Apple investigating exploding iPhone claims in Europe

Following more reports of exploding iPhones, this time in Europe, Apple has informed various sources in the EU that they are investigating the causes behind them. Referencing a recent case in France where an iPhone supposedly hissed and shattered, the company said that these were isolated incidents, but confirmed they are looking into it. Likely, Apple wants to determine if environmental or any other factors were to blame.

As one of the most popular (and therefore most covered) high-tech devices around, any defects with the iPhone are surely going to make headlines. Not surprisingly, though, Apple has not been forthcoming about these issues and has reportedly gone to great lengths to keep them from going public.

You can easily pull up a dozen or so incidents in which exploding iPods or iPhones have been reported around the world, but on a numbers basis we're still talking about a very minor number of devices. The risk factor is probably very low and very conditional  but is it up to Apple to claim these incidents are isolated? What I would really like to see is solid numbers  sourced from a third party  that indicate exactly how many cases of an iPhone exploding there truly have been.