Apple Addresses Alleged Throttling of iPhones With Degraded Batteries

[Mal Blackadder]

Exactly. I agree with those saying that Apple should notify users of the reduced performance they may experience while being throttled, but quite a few people here don't seem to understand that their choices with a degraded battery are a phone that randomly shuts off or a phone that runs slower. Lithium ion batteries suck, issues like this remind us of that fact.

They have another choice, to pay to have a new battery fitted, I wonder how many people have bought newer models of phone when their existing one ran slowly because no one told them that replacing the battery at a cost of $79 would restore their phones to the original speed that they are capable of, maybe thats why Apple have kept quiet about this until now, they certainly make more profit from someone buying a new phone compared to the profit they would make from the customer paying to have a new battery fitted. Most people know batteries have a finite life and degrade over time, and even the small print on apples tech spec web pages for the phones say so, for example, "All battery claims depend on network configuration and many other factors; actual results will vary. Battery has limited recharge cycles and may eventually need to be replaced by an Apple service provider. Battery life and charge cycles vary by use and settings. See www.apple.com/uk/batteries and www.apple.com/uk/iphone/battery.html for more information.", but they do not mention that the phone will run slower with a degraded battery.

 

[rjp1]

If that is what you use your phone for; high cpu charger connected applications than yes for that particular use case agreed.

Can’t help but think that anyone making calls, sending text messages, reading emails, browsing a website or posting on Facebook will notice any difference at all.

They probably won’t, but that means anyone using apps with high cpu use are screwed - hence the outrage

 

[Abazigal]

Would you agree that consumers should be informed when that happens to make them aware? Not necessarily give them a choice to toggle on/off throttling, but point out how it can be remedied.

Well, Apple has always sealed their batteries from the start for the sake of aesthetics, so I am not sure how well news of that would go down with their consumers. I can imagine people going “So Apple expects me to renew my battery every year to keep my iPhone running , but don’t want to make them replaceable?”

It’s a whole can of worms Apple won’t want opened if they could help it. Either way, this news is out in the open and there’s no putting that genie back in the bottle, so I guess it’s a moot point either way.

 

[C DM]

Also, Apple's claim that this was done to preserve battery life falls flat on my end. My iPhone 6s lost 30% of its battery life as soon as I upgraded to iOS 11, leaving me with ridiculously short battery life and an obnoxiously slow phone. I cannot believe I am considering upgrading a 2 year old phone nearly out of necessity.

It seems that it's not so much about preserving battery life as it is to avoid sudden unexpected shutdowns.

 

[Act3]

And if that constant voltage isn’t high enough, then what?

then you screwed up the design, but even if it is high enough its only gonna be high enough for so long until battery depletes.

 

[Bawstun]

Once again, nothing untoward here, even though many chose to jump on the Apple conspiracy bandwagon.

Are you nuts? Class action lawsuit! We are sold phones which have their chips specifically listed. A9, A10 etc. People pay thousands to upgrade to the latest one, to have better processing power.

Apple intentionally slows them down, to prevent CHEAP, FAILING BATTERIES. They are the only company doing this.

And it's because they realize the fix is a costly, battery replacement program. They decided they'd try to patch it (undetected or mentioned) with software. That's illegal. And disgusting.

 

[Abazigal]

Furthermore, when my Apple battery failed on my iPhone 5s, I paid for a battery replacement, $79.99. To my surprise, Apple refused to replace the battery, but just sent me a brand new iPhone 5s just this month. I didn't even know they were still making them anymore, but apparently they are. Why I wondered? Well it dawned on me that my iPhone's case was bulging a bit, so apparently there was some sort of minor battery explosion that occurred inside. They must have wanted it hushed up quick. So the replacement ultimately was a good thing.

My understanding is that Apple sends the defective devices back to their headquarters where they can be taken apart and investigated to see where the flaws lie so as to prevent similar issues from cropping up in subsequent batches. So they don’t return you your original device because the process will take a while, and there really isn’t much of a phone left by the one they done with it anyways.

Apple isn’t trying to cover up anything here.

 

[rjp1]

Hence my original comment. I upgrade when I’m ready because a new phone offers something of value. Can’t really say I’ve had a phone slow down to the point it annoys me. I have two 5s from 2013 and they are running like a top in 11.2.5. So I don’t believe there is a grand scheme.

The 5S is _not_ throttled down like the 6 and 6S are. The 5S actually runs faster than them, because of this. Look at benchmarks - the 5S is a lot faster than these phones when they run in degraded/unusable mode.

Imagine tomorrow you woke up and your 5S magically slowed down, the apps you ran today no longer are usable (or take minutes to do things that took a second before), etc. Now, all of a sudden you would have 2 phones that became unusable because of a software update, which you can’t revert, and you would be okay with this?

This is exactly what happened to me. I didn’t want to upgrade, because of the lack of new features and my phone was just fine - until it got marked for degraded/unusable mode. It became necessary to upgrade to continue running the apps I had been using all along. I didn’t know at the time that replacing the battery would fix it.

 

[I7guy]

What is your purpose for making this statement? Are you accusing those that say it takes over 5sec to open an app as liars? Or are you confirming that iOS is a hot mess and gives random performance?

I was attempting to get ahead of spin such as this. With hundreds of millions of idevices it’s not inconceivable that some hardware/software combinations may have certain issues.

Also nice attempt at subtle ad-homs.

As far as “iOS being a hot mess”, that’s your intimation...not mine.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Are you nuts? Class action lawsuit! We are sold phones which have their chips specifically listed. A9, A10 etc. People pay thousands to upgrade to the latest one, to have better processing power.

Apple intentionally slows them down, to prevent CHEAP, FAILING BATTERIES. They are the only company doing this.

And it's because they realize the fix is a costly, battery replacement program. They decided they'd try to patch it (undetected or mentioned) with software. That's illegal. And disgusting.

I may be crazy but, I am definitely not nuts.

I believe Apple's statement. I don't believe there is anything nefarious involved here.

 

[Bawstun]

So in other words: they are selling devices that after a couple of weeks deliver app. 50% of the promised power and call that a feature...

They will be sued for exactly this. Mark my words, quote for posterity. It is most assuredly an illegal practice.

 

[Abazigal]

What is your purpose for making this statement? Are you accusing those that say it takes over 5sec to open an app as liars? Or are you confirming that iOS is a hot mess and gives random performance?

He’s saying that if the camera app takes so long to open, it’s probably due to some other problem with the phone that isn’t related to throttling.

 

[rjp1]

Are you nuts? Class action lawsuit! We are sold phones which have their chips specifically listed. A9, A10 etc. People pay thousands to upgrade to the latest one, to have better processing power.

Apple intentionally slows them down, to prevent CHEAP, FAILING BATTERIES. They are the only company doing this.

And it's because they realize the fix is a costly, battery replacement program. They decided they'd try to patch it (undetected or mentioned) with software. That's illegal. And disgusting.

Dude, you’re getting the A11 chip!*

* we will downgrade it to A7 through software when we are ready for you to buy a new phone.

 

[Abazigal]

For a technical publication with technical readers its absolutely ludicrous that Apple needs to explain itself to the tech world. This is a brilliant management tool in the best interests of the user experience.

You are confusing Macrumours for Ars Technica.

 

[fairuz]

**** that, my iPhone 6 is so slow now. I just want it to work properly.

 

[Bawstun]

So it seems that Apple rather have the phone slow down a bit than have it shut off completely.

Im not sure how I feel about this, I think Apple has to give a notification to the user. The user may just think he/she needs a new phone as apposed to just a new battery for $79 or free.

Another very good point; how many have already spent THOUSANDS on new phones, not realizing Apple was pre-emptively slowing their devices (because their software and cheap batteries weee causing the device to fail, and power off?)

This is illegal. They should and will likely be sued. A retro program will be instated and everyone who purchased a device after they began doing this will be entitled to a settlement. Watch.

 

[canesalato]

Old iPhones didn’t have this shutting down problems unless the batteries were REALLY old (>2-3 years) or defective. In the case of iPhone 6s/SE, many phones were turning off by themselves after a few months, until the problem was “fixed” with 10.2...so this “necessity” seems rather recent.

 

[firewood]

The problem is the 300hp will hold for 7-8 years and will not degrade significantly until that time period. One year is REDICULOUS.

Blame chemistry. Or move to some different parallel universe. The battery chemistries currently discovered that degrade less are either too weak or much heavier, less safe, more toxic, or far more costly to manufacture than the ones in the iPhone.

There's a reason why an iPhone fits in your shirt pocket, whereas the big university computer, the same age as the 300hp engine in that old hot rod I once drove, weighed several tons and took up an entire room and was probably 1000X slower than an iPhone X off the line.

 

[Act3]

Old iPhones didn’t have this shutting down problems unless the batteries were REALLY old (>2-3 years) or defective. In the case of iPhone 6s/SE, many phones were turning off by themselves after a few months, until the problem was “fixed” with 10.2...so this “necessity” seems rather recent.

a strange coincidence

 

[Abazigal]

Another very good point; how many have already spent THOUSANDS on new phones, not realizing Apple was pre-emptively slowing their devices (because their software and cheap batteries weee causing the device to fail, and power off?)

This is illegal. They should and will likely be sued. A retro program will be instated and everyone who purchased a device after they began doing this will be entitled to a settlement. Watch.

I won’t be holding my breath.

 

[Bawstun]

Dude, you’re getting the A11 chip!*

* we will downgrade it to A7 through software when we are ready for you to buy a new phone.

a strange coincidence

$$$

Vindication feels so damn good. I've said for months and months and months that their batteries were failing, that they tried to sweep it under the rug to save millions (and most importantly to save face with the public as a "premium" brand).

You can't advertise a product as having 2, 3, 4x more speed and power and then control that through software. That's illegal. They will be sued, and lose tons of cash, deservedly so.

 

[Act3]

Blame chemistry. Or move to some different parallel universe. The battery chemistries currently discovered that degrade less are either too weak or much heavier, less safe, more toxic, or far more costly to manufacture than the ones in the iPhone.

There's a reason why an iPhone fits in your pocket, whereas the big university computer, the same age as the 300hp engine in that old hot rod I once drove, weighed several tons and took up an entire room and was probably 1000X slower than an iPhone X off the line.

a big reason is it is more efficient and requires less power to run

 

[canesalato]

a strange coincidence

Blame chemistry!
(Whose laws changed in September 2015 ;-) )

 

[frocco]

Their silence speaks loud their intentions.

 

[Tapiture]

There’s nothing wrong with this. Apple just needs to learn to be more transparent.