Apple Addresses Alleged Throttling of iPhones With Degraded Batteries

[Braderunner]

After 1 year...that’s total bs. Completely unacceptable. Apple has lost some of my trust.

 

[Act3]

Every Li-ion battery degrades by a tiny fraction every charge cycle. How would you like it if every rechargeable device you owned displayed a new pop-up warning almost every day (danger! warning! battery now below yesterday's performance by 0.003%, etc., etc.)

look up the definition of threshold, not the one pertaining to a door.

 

[sracer]

Amazing that some here on this forum think it's totally ok for Apple to slow down phones. What a dispicable crooked company. But I guess that's what happens when you blindly follow a company at any cost. The sensible thing would be, get more demanding on Apple for providing a bigger battery from the get go. Or demand Apple to be upfront, and tell the consumer that getting a new battery should fix their slow down issues. But no, that would mean standing up to Apple and giving them bad press. And we all know, the blind follower, would put their own needs second to their beloved Apple.

There is no single "right" response to the issue. Everyone must decide what is best for themselves. For those that see this as no big deal then defending Apple is the correct response.

Personally, this latest incident confirms my decision that my current Apple devices will be my last. I'm not emotional about it, i'm just making a decision that makes the best financial sense for me.

 

[IbisDoc]

There is no debate as of a few days ago, Apple would not replace a battery in my wife's 6 even with me offering to pay them.

"This phone's battery is fine, you are imagining the slowness. Hey, you should consider upgrading her to this new iphone 8!"

Seriously, that's what they told me.

Even worse, they trained every single employee to deceive their customers, telling them that their battery tested normally and would not be replaced (even at the custmers’ expense), instead of telling them that battery replacement would result in an as-new device. Meanwhile, they were busy modifying the OS to exaggerate the throttling, so that customers would feel forced to upgrade.

What a bunch of crooks.

 

[Bawstun]

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.

You would be a perfect candidate to begin the class action lawsuit. Perfect example - you upgraded not knowing that your device was being intentionally manipulated to hide Apple's faulty batteries which were causing the device to fail.

They will lose this case. They have no rebuttal or precedence not to.

...The only mobile company doing this...

 

[joueboy]

replace the battery or go get a new phone simple as that

How if Apple would not admit fault and you didn’t even know you already have a bad battery because your phone lasted all day. I have an extended warranty and if there’s a problem before my warranty expires I need to know that. Obviously they do this to get away from responsibility of covering those who paid the Apple Care. Not an issue who didn’t bought the extended warranty because they’ll pay it anyway to get their battery replaced.

 

[Braderunner]

Sooooo....they’re going to slow down my $1000 phone in 11 months?! Are they insane?
Maybe I’m insane if I drop more money on another iPhone. Hmmmmm....

 

[Bawstun]

I suspect its going to be a free phone, not $3.95.

We are talking about several billion dollar settlement here. Apple hid a RECALL item nefariously because they wanted to save face and not be forced into a recall.

Europe by itself is going to be a B as in BILLION dollar issue. They have required 2 year warranty requirement that Apple almost certainly was trying to circumvent. That means every person in the EU who bought an iphone 6/6s/7 etc will rightfully get a warranty replacement claim. If they already replaced that device, they are entitled to a free new device.

Just wait and see.

Quoting for posterity.

This is the biggest Apple news in years, decades, even. This illegal practice will cost them dearly.

 

[pratikindia]

The better option for Apple - Use removable battery.

 

[apples4all]

Even as an Apple fanboy, I don't believe its the lithium ion technology at fault. My family has had android devices for years and never experienced a shutdown. And no android phone manufacturer installed any software to slow down their older phones. This does not compute or pass the smell test.

My iphone 6 is a slug after updating iOS. I'm already part of class action against apple for their broken iphone 4s power button. https://goo.gl/7zxW9h Maybe I should tell them to look at this issue.

I love apple and buy way too many of their products, but I can't ignore the fact their quality and attention to detail have clearly slipped. They are a fantastically successful and rich company, but the love is really starting to fade...

 

[Act3]

Sooooo....they’re going to slow down my$1000 phone in 11 months?! Are they insane?
Maybe I’m insane if I drop more money on another iPhone. Hmmmmm....

it'll be interesting if the X becomes slower than the 8+. 8+ has a larger battery.

Here is the latest Apple disclaimer on batteries on their website.... Not one mention of slowing down processor.

1. 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 Apple service provider. Battery life and charge cycles vary by use and settings. See www.apple.com/batteries and www.apple.com/iphone/battery.html for more information.

 

[Analog Kid]

but do they do that to compensate for the power supply? or to conserve energy?

They do it so the chips don’t melt and release the magic blue smoke or, as some here would assert, to hide a major design flaw.

 

[Count Blah]

Don't you mean an Apple "atta boy" is being treated as evil by Apple trolls? Flip the coin over, mate, there's another side to it.

Yeah, staying silent while users have horrible experiences, and buy a new phone(iphone if they are locked in) instead. Yep, a real 'atta boy' with NO ulterior motive at all, right?

 

[pratikindia]

oh by the way, if you get an Android, you won't have a choice on whether you can update or not because the carrier and the manufacture of the device decides that for you. do your homework before buying. I heard the latest phones weren't getting Oreo or whatever future updates come....

Update is not the issue with Google Pixel phones. They will get all updates at least for 2 years.
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"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."

What about the 5S? That phone doesn't have issues like Apple described above?

The iPhone 5S suffer too. I still have it and it randomly shuts down with 50% or more battery.

 

[Count Blah]

Depends on your perspective.

The original premise was that Apple deliberately slowed down your phone with the express intention of imposing forced obsolescence and making users upgrade. Which implied malice on Apple’s part, where there was never any to begin with.

When that narrative turned out to be untrue, the goalposts have now shifted to “Apple could have better communicated this to us”. And even as we speak, that is now forking into “Apple could have included a toggle and let us choose” arguments.

I just don’t think that what Apple has done here is all that unjustified in the greater scheme of things.

NO!!! You are taking the added Apple bonus, and moving that to the lead. I'm sure Apple did this to lessen the number of warranty claims, and to prevent, as much as possible, the auto turn-off at 20-30-40% In both cases, saving money at the expense of user experience, and trying to avoid a major class action lawsuit as more than that 6s have this happening. Did you see the iphone 7 graphs, showing the same slow downs? You think EVERY SINGLE ONE of those being forcible slowed down by Apple are over a year old?

The added benie for apple was the sweet sweet premature iphone upgrade from people who have been slowed, and experienced horrific slowness with the latest iOS update. That's just pure gravy, not the lead.

 

[Altis]

They do it so the chips don’t melt and release the magic blue smoke or, as some here would assert, to hide a major design flaw.

This isn't thermal throttling at all.

 

[hipsheik]

I'll be ordering a battery replacement for my 6S from iFixit.

$30 vs $80

I did this for my 6s and it was the best thing I could've done.

Was raving to my co-workers, who couldn't understand.

They might now.

 

[Count Blah]

My iPhone 6s, which is less than 2 years old, runs at 600MHz. New, the processor ran at 1600MHz -- over twice as fast as it runs now. For comparison, an iPhone 4, which was released over 7 years ago, ran at 800MHz when new!

Not only has Apple significantly slowed down their devices, but they did so behind their customer's backs! It's stunning that a $700 iPhone released 2 years ago can be slower than a near vintage iPhone 4.

How is this remotely acceptable?

I would expect Apple to offer free battery replacements, or at the very least half priced, but they have continued charging $80 for a battery replacement (as if a 2 year old, $700 product should be expected to have such ridiculous issues).

_____________________
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.

Don't forget, if your battery passed the vaunted "Apple battery test", they wouldn't even take your money to replace your battery.

 

[opfreak]

They do it so the chips don’t melt and release the magic blue smoke or, as some here would assert, to hide a major design flaw.

when you bought your phone could your battery run it at full power?

apple batteries are incapable of running their phones at original frequencies after about a year of use.

How is that not a defective product?

 

[canesalato]

My old 3Gs used to shutdown if I left it in the car on a hot day.

It's possible that the fashionably thinner mobile phones and faster (hotter) ARM processors made the problem slightly worse every generation until more people noticed.

On this I agree.

 

[I7guy]

what part of apples to oranges didn't you understand in my post? Some of us could care less about chickens but rather just not have this happen again. I like my apple products, I don't like them screwing with my purchased apple products.

Whatever your personal viewpoint, mine is, much ado over nothing. Disagree, that's what these discussion forums are for. Whether or not this leads to a lawsuit and even if the lawsuit is accepted and then even have the lawsuit won by some meaningful metric, is putting the cart way before the horse.

a hard concept for some to understand, or a shareholder to consider as ethical as it doesnt benefit them

Some people don't really see it as much of an issue as made out to be. Not that apple could have maybe done something else or handled it differently.

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

The throttling is happening well above the 80% threshold, during which the health status is considered "Healthy" and a replacement is not advised (some people saying Apple will not do it).

This is forgiving the fact that people will have no idea to suspect the battery as a culprit to poor OS performance.

You're assuming most notice. Considering the vast majority (over 90%) of users use just 5 apps daily (Facebook, Instagram, Message, Mail, and Safari), it wouldn't be surprising if they didn't even notice a slowdown.

Even if they did, most would likely blame it on a slow internet connection or just "Facebook being slow." rather than their phone itself.

 

[hipsheik]

If you're unhappy with the number of cycles current battery technology can provide, please, go ahead and invent a better technology. We're waiting.

It looks like Apple's decision to not incorporate user replaceable batteries is coming back to bite them big time now.

 

[firewood]

look up the definition of threshold, not the one pertaining to a door.

Glad you mentioned threshold, because Apple probably set their new battery-saving performance level well above their threshold for adequate/acceptable performance with respect to the specifications they marketed (unless, of course, they agree to replace your battery after they test it). Note that you can't find those top-end geekbench numbers anywhere in Apple's product specifications.
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It looks like Apple's decision to not incorporate user replaceable batteries is coming back to bite them big time now.

Yeah. Just look at how many of the top 10 selling non-Apple mobile phones have user replaceable batteries. Customers must be demanding such by buying so many.

 

[Altis]

You're assuming most notice. Considering the vast majority (over 90%) of users use just 5 apps daily (Facebook, Instagram, Message, Mail, and Safari), it wouldn't be surprising if they didn't even notice a slowdown.

Even if "most users" only use the phone in limited capacity, that doesn't excuse it at all.

Even stock apps and OS navigation, keyboard use, camera, etc, are all slow. And what do you think it is that prompts people to buy new phones anyways?

Even if they did, most would likely blame it on a slow internet connection or just "Facebook being slow." rather than their phone itself.

They'll say "my phone is slow", because it won't just be Facebook, it will be everything including stock apps.

They sure won't consider the battery as the culprit. I guess that's just to Apple's advantage