that returning a defective phone is also considered normal behaviour.

http://www.itproportal.com/2012/10/01/purple-flare-test-iphone-5-vs-samsung-galaxy-s-iii-vs-htc-one-s/

Bottom line: The latest and greatest iPhone 5 was clearly the worst offender of the bunch.

Every optical element shows some sort of dispersion. "Simply" to control when you have the space (like in objectives of real cameras, microscopes or binoculars) but not so easy when your optical element is a simple plate with parallel faces (like a protective glass cover) or a tiny lens. Combine a tiny lens with a tiny CCD and you're out of luck when you hit a difficult to control lighting situation. 8 MP on smartphone "cameras" with tiny optics and tiny CCD-chips is a waste of storage space anyway. You can't get the required optical resolution. Simple physics.

It is not a flaw with the iPhone camera but rather a limitation of the optics of the camera lens that causes chromatic aberration. This is a well-known phenomenon that is is most prevalent in high contrast situations with any camera (unless you spend $$$ for a high-end lens). Taking a picture with the sun high overhead against a dark background is an excellent way to highlight chromatic aberration. The advice from Apple Support is correct in that the user of camera should recompose their picture rather than stir up controversy with blog posts. You'll also note that the pictures on the link are similar but not framed quite identically, which exacerbates to chromatic aberration. And I won't even get into the ridiculous comparison of the fixed focal length iPhone cameras with a professional level Nikon D300.

For a more detailed description and how to avoid it (or fix it - perhaps with iPhoto which is likely installed on your iPhone)
http://www.tutorial9.net/tutorials/photography-tutorials/correcting-and-preventing-chromatic-aberration/

No, this isn't chromatic aberration... this is flaring. Chromatic aberration results in color halos around objects, especially towards the edge of the frame.

The iPhone 4S did. Not sure about the iPhone 4.

http://5.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/iphone-5-haze-on-the-4s.jpg [mshcdn.com]
http://thenextweb.com/apple/2012/09/26/the-iphone-5s-camera-suffering-purple-haze-flaw-not-fast/ [thenextweb.com]

And yet it went without comment before. Why? It's a damn good camera for a phone, but it's not a DSLR. It's impossible to have DSLR level photography from phone that's 7.6 mm thick.

Here are photo comparisons with the 4s that do show the 4s with purple fringing.

http://5.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/iphone-5-haze-on-the-4s.jpg [mshcdn.com] [mshcdn.com]
http://thenextweb.com/apple/2012/09/26/the-iphone-5s-camera-suffering-purple-haze-flaw-not-fast/ [thenextweb.com] [thenextweb.com]

Note that camera angle to light source is critical, to get the effect to show up on either phone. In your example comparison, if the photographer tried a bit more he could probably have found the angle to make the purple flare show on the 4S too.

This is a lot of fuss about nothing. But we're used to that with iPhone stories. No other phone gets this level of close examination for flaws. Not enough people care about other phones.

No, other cameras do not "manage it fine". I've got $3,000 lenses, and if you catch a bright source at the wrong angle, you get flare.

Not true. There was just no hysterical news vomit about it.

http://5.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/iphone-5-haze-on-the-4s.jpg [mshcdn.com]
http://thenextweb.com/apple/2012/09/26/the-iphone-5s-camera-suffering-purple-haze-flaw-not-fast/ [thenextweb.com]

Nah, this is now "rearrange nature." If the sun is in your way. move it. Want to take a picture of your child running in the sprinklers on a sunny day? well that's a moment that cannot be captured.

And the Apple fanboys say if you don't want a camera that adds purple flares (all cameras apparently do this) then get a professional level Nikon D300. Those are your only choices so quit complaining that you didn't get the professional level Nikon D300.

Now, my iPod Touch and Droid phone don't add purple flare. Obviously, these products are either 1) inferior garbage that can't capture the true color spectrum or 2) actually professional level Nikon D300's in disguise.

I think GP meant that we then generally still perceive the wall as being white. At least, I hope he did.
Best optical illusion that illustrates this I've seen to date: http://www.planetperplex.com/en/item/checker-shadow [planetperplex.com]

Since the hardware hacking crowd has already taken apart the iPhone 5 & discovered that the camera is identical to the iPhone 4S, I'd say you're on to something.

The only thing that changed was the sapphire cover.

Except, as linked earlier in this thread, the iPhone 4S has the exact same "problem", it just happens in margionally different circumstances. The reason that both the 4S and 5 have it is because they both have saphire scratch resistant lens covers, because this is a phone, not a camera.

Gizmodo are making something out of nothing, as always.

I'd like to make a rather pedantic point of clarification here: it is a "chromatic aberration" in the general sense that the system images spurious color, but it is not an aberration caused by dispersion (the variation of refractive index as a function of wavelength), nor is it a Seidel aberration.

If the purple hue comes from incomplete filtering of wavelengths outside the visible range, then it would be easy to test this theory by simply taking four kinds of photos: one that shows the flare with the unmodified camera, one of the same scene with a UV filter placed in front of the lens, a third with an IR filter placed in front of the lens, and finally, one with both UV + IR filters.

They used a Klingon transporter to do the beaming... The transporter effect was orange [blogspot.com].

Double dumb ass.