Besides Chinese consumers who have been appeased by Apple over the California-based company's warranty policy, other owners of iPhone and iPod whose units were denied warranty due to water damage would soon be compensated.

Wired reports that Apple has reached a $53 million settlement because of its previous failure to honor iPhone and iPod touch warranties for units damaged by water. The compensation would be an average of $200.

The settlement stems from lawsuits filed against Apple back to 2010 over the tech giant's refused to repair the devices even if the gadgets were still covered by the warranty. The cases were combined into a class-action suit pending before a San Francisco court.

The standard Apple warranty is one or two years, but it is voided if the company detects damaged on the gadget caused by accident, abuse, misuse, liquid spill or submersion, flood, fire, earthquake or other outside causes.

For water-damaged phone, the basis of Apple is the Liquid Submersion Indicator which turns pink if the device was submerged in water. The manufacturer of the indicator admitted that it could turn pink caused by other types of moisture other than submersion in water. It includes the device held by a sweaty palm after exercise or other small amounts of moisture the units are exposed to.

The $53 million fund, to be deposited by Apple, would be divided into the number of Apple users who signed on to receive the payout. A chart in the court filing specified that members of the class-action suit cannot receive more than 200 per cent of the value of their device.

Since the most expensive iPhone then had a price tag of $300, which means the maximum amount a claimant could receive is $600. Also part of the $53 million fund is the lawyers' fees.

Apple insisted it has not done anything wrong, but "Apple has agreed to enter into this settlement agreement to avoid the further expense, inconvenience, and distraction of burdensome litigation."

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