Iphone touch screen (bottom portion) not responding

I am having the same problem with the bottom portion of the screen not responding. I tried turning OFF/ON, resetting, restoring. Can't use space bar or get to phone keypad, among other things. The phone receives calls and texts. It started last night, and people are saying that my outgoing texts are garbled. In the past couple of days as I wrote texts the phone was sending the cursor to the next line as if I had pressed "return." Going to Genius Bar this afternoon.

If the standard troubleshooting steps do not resolve it - powering the iPhone off and on, Reset, Restore - you need to call AppleCare (800) 694-7466, or make an appointment at an Apple Store if there is one nearby.

I had the same problem with my iPhone. A part of my touch screen just randomly died. I took it to an Apple Store and they gave me a brand new phone at the Genius Bar. You can probably do it through Support too, without going to an Apple Store.

I just had the exact same problem with my my iPhone. I took it to my local Genius Bar and it was replaced within minutes with no questions asked. I'm just hoping it doesn't happen again. I'm not sure if Apple is actually working on the issue or just replacing phones with new phones where the same thing can happen again?

FYI my original phone was purchased in August and I had no problems up until two days ago.

Ernie

I have the same problem. One strip in the middle of the screen is unresponsive so that, for instance, I cannot dial the numbers 7,8 and 9 on the touchpad. Given that I need some of those digits for the area code where I live, this is really problematic.

A Reset or Restore has not helped. I will be taking the phone to the Apple Store, but given that they seem to be out of iPhones I wonder if I will be able to get a replacement. This is really annoying.

My phone was purchased last August.

I took the iPhone to the genius bar (after making an appointment) today. The friendly "genius" asked if the Calculator works. Lo and behold, when every other application suffers from the dead strip in the bottom half of the screen (where the 7,8,9 buttons on the phone keypad are), the calculator doesn't seem to. He concluded that it was a software problem and advised that I wait for the new software that is likely to be released today.

I hope the new software fixes it. However, from Jobs's keynote (which is ongoing as I write this) it looks like the new software won't be available till "early July." Can't decide if I can wait that long without the ability to dial phone numbers. I wonder if, in the interim, there is a workaround to the inability to punching in 7,8,9 on the phone keypad .

Buffs and Zack, I'm curious:

How old or young were these phones? Last July or far more recent?

Thanks!

I bought my phone the day after they came out, June 30th, and I got my new one in September.

Make sure you make an appointment at the Genius Bar before you go. The Genius Bar handles iPhone problems and replacements.

They should still have refurbs that they can give you to replace it.

I had the exact same problem. But I am traveling in China right now, by the time I return to US my iPhone will be out of warranty, can I still get it replaced?