Apple Being Sued for 'Purposefully Slowing Down Older iPhone Models' [Updated]

[MacHiavelli]

It's just power management. Like Android.

"Battery life is a perennial user concern. To extend battery life, Android continually adds new features and optimizations to help the platform optimize the off-charger behavior of applications and devices."

"In the Nexus reference implementation, the power hint caps [throttles] the maximum frequencies of the CPU and GPU at the highest sustainable levels."

https://source.android.com/devices/tech/power/performance

"To differentiate between active CPU power consumption and supported [ie different/throttled] CPU speeds for clusters, append the cluster number to the name of the array."

 

[firewood]

What is most likely happening is the power delivery system either the battery or the the corresponding coils/fets are insufficient to maintain 100% load from the CPU, full stop. This is a hardware issue that existed from day one and is unfixable. The issue with the batteries
...

You may be correct that the battery can’t meet the load. But the issue may not be with the battery, but with Apple’s aggressive chip designs. If Apple has been trying to build laptop grade processors since the A8 or A9, then those might require a laptop sized battery and power subsystem to run full out. Thus these processors have to be “down-clocked” or otherwise power managed to run in anything smaller, such as an iPad or iPhone. What you think is a new full speed 6S, 7,or 8 is really running at a fraction of it’s top speed, e.g. what it could really do with a heat sink, fan, and big laptop sized power source. For anything smaller, processor power management has to reduce the power supply load and heat.

 

[violetdudley]

Apple yesterday confirmed that it has implemented power management features in older iPhones to improve performance and prevent unexpected shutdowns as the battery in the devices starts to degrade, and this admission has now led to a class action lawsuit, which was first noticed by TMZ.

Los Angeles residents Stefan Bogdanovich and Dakota Speas, represented by Wilshire Law Firm, this morning filed a lawsuit with the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California accusing Apple of slowing down their older iPhone models when new models come out.

According to the lawsuit, Bogdanovich and Speas have owned the iPhone 7 and several older iPhone models and have noticed that their "older iPhone models slows (sic) down when new models come out." The two say they did not consent to have Apple slow down their devices, nor were they able to "choose whether they preferred to have their iPhones slower than normal."

They're seeking both California and Nationwide class action certification, which would cover all persons residing in the United States who have owned iPhone models older than the iPhone 8.

Apple yesterday addressed speculation that it throttles the performance of older iPhones with degraded batteries, confirming that there are power management features in place to attempt to prolong the life of the iPhone and its battery. Apple implemented these features last year in iOS 10.2.1.

When an iPhone's battery health starts to decline, the battery is not capable of supplying enough power to the iPhone in times of peak processor usage, which can lead to shutdowns, Apple says.The lawsuit seemingly misrepresents Apple's original statement and suggests the plaintiffs and their lawyers do not understand Apple's explanation for how iPhone power management features work and why they were implemented, given the lawsuit's suggestion that it's tied to the release of new devices. As explained by Apple, when certain iPhone models hit a peak of processor power, a degraded battery is sometimes unable to provide enough juice, leading to a shutdown. Apple says it "smooths out" these peaks by limiting the power draw from the battery or by spreading power requests over several cycles.

Lithium-ion batteries degrade over time by nature, and this eventual wearing out addressed by the power management features is unrelated to the release of new iPhone models.

Apple does not deny that iPhones with older batteries can sometimes see slower performance, but power management is a feature that Apple says has been implemented to improve overall performance by preventing an iPhone from shutting down completely rather than a feature that's been implemented to force users to upgrade by deliberately slowing devices.

As many people have suggested, Apple has done a poor job of explaining why it has implemented these power management features and how the state of the battery ultimately affects iPhone performance. More transparent information about battery health should be provided, and customers should be better informed when their batteries start to degrade so they can choose whether or not to pay for a replacement. Apple may also need to relax its policies on when customers can pay for a battery replacement, as currently, a battery can't be replaced unless in-store equipment registers it as near failing.

An iPhone's battery is designed to retain 80 percent of its original capacity at 500 complete charge cycles. A defective battery that does not meet those parameters can be replaced for free for customers who have AppleCare+ or who have devices still under warranty.

For out of warranty customers, Apple offers a battery replacement service, which costs $79 plus $6.95 for shipping.

The lawsuit is demanding the replacement of the old iPhone and compensation for loss of use, loss of value, the purchase of new batteries, ascertainable losses in the form of the deprivation of the value of the iPhone, and overpayments because Plaintiffs and Class Members "did not receive what they paid for" when Apple interfered with the usage of their iPhones.

Additional class action lawsuits have been filed against Apple in Chicago, New York, and Northern California. All three lawsuits allege that Apple slowed down iPhones in an effort to get customers to upgrade to new devices.

Article Link: Apple Being Sued for 'Purposefully Slowing Down Older iPhone Models' [Updated]

 

[grkm3]

It's just power management. Like Android.

"Battery life is a perennial user concern. To extend battery life, Android continually adds new features and optimizations to help the platform optimize the off-charger behavior of applications and devices."

"In the Nexus reference implementation, the power hint caps [throttles] the maximum frequencies of the CPU and GPU at the highest sustainable levels."

https://source.android.com/devices/tech/power/performance

"To differentiate between active CPU power consumption and supported [ie different/throttled] CPU speeds for clusters, append the cluster number to the name of the array."

No it's not.power saving modes on android are options.you can lower CPU speed,lower screen brightness, lower screen resolution but they are all options.

On my galaxy s8 if it' set to max performance in the battery section the phone will run ballz out until 1% life left and score the same geekbench as with a full charged phone.

 

[deferredAnon]

No it's not.power saving modes on android are options.you can lower CPU speed,lower screen brightness, lower screen resolution but they are all options.

On my galaxy s8 if it' set to max performance in the battery section the phone will run ballz out until 1% life left and score the same geekbench as with a full charged phone.

Yes, it's called providing the customer options and not being deceptive. Look how my plugged-in Windows PC does it:

 

[firewood]

On my galaxy s8 if it' set to max performance in the battery section the phone will run ballz out until 1% life left and score the same geekbench as with a full charged phone.

What you think is "full out" may already be capped to some limit by the OS. You would have to put the processor chip on a chip test rig to find out fast it could really run without the OS. Most factory automobile engine controller units also put a cap on the power and speed of your car. Engine hackers know this because they can remove that cap in the ECU, and get even more HP. Maybe you can do the same on a rooted S8 until the battery overloads?

 

[violetdudley]

While this is ancillary to the thread topic it is related. After experiencing the battery drain drama and attempts to address it I found to my surprise an approach that *appears* to have checked the passive-use excessive battery draw on my 6s. After device backup to iCloud — and not attached to laptop — Reset All Contents and Settings in iOS (https://www.macobserver.com/news/ba...hone-throttling/?utm_campaign=popular_stories) and when reinstalling settings and content follow Apple’s battery-saving advisories (https://www.apple.com/batteries/maximizing-performance/). Important: Choose Set up as new phone in the reset. The significant setting tweaks to put in place (after reset) seem to be those minimizing use of Background App Refresh and restricting apps that are using Location Services. Also setting Mail to fetch. Some speculate a rogue app or defective iOS update install cause passive battery drain.

It’s early yet but device battery greeted this morning still at 72% after starting anew from 100% about 4pm yesterday following the reset procs, use until bedtime and letting it remain on standby overnight. Caveats: iCloud Photo Library is not yet turned on and because this isn’t strictly a restore from iCloud backup (new iPhone install option is used) there is drudgery putting some settings back in. That said, many personal settings and data are supplied once you log into your Apple account (ID) and as significant third party apps are judiciously reinstalled. I don’t know if you need to be using iCloud for backups for this or if these preferences and data are stored in the Apple account profile. I haven’t yet gotten back old Messages (more research on using an iMazing backup needed here). We will see how it goes today when a GPS fitness tracker is used. Parenthetically, starting from a stripped down place with just the stock iOS apps present after reset is sort of refreshing, like having someone cleaning out the storage room or fridge. I think I’ll be able to get by with less going forward. Whether the absence of the dozens of third party apps really is adding zip to usage, that’s a subjective call. But, maybe. [Full disclosure and mystery: The above was assisted by a very knowledgeable advanced level Apple specialist over four phone conversations spanning hours starting last Thursday ... for an out-of-warranty device.]

12-28-17 Update
Today the 6s resumed its previous battery consumption on the order it was prior to the two resets. In three hours of casual use with all of the energy saving measures recommended by Apple in place (location services off, background app refresh off, iCloud photo sharing off, mail set to fetch per 25 minutes) there was a drain of 33% in three hours from casual Safari browsing and Bluetooth audio to Bose QC35 headphones. If any of the services are turned on and if GPS using apps like Maps or fitness tracker are used the drain should become steeper. Part of the problem here is knowing what is “normal”. Is 9 hours the most one should expect from casual energy-saving use of a 6s with a one year old battery testing at 99% healthy? The next step would be battery replacement but intuitively this is doesn’t grock.

 

[cfu97]

It's just power management. Like Android.

"Battery life is a perennial user concern. To extend battery life, Android continually adds new features and optimizations to help the platform optimize the off-charger behavior of applications and devices."

"In the Nexus reference implementation, the power hint caps [throttles] the maximum frequencies of the CPU and GPU at the highest sustainable levels."

https://source.android.com/devices/tech/power/performance

"To differentiate between active CPU power consumption and supported [ie different/throttled] CPU speeds for clusters, append the cluster number to the name of the array."

Yes but Apple basically force all old iPhone users to be in super energy saving mode all the time not an option in menu. Apple just forces them to get new iPhone.

 

[Baymowe335]

You can't compare Cook to jobs . Different roles. Musk is in fact more jobs than Cook ever will be.

Here is a foot note, Eddy cue could have led Apple to 2X the company value from where jobs left them....would that make eddy a genius.....??? You do realise that that bumbling ..... Steve ballmer set record profits ...... so great we have a Steve ballmer at Apple, careful how that turns out long term...
[doublepost=1514353915][/doublepost]

Spot on. For those who understand that reference .

Your footnote is total conjecture.

Cook and Jobs can be compared because they have both been CEO of Apple. Eddy Cue has not and will not. Ballmer is nothing like Cook.

Cook realized iPhone need to be larger while Jobs stubbornly stuck to small form factor. When Cook took over, he released pent up demand and now ships 3X more iPhones than Jobs ever could.

Remember, Jobs PICKED Cook. Hand picked. He respected him more than almost anyone and probably anyone professionally.

Cook has led a team that now produces the best mobile silicone in the industry, the world’s most popular watch, increased iPhone shipments 3X, increased shareholder value tremendously, and has lit a fire under their new growth engine, services. Apple is now th richest, most profitable company in the world.

These are facts.

My opinion based on the facts is that Cook has done a phenomenal job.

 

[cfu97]

Your footnote is total conjecture.

Cook and Jobs can be compared because they have both been CEO of Apple. Eddy Cue has not and will not. Ballmer is nothing like Cook.

Cook realized iPhone need to be larger while Jobs stubbornly stuck to small form factor. When Cook took over, he released pent up demand and now ships 3X more iPhones than Jobs ever could.

Remember, Jobs PICKED Cook. Hand picked. He respected him more than almost anyone and probably anyone professionally.

Cook has led a team that now produces the best mobile silicone in the industry, the world’s most popular watch, increased iPhone shipments 3X, increased shareholder value tremendously, and has lit a fire under their new growth engine, services. Apple is now th richest, most profitable company in the world.

These are facts.

My opinion based on the facts is that Cook has done a phenomenal job.

Best means nothing when iPhone X and 8 will be old phones in months then Apple will force the cpu to run like half speed.

 

[Baymowe335]

Sculley boosted the company profit and value immensely after Jobs was ousted the first time. Exactly the same way Timmy is doing it. It will end the same way except there won't be a Jobs to save Apple this time. Timmy will retire with $1 billion just as Apple comes crashing down and claim to be the greatest CEO ever.

No one is doing anything close to what Cook is doing.

Again, there are ZERO facts to support and permabear thesis that Apple will come “crashing down” based on current environment. When the facts change, I’ll change but to say Apple is anything but wildly successful is just ignoring reality.

Any company would switch places with Apple’s balance sheet and income statement. Any.

And ALL companies have risks, problems, lawsuits, etc. Apple has terrific management and terrific products that people love.
[doublepost=1514389950][/doublepost]

Then Apple needs to use a battery that can power its phones properly.
[doublepost=1514369685][/doublepost]

So he’s kinda arrogant. Kinda like you come off as

Any CEO is going to have some arrogance to get there. Cook is among the most humble, however. Musk is among the least.

 

[aliensporebomb]

No, Apple is being sued for releasing a software update that secretly throttles the CPU speed of the previous generation phone.

Because the battery is incapable after a time of producing the necessary voltage for the higher clock speeds the phones can utilize when the batteries are fresh/new.

But I think they handled it wrong personally - they've always been reluctant to overcomplicate things and probably felt trying to explain this wouldn't do them any favors. The problem is, it does look like built in obsolesence being added to non-techie types and trying to explain it as batteries go bad after a time won't really work for them.

I've seen people complaining of literally 30 second waits to bring up the camera. I dispute that but if the battery is weakening I guarantee it's not going to be 2 seconds - something has to give when a battery starts to fail.

 

[Phonephreak]

What you think is "full out" may already be capped to some limit by the OS. You would have to put the processor chip on a chip test rig to find out fast it could really run without the OS. Most factory automobile engine controller units also put a cap on the power and speed of your car. Engine hackers know this because they can remove that cap in the ECU, and get even more HP. Maybe you can do the same on a rooted S8 until the

Because the battery is incapable after a time of producing the necessary voltage for the higher clock speeds the phones can utilize when the batteries are fresh/new.

But I think they handled it wrong personally - they've always been reluctant to overcomplicate things and probably felt trying to explain this wouldn't do them any favors. The problem is, it does look like built in obsolesence being added to non-techie types and trying to explain it as batteries go bad after a time won't really work for them.

I've seen people complaining of literally 30 second waits to bring up the camera. I dispute that but if the battery is weakening I guarantee it's not going to be 2 seconds - something has to give when a battery starts to fail.

It seems that most of your posts deal with maybes and possibilities. Apple has definitely slowed the phones down. Definitely done very quietly. Then it came it. Definitely looks shady

yes Apple wallets should give. Give out new batteries. If apples chip requires more power than other chips. They should provide a battery that can properly power the phone.

 

[grkm3]

What you think is "full out" may already be capped to some limit by the OS. You would have to put the processor chip on a chip test rig to find out fast it could really run without the OS. Most factory automobile engine controller units also put a cap on the power and speed of your car. Engine hackers know this because they can remove that cap in the ECU, and get even more HP. Maybe you can do the same on a rooted S8 until the battery overloads?

No we can see clock speeds and performance governors in android.you can also overclock the CPU and GPU and memory controller.

Not talking about thermal governors we are talking an ice cold phone.i can put my cell in the freezer and run geekbench and score the same as 100% or 5% charge and the clocks will stay maxed out.

Apple put a crap battery in the phones and cant hold its c rating and when the CPU demands more load the battery drops volts and causes the phone to shut off.my brothers phone would randomly shut off with 30% battery life

They fixed this by limiting performance and apple got cought.

 

[aliensporebomb]

It would be interesting to have people indicate what their iPhone model is, approximate age and what it benches with Geekbench 4 and if they have records in Geekbench' database as to performance when new.

In my own case, my iPhone 7 Plus is just about 1.4 years old and I'm getting the following:
Single Core: 3496 / Multi-Core: 5913
Geekbench 4.2
IOS 11.2.5 beta

My best performance was under Geekbench 3 when the multicore score was 6012 or something similar with IOS10.1.

I keep seeing posts indicating Apple specced "crap batteries" but honestly the level of performance of the phones is going higher and higher and the batteries are not keeping pace with processor power draw even when things get below 10 nanometer. It's an industry wide problem. Look at Tesla and their car batteries - you always want more range and more power. It will be a while before technical parity between CPU power and battery capability is reached.

 

[Compote]

Guys, do they do this to iPads too ?

 

[deferredAnon]

Because the battery is incapable after a time of producing the necessary voltage for the higher clock speeds the phones can utilize when the batteries are fresh/new.

Batteries don't produce high voltage, they store it. Lame iApology!

Guys, do they do this to iPads too ?

I have seen speed decrease on my iPad mini 2 after the latest iOS update. So, I am guessing it applies to every mobile device from Apple.

 

[mtneer]

Guys, do they do this to iPads too ?

Don't iPads have a more favorable CPU/ battery ratio due to bigger cases/ bigger batteries?

 

[H2SO4]

You may be correct that the battery can’t meet the load. But the issue may not be with the battery, but with Apple’s aggressive chip designs. If Apple has been trying to build laptop grade processors since the A8 or A9, then those might require a laptop sized battery and power subsystem to run full out. Thus these processors have to be “down-clocked” or otherwise power managed to run in anything smaller, such as an iPad or iPhone. What you think is a new full speed 6S, 7,or 8 is really running at a fraction of it’s top speed, e.g. what it could really do with a heat sink, fan, and big laptop sized power source. For anything smaller, processor power management has to reduce the power supply load and heat.

Again. Calling you on ‘laptop grade processors’.
Please cite a non keynote reference for this.

 

[Baymowe335]

Best means nothing when iPhone X and 8 will be old phones in months then Apple will force the cpu to run like half speed.

Batteries don't degrade in a few months and normal people can replace them if they do now that Apple has educated its customers.

I'm glad Apple supports their devices after sale and doesn't allow them to randomly shut down like my Note did for years. Did Samsung tell me a battery replacement was necessary? Did they update the software to fix the issue? No, I got no support.

To say that this happens after months of ownership just proves your fundamental misunderstanding of the facts or your extreme bias toward the Company. Either way, you're just noise.

 

[PaulMarkHeadley]

Sorry. That’s dishonest. My iPhone 6 worked just fine until immediately after the iOS 11 update. I use my phone for my business and if they don’t fix this fast I WILL buy a new phone. I’d rather buy an Android than accept that they turned my perfectly good iPhone 6 into a brick with iOS 11. Have a nice day.

 

[deferredAnon]

I'm glad Apple supports their devices after sale and doesn't allow them to randomly shut down like my Note did for years. Did Samsung tell me a battery replacement was necessary? Did they update the software to fix the issue? No, I got no support.

Yes, we are all glad Apple fixed the issue. I mean, that's what this thread is all about.

Which issue was that exactly? Throttling customer's phone which they specifically purchased for an advertised performance? Or telling them they need to replace battery to sustain performance? Let's all give a round of applause for Apple for being upfront and honest with their customers.

Lame iApology.

 

[PaulMarkHeadley]

Sigh, this is not what people are upset about. It's been explained 100 times in this forum already and I will make it 101.

By not telling anyone they slow the iPhone CPU down because of the battery, users with older phones will likely have seen performance issues in the newer iOS releases thus misleading us that our phones were no longer capable devices and needed to be replaced. Apple was wrong not to explain and provide a popup that the battery was not effective anymore, the solution they put in place was correct.

My iPhone 6 was perfectly fine until immediately after iOS 11 update. So don’t BS me about some fictional shutting down cause battery degraded.
[doublepost=1514392361][/doublepost]

I agree that slowing down is better than shutting down but again, I think a phone this expensive should work at its maximum capacity for at least two years if not more. I can understand that batteries degrade but my iPhone 6S is already halfed in Geekbench after just 13 month and that is way to soon.
My iPhone 6 worked

I am not accusing anyone of fraud or planned obsolescence or anything like that. I am just disappointed in the quality of these devices.

I bought an iPhone X 3 weeks ago for more than 1.000 dollars and now I have to expect it to get slowed down in just one year? A 1.000 Dollar phone (or my 700 6S for that matter)?

My iPhone 6 worked perfectly fine until immediately after the update iOS 11. Sorry. I call BS.

 

[firewood]

They should provide a battery that can properly power the phone.

Yes, an ARM based MacBook with cellular would be great.

 

[deferredAnon]

My iPhone 6 was perfectly fine until immediately after iOS 11 update. So don’t BS me about some fictional shutting down cause battery degraded.

The random shut down only applied to a few iPhones initially, but then, for some very odd reason, Apple decided it was beneficial to apply the 'fix' to every older mobile device, even those not afflicted with random shut downs.