Apple will fix ‘touch disease’ in iPhone 6 Plus devices: for a price

Apple is offering a fix for some iPhones stricken with “touch disease,” a problem in which a flickering bar appears at the top of a device’s display and its touch screen stops responding.

The tech company will repair iPhone 6 Plus devices with the issue for US$149, it announced this week.

Apple says it will contact people who have already paid the company or an authorised service provider to fix the problem and reimburse them for the price difference.

The problem is caused when devices are “dropped multiple times on a hard surface” and then face “further stress,” the company said.

Repair tech site iFixit says the issue seems to be a design flaw: The placement of key touch-screen-related chips causes them to become dislodged “as the phone flexes or twists slightly during normal use,” the site said.