A bug?that caused iPhone alarms to malfunction on the first two days of the year was still affecting users yesterday - even though Apple Inc claimed to have fixed it.

Phone users reported they missed flights or were late for work yesterday, as their iPhone alarm failed to go off for a third consecutive day.

On Sunday, Apple had assured customers that its phones' built-in clocks would be functioning normally the next day.

This came after hundreds of thousands of iPhone users had complained that they overslept because their alarm did not go off on January 1 and 2.

Yet iPhone users took to the web yesterday to say that the glitch was still not sorted. "My iPhone alarm didn't work again," user sueannlove from Singapore posted on a micro-blog site. "Time to dig out (the) old school alarm clock."

Similar messages were sent by iPhone users in Britain, Netherlands and other European countries, reported Reuters.

"Apple certainly needs to fix it as soon as possible, but I doubt this will impact sales or reflect negatively on Apple itself," Reuters quoted Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi as saying.

But some users said their alarms worked properly yesterday.

In any case, Apple engineers say the problem can easily be fixed manually. Users should re-set alarms by deleting previously scheduled ones and adding new ones, according to an Apple engineer surnamed Hu.

Hu said the problem was caused by an error in the phone's built-in clock. The system bug hit users of iPhone 4, 3G and 3GS with the operating system version iOS 4.0.2 and other advanced versions. Hu did not reveal the numbers affected.

Users of of iPod and iTouch said they encountered a similar malfunction.

Affected users, including some famous Chinese singers and movie stars, complained on online forums and micro-blogs that their phones' alarms "went on strike" so they got up late for work, failed to arrive at appointments in time or missed flights for business trips.

At Apple's online forum, some users demanded compensation.

"What will Apple offer to those of us unfortunate enough to be two hours late for work?" asked angry netizen "Greg123456" from New Zealand. "When you spend so much on a phone with alarm functionality, you expect it to work, without the need for a second alarm clock!"

Other iPhone users, however, defended the phones against criticism. One netizen said that "the lovely bug was an elaborately designed one to show that the smartphone was clever enough to have a day off for itself."

This is not the first time that the iPhone alarm system has encountered bugs. Last year it failed to recognize changes to daylight saving time.