On December 20th 2017, Apple announced that they deliberately slow older iPhones. Just as
expected, the public was aghast. The users always suspected that their old phones weren’t as
snappy as they used to be when they bought them but for a multi-billion corporation to
outright admit that people’s anxiety was very well founded was something nobody expected.
They confessed that it isn’t just collective speculation but they did actually send out updates
which forced their phones to run slower than when the device was newly bought.
Apple’s explanation is that they only do it because of battery issues in older phones. Obviously, they deny what the public is so inclined to believe that they do it so that people may lose interest in the older models and buy new ones. But Apple claims that it will never do any such thing to harm the consumers’ interests. They have clarified that the issue is due to the limited capacity and eventual deterioration of the Lithium Ion batteries. They said as the batteries grow older, they lose the ability to hold charge and cannot handle peak phone performance and might shut down midway. So as to prevent that from happening, they release updates which identify the phones with obsolete batteries and slow their performance. But until recently, the public was unaware of this and even now we don’t have any control over it. Before this, John Poole, developer at Geekbench, carried out a study of large data sets and concluded that over time the phones’ performance do lag and this could be related to battery or other components.
Personally, I feel the manufacturer should do all they can to avoid widespread glitches or faults capable of potentially breaking down the functions of a device. A little confusion about slow devices rather than an uproar about dying batteries is preferable if it can be achieved through certain means. But that in no way gives the producer the right to hide this fact from the consumers. I would have preferred people to have been informed earlier so that Apple could better explain and defend their position.
Now, Apple has issued an apology to the consumers in an official statement. They have assured people to lower the rate of a new battery from 79$ to 29$. They also say that the feature of updates which impede the performance won’t work if the battery is new and it is only restricted to iPhones; it does not affect iPads or Mac. On December 28th, they announced to release software which would help users better understand the quality and performance of their device’s components.
Whatever they do now, this move has certainly impacted the company’s credibility and goodwill with people fuming all over, some even filing lawsuits. I wouldn’t recommend such extreme actions but Apple surely needs be more transparent about their practices especially when they so directly affect their product and hence the consumer experience.
expected, the public was aghast. The users always suspected that their old phones weren’t as
snappy as they used to be when they bought them but for a multi-billion corporation to
outright admit that people’s anxiety was very well founded was something nobody expected.
They confessed that it isn’t just collective speculation but they did actually send out updates
which forced their phones to run slower than when the device was newly bought.
Personally, I feel the manufacturer should do all they can to avoid widespread glitches or faults capable of potentially breaking down the functions of a device. A little confusion about slow devices rather than an uproar about dying batteries is preferable if it can be achieved through certain means. But that in no way gives the producer the right to hide this fact from the consumers. I would have preferred people to have been informed earlier so that Apple could better explain and defend their position.
Whatever they do now, this move has certainly impacted the company’s credibility and goodwill with people fuming all over, some even filing lawsuits. I wouldn’t recommend such extreme actions but Apple surely needs be more transparent about their practices especially when they so directly affect their product and hence the consumer experience.
-Anurag Singh
“The author always told people that companies send updates to slow down their devices so that they buy new products. People called him a conspiracy theorist.”
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