Apple Lawsuit Stirs Questions

The recent accident in which an 83-year-old woman walked into the clear glass doors at Apple's Manhasset, N.Y., location and allegedly fractured her nose, has the industry taking notice.

The kind of glass that Apple uses in its stores is pre-dominantly used in museums and jewelry stores, says Bob Brown, principal of Robert L. Brown and Associates in Martinsville, Va. "It's probably 1/2-inch thick ultra-clear, low-iron, tempered glass," he says. "Manufacturers of those ultra-clear glass charge a premium for their product."

Turns out, that's not the only premium to be paid for ultra-clarity.

The woman in the accident has

"The deal with an Apple store is that you're not sure whether you're outside or inside," Brown says. To avoid more such accidents and lawsuits, "they should probably put little bit of a design on the outside or inside of the glass, maybe a ceramic design, maybe a string of apples, 5-6 feet high," Brown suggests. "Some kind of descriptive decor on the glass in color, or even clear, like sandblast, slight gray, would help."

It's a common hazard with clear glass facades, says Lyle Hill, managing director of Keytech North America. "The fact that Apple locates its buildings intentionally in high-traffic areas and they intentionally go for an all-glass clear look-they're going to have a higher probability of these things happening," he says. "But in general I think incidences of people walking into glass walls occur far more often than we might realize. It's the nature of an unmarked all-glass facade-people are going to walk into it. Particularly today people are texting, they're on their phones-it's not at all out of the realm of concept that they might walk into an all-glass building."

Brown agrees. "It probably will occur again and maybe it has happened elsewhere," he says, "but we'll have to address it before this becomes a stumbling block in marketing clear glass products."