Quote:

The company says the practice deals with problems -- like unexpected shutdowns -- caused by aging batteries or cold conditions.

If you think your older iPhone seems to run slower, you're not crazy.

Apple on Wednesday said a software feature released last year makes your phone operate more slowly to offset problems with its aging lithium ion battery. As batteries get older, they don't hold their charges as well as newer batteries, and can have worse problems when the charge is low or the temperature is cold.

The aging battery means your phone could have trouble operating or might unexpectedly shut down, like happened to the iPhone 6 and 6S last year. The processors in those devices wanted to hit faster speeds, but their batteries couldn't handle the demand, prompting some phones to simply switch themselves off.

To address that, Apple's iOS software, starting with last year's iOS 10.2.1, included better power management capabilities, the company says. The operating system slows down your device to prevent it from shutting down, Apple says, but only in cases of cold temperature, a low battery charge or very old batteries.

Last year's software applied to the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, 6S and 6S Plus and SE. This year's iOS 11.2 extended the feature to the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. It will be applied to other Apple devices in the future.

Apple said in a statement:

    "Our goal is to deliver the best experience for customers, which includes overall performance and prolonging the life of their devices. Lithium-ion batteries 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.

    Last year we released a feature for iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone SE to smooth out the instantaneous peaks only when needed to prevent the device from unexpectedly shutting down during these conditions. We've now extended that feature to iPhone 7 with iOS 11.2, and plan to add support for other products in the future."

The statement from Apple came in response to a report from earlier this week from Primate Labs, the company behind the Geekbench processor benchmarking software. John Poole, founder of the organization, said in a blog post that processors in iPhones slow down and decrease in performance as batteries age and lose capacity. Poole explained that users expect their phones to perform the same regardless of how old the battery is, but his tests indicated that wasn't the case.

iPhone users have long complained their devices seem to slow down when new models are released. Some have said they believe it to be effort by Apple (and other tech companies) to purposely hamper the performance in order to get users to buy new models. Apple has long denied this assertion.

For some people, the solution to a slower, older iPhone may be updating its battery instead of purchasing a brand new device. Apple charges $79 to replace the battery of an iPhone that's no longer covered by a warranty.

---

Thoughts?

Seems pretty shady...

Kelazam said:

They're a smartGREEDY company

---

UpSyndrome said:

Fuck Apple.

---

It's funny seeing apple fans defend this... Seems like the battery thing is just an excuse as it clearly is happening with all older products regardless of their battery condition...

Also I see a lot of people talk about how updates brick older apple products... They seem to be trying their hardest to make people buy new phones every year

badchad said:

I was always pretty "neutral" about iphones.

Then I got the iphone X and it's absolutely incredible. Slow or not, I'm sticking with it.

---

Kelazam said:

Don't get me wrong I hate apple and yes they are greedy but they are also very smart by making it slower so people buy the new ones and changing the chargers for each product they make

---

Smart from a profitable business perspective for sure, they certainly know how to milk their customers that's for obvious

I think part of it is the average customer isn't smart too, many will buy fancy name brand products no matter what. Which in turn tells these companies "well they let us get away with all that, so I wonder what else we can get away with." If more people actually stood up and didn't buy their new products they probably wouldn't try and pull nearly as much crap.

Once again apple is definitely not the only company doing shady stuff like this, I just find it ironic because of the "fancy" image apple has built for itself.

pslyke said:

So if this is really about the quality of ageing batteries why would they not design the updated iOS to detect the quality of the battery instead of the age/generation of the phone?

It is not at all unusual for people that experience degraded battery performance to have the battery replaced. Under the new iOS you could have a new battery in an old phone that is deliberately slowed down as a forced form of obsolescence.

---

UpSyndrome said:

This is comparable to a car company installing software that increases fuel consumption and cuts horsepower just after the car is out of warranty or when a new generation comes out.  Nobody would stand for that, but Apple fanbois lap this shit up.  Idiots.

---

Stealth1Vampire said:

The CEO of apple needs to be arrested.

---

I wonder what Steve Jobs would think about the current state of Apple...

cannabinated said:

I never update an old phone. I've been clicking remind me later every day for months.

---

I update my android whenever there's one available, and I haven't had any issues. It's not more then 1-2 years old though

Stealth1Vampire said:

The CEO of apple needs to be arrested.

---

what so bad about it? people fall for buying these. Its not like they are advertising for a life time warranty

its not like they are the only company that uses those business models

triggered

I think there is better business models to go after like how the USA government uses war as profit