Now that it's taken over from Samsung at the top of the smartphone market, Apple probably hopes that the focus has shifted away from its battery problems. Unfortunately for the Cupertino company, reports have arrived of another battery fire in one of its stores.
According to the South China Morning Post, emergency services were sent to an Apple store at the International Finance Centre mall in Hong Kong following reports of a phone battery that started emitting smoke.
While staff managed to extinguish the source of the smoke before emergency personnel arrived, two of the store's employees were taken to hospital for smoke inhalation. No evacuation was needed in this instance.
"The two staff members were repairing the phone battery at the time it emitted smoke. The pair complained of feeling unwell after inhaling smoke," a police spokeswoman said.
Police added they were still looking into the case, but the initial investigation had found nothing suspicious. Authorities are also trying to find out if the battery was part of Apple's discounted replacement program, which was made available to owners of the iPhone 6 and newer handsets following the performance throttling controversy.
At the start of January, an overheating iPhone 6s Plus battery started emitting smoke at a store in Zurich, Switzerland. One staff member suffered minor burns, six people received medical care at the site, and the store was evacuated, but there were no serious injuries and nobody required a hospital visit.