside them. Many phones' lives end by coming into contact with water, which cannot be always identified as a reason in services, so they have to be fixed or replaced, thus losses due to user errors are many time suffered by the manufacturers. With Apple's latest patent liquids that get inside iPod and iPhone models can be identified easily, thus bringing about the loss of warranty. This solution is of course unfavorable for careless users, but most users can profit form it, since if the manufacturer doesn't have to suffer losses due to inattentive users, the price of the end product might get lower.


This looks like an attempt to overcome Motorola's patent which is in place for many years, at least on the phones sold in Canada. Motorolas have a tiny patch of white compound which turns red or black after contact with water. I have a couple of those at home with voided warranty like that. 
It is some kind of improvement comparing the not so reliable indicator sticker which is used on almost every phone (including Motorola) behind the battery. If I understand your comment well, you're talking about this sticker. Apple introduced an improved solution.
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