iPhone owners aren't happy with Apple, and they're letting the company know with lawsuits. Five iPhone users filed a lawsuit in New York yesterday and are seeking class-action status over Apple intentionally slowing down their phones as the devices' batteries aged. USA Today first reported the lawsuit, which follows others filed over the past week.
These iPhone owners claim that they all upgraded their devices to newer models once their phones slowed down after updating to new versions of iOS. The lawsuit states if they had known their batteries were to blame for the slowdown, they would have replaced the battery instead of buying a new phone. Prior lawsuits make similar arguments.
Last week, Apple confirmed that it slowed down the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus, and SE through a software update. The company said this feature "smooth[ed] out the instantaneous peaks only when needed to prevent the device from unexpectedly shutting down." Lithium-ion batteries, which are used in iPhones, "become less capable of supplying peak current demands when in cold conditions, have a low battery charge, or as they age over time, which can result in the device unexpectedly shutting down to protect its electronic components." The software update prevented this from happening.
Still, iPhone owners argue that Apple should have been more transparent about how it treats and recognizes aging batteries. The company only admitted the slowdown feature existed after independent Reddit users and bloggers tested devices.