The point of the article seemed to be that this is a very widespread problem, and I was refuting that point. If you look at it from the percentage of devices sold, it doesn't seem to be widespread at all.
If you want to take the view that if Apple sells you a faulty device they should repair it for free regardless of whether you're the only person in the world who has the issue; I would agree as long as the device is still under warranty. My guess is these aren't or the people wouldn't be taking them to third party repair shops.
Given the numbers we have and the hypotheses (75M devices sold, 100k defective devices), that would be 0.1% of the total volume sold, which does not sound that small (1 out of 1000 devices, what would we say if it was, e.g. 1 out of 1000 cars of a brand to be defective ? or 1 out of 1000 medical pills ?)
As for the warranty, if it's a design flaw and a widespread issue (and for that, even 0.1% of the whole volume should be significant enough) that pops up after 1 year of usage (because of thermal/physical wear under normal usage conditions), isn't it something that manufacturers should repair even out of warranty ?
If you want to take the view that if Apple sells you a faulty device they should repair it for free regardless of whether you're the only person in the world who has the issue; I would agree as long as the device is still under warranty. My guess is these aren't or the people wouldn't be taking them to third party repair shops.