Apple Agrees to Pay Up to $500 Million to Settle Class Action Lawsuit Over 'Secretly Throttling' Older iPhones

[realtuner]

You omitted the best option. The phone should be designed better so that it's power consumption spikes do not force it to shut down (or slow down) when the battery is still at >30% capacity. That's the problem with Ax processors that are very powerful but also have very high power consumption spikes for which the power delivery systems in older iPhone models were not properly designed.
[automerge]1583169876[/automerge]

That's just common sense. Are you suggesting that Apple had a 100% case and still decided to give their customers a gift?

Nothing wrong with the iPhone design. Unless you want to use your knowledge as an electrical engineer and explain (in explicit detail) what the design faults were. And don't be afraid to use all the big words - as someone who works in this field I'm sure I'll have no trouble comprehending your explanation.

Common sense? If the case was so strong, then why didn't the lawyers keep fighting for a higher payout, instead of caving in and settling?

Take the recent Google Pixel settlement. Users of those devices are eligible for up to $500. Think about that. Up to $500 per device. Applied to the volumes Apple sells of the iPhone they'd be looking at a $10 billion settlement. Are you telling me those lawyers are so stupid/incompetent that they overlooked that possibility and settled so quickly for a fraction of a possibly massive payout?

Common sense indicates the case wasn't that strong and users weren't impacted (hence the measly $25 per device payout). The only reason the payout is $500 million is because Apple sells a LOT of iPhones.

 

[BootsWalking]

Well we all know batteries do hold a full charge forever, so I see your point.

Speaking of which, I need to file a class-action against Microsoft this morning because I just noticed the "Low Battery" light on my wireless mouse is glowing and that's clearly a design fault since the AAA battery can't be drained after a year of daily use.

All batteries degrade but how many products do you know of that spontaneously reboot on degraded batteries? Not many, because they're designed to properly account for peak current demands of their power system across the various life stages of the batteries designed into them.

 

[rpmurray]

Damn. I started using those iOS versions on December 22, 2017. So close.

 

[639051]

I don't understand why they didnt just communicate properly in the first place. Tell people batteries eventually don't hold a charge (they already understand that with every other battery out there) and that they need to be replaced, and that hey .. "we, Apple, the people that sold your phone to you will replace it for a fee".

Instead they just throttled devices like it was perfectly normal to mask it and move on. Just learn to talk to your customers.

 

[Expos of 1969]

FWIW, this was not a penalty; it was an agreed to settlement. BIG difference.

If you say so 🤔

 

[dannyyankou]

So do they just automatically send you the credit or do you have to claim it?

 

[V_Man]

I doubt even that. The lawyers will be celebrating though. Ive received a few $10 dollar checks from all the lawsuits BofA have had to settle. But that was ok, it was the good to see BofA have to pay out of principle.
But BofA and Apple are not the same. At least Apple sells something of value.
Live and learn.

Both are out to make money. So they are they same. Why some people put Apple on higher ground is scary

 

[RogerWilco6502]

All batteries degrade but how many products do you know of that spontaneously reboot on degraded batteries? Not many, because they're designed to properly account for peak current demands of their power system across the various life stages of the batteries designed into them.

Li-ion and Li-po batteries are very unstable, especially when compared to other battery technologies. I can do the same things on my iPhone two days in a row starting at a 100% charge each day and still have the battery levels come out differently.

Additionally, I've had things such as toy keyboards reboot when running on alkaline batteries that are low on power.

As for my two cents, I think that Apple had the right idea when they introduced the throttling (I mean, it's really a lot like the "battery saver" modes on a lot of laptops) but the implementation was flawed in that they didn't communicate it adequately to consumers. Everything here is a big misunderstaning and could have easily been avoided if Apple had done a better job of communicating.

 

[V_Man]

Good. I have no problem with this. Apple was trying to hide something and got caught. They should have just told everyone the truth.

I’ll be waiting for my check.

 

[macfacts]

Fool me once, not going to fool me again. Never buy apple.

 

[CWallace]

I don't understand why they didnt just communicate properly in the first place. Tell people batteries eventually don't hold a charge (they already understand that with every other battery out there) and that they need to be replaced, and that hey .. "we, Apple, the people that sold your phone to you will replace it for a fee".

Instead they just throttled devices like it was perfectly normal to mask it and move on. Just learn to talk to your customers.

I agree that Apple should have been up-front about the issue and why they were offering throttling as a mitigation step. I believe Apple implemented throttling because it was a "less bad" option then having the phone spontaneously reboot, but by not clearly stating why they were doing so in the iOS update notes, that led to customer and developer confusion and all the "nefarious conspiracy theories" that arose once the throttling was publicly outed by third-parties.

Too often, Apple's "culture of secrecy" has come back to haunt them in terms of it's impact on customer perception.

 

[RalfTheDog]

You omitted the best option. The phone should be designed better so that it's power consumption spikes do not force it to shut down (or slow down) when the battery is still at >30% capacity. That's the problem with Ax processors that are very powerful but also have very high power consumption spikes for which the power delivery systems in older iPhone models were not properly designed.

The only way to do that would be to always limit the phone to only 80% capacity, even when the phone is brand new, just out of the box.

 

[H2SO4]

I’d rather have my iPhone operating than shutting down randomly, so never had a problem with this.

A $500M, (yes, that's 1 MILLION dollars five hundred times), says Apple knew the issue was significant.

 

[mi7chy]

Only $25 fine per phone? Apple came out ahead while consumers that were tricked into buying a new phone lost.

 

[RogerWilco6502]

A $500M, (yes, that's 1 MILLION dollars five hundred times), says Apple knew the issue was significant.

$500M split across how many iPhone users?

 

[johannnn]

People prefer of having their phones turn off at low battery levels? Jesus this class action is stupid.

 

[RalfTheDog]

A $500M, (yes, that's 1 MILLION dollars five hundred times), says Apple knew the issue was significant.

A $500 payment says, Apple knew they were getting some bad publicity from people who have never once designed a power management system in their lives. It is more about perception than fact.

 

[Lekro]

This is ridiculous. Apple only wanted to make the device reliable making it not shut down unexpectedly with a bad battery. A slow iPhone can be a sign of battery degradation, same as a device shutting down on it's own. Which one would you chose as a sign...? People always see the money in everything.

 

[falainber]

Nothing wrong with the iPhone design. Unless you want to use your knowledge as an electrical engineer and explain (in explicit detail) what the design faults were. And don't be afraid to use all the big words - as someone who works in this field I'm sure I'll have no trouble comprehending your explanation.

Common sense? If the case was so strong, then why didn't the lawyers keep fighting for a higher payout, instead of caving in and settling?

Take the recent Google Pixel settlement. Users of those devices are eligible for up to $500. Think about that. Up to $500 per device. Applied to the volumes Apple sells of the iPhone they'd be looking at a $10 billion settlement. Are you telling me those lawyers are so stupid/incompetent that they overlooked that possibility and settled so quickly for a fraction of a possibly massive payout?

Common sense indicates the case wasn't that strong and users weren't impacted (hence the measly $25 per device payout). The only reason the payout is $500 million is because Apple sells a LOT of iPhones.

I am not an electrical engineer but one does not have to be an electrical engineer to know that Apple used to skimp on the capacity of iPhone batteries. And while all smartphones start shutting down as the battery ages and the charge goes down it was the iPhones that were doing this at the charge level being at 30% and higher. Are you going to defend this? There was obviously a mismatch between the battery capacity, processor spike power demand and the power delivery system design that caused the phone to crash at such high charge levels. Smartphone suddenly shutting down at, say, 5% charge level is one thing (all smartphones have this issue). Shutting down at 40% charge level is unacceptable. That was a poor design. Situation improved in newer models. Apple is lucky they could get away with $500M loss here. They should have been forced to replace all these phones as defective products.

 

[BootsWalking]

Li-ion and Li-po batteries are very unstable, especially when compared to other battery technologies. I can do the same things on my iPhone two days in a row starting at a 100% charge each day and still have the battery levels come out differently.

Understood, but again how many smartphone models have you heard of with a systemic problem of spontaneously rebooting on degraded batteries? The profile of how a battery degrades is not unique to iPhones, or more specifically, the iPhone 6/6s.

Additionally, I've had things such as toy keyboards reboot when running on alkaline batteries that are low on power.

Naturally a toy keyboard is a different class of device vs a smartphone.

 

[rp2011]

Both are out to make money. So they are they same. Why some people put Apple on higher ground is scary

Not scary. It is far higher. BofA openly set out to scam people living paycheck to paycheck. Sleazy

 

[pdaholic]

Don’t worry, Apple, I’ll be giving you back that $25 and then some.

 

[falainber]

The only way to do that would be to always limit the phone to only 80% capacity, even when the phone is brand new, just out of the box.

Yes, for poorly designed systems that might be the only solution. How about using bigger batteries? Use the car size battery and I can assure you, your iPhone is not going to shut down at 30% charge level. And BTW, most other smartphone vendors used bigger batteries (and still do).

 

[RalfTheDog]

Only $25 fine per phone? Apple came out ahead while consumers that were tricked into buying a new phone lost.

This caused fewer people to buy new phones. If they had not implemented the fix, people's phones would be shutting down, every time they played a game that stressed the GPU. As it is, most people get a few dropped frames. The fix makes phones with older batteries perform better, giving Apple a perceived higher QA standard.
[automerge]1583173385[/automerge]

Yes, for poorly designed systems that might be the only solution. How about using bigger batteries? Use the car size battery and I can assure you, your iPhone is not going to shut down at 30% charge level. And BTW, most other smartphone vendors used bigger batteries (and still do).

Sorry for the auto merged post.

Putting in a larger than needed battery would be very bad design, bordering on irresponsibility. Most people don't keep their phones for five years. Why make them have a larger phone that costs more money?

 

[kazmac]

Good.

'Exactly why I "upgraded" to the 7+, which was a great phone, but not worth the $1k I paid for it.

Now they need to stop gimping on hardware and software QC, ease up on the locked down OS, and start offering products that reflect the price tag again.