So, the rumors were indeed correct and Apple had indeed been slowing down older iPhones and all of this wasn’t just another conspiracy theory concocted by unhappy users.
If you don’t know what’s going on or have never used an iPhone before, basically, there has been this long going belief among many users that as their iPhones got older, they started getting slower and the performance of their devices started to decrease and that, this was done deliberately by Apple to make them buy newer phones.
Till now, this was always shrugged off by tech pundits as being either a psychological effect (when new devices are launched older ones ‘feel’ slow) or at the very best, by stating that the older hardware just wasn’t enough to handle the newer iOS versions and its demands.
All the speculation about the whole thing was laid to rest when about two weeks ago, Apple admitted that it was indeed slowing down older iPhones but not to force users to upgrade but for another reason altogether.
Why Did Apple Do So?
It is obvious that anybody would instantly think that Apple did it so that consumers get rid of their old, slow phones and buy new ones, hence increasing the profits for Apple, especially because in the last few years, Apple has indeed come off as more money hungry than ever before.
The company however, claims that they did so to “protect against battery problems and prolong the life of iPhones” and are actually calling it a ‘feature’ that they released with iOS 10.2.1.
Following the backlash by consumers all around the world, the company released an apology on its website to explain the situation and their reasoning behind it. They maintained that they would never intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product.
According to the explanation provided by them, as batteries get older, they tend to hold less charge (which is true of all lithium ion batteries). As this happens, the battery is no longer capable of delivering peak energy loads, which might cause a device to shut down again and again.
To prevent this, they pushed a software update that manages the maximum performance of the hardware to prevent these shutdowns, which resulted in slower functioning of the devices. To restore the full performance of their devices, consumers needed to get their old battery replaced.
A $999 Billion Lawsuit
If that number sounds outright crazy to you, that’s because it is. Even Apple’s market cap is not there yet. But that’s not stopping Violetta Mailyan from suing Apple for an insane $999 billion, alleging fraud through concealment.
There are seven more lawsuits being filed against Apple including one for $100 million by Raisa Drantivy and her legal team which is a saner number at least!
This shows the anger of the people against the tech giant. Really, I think they should have been upfront about it from the get go and should have clearly stated that all consumers needed to do was to get their battery replaced and not mislead them into buying new phones altogether.
As damage control, Apple has launched a battery replacement program for the affected phones (iPhone 6, 6s, SE and 7) under which users can get their batteries replaced for $29 down from $79 that Apple used to charge before. The program will be available worldwide, till December 2018.