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

[Nuvi]

... and if your phone shut down periodically you would be complaning about that. What Apple is doing is smart. Where they failed is being transparaent.

Apple should have prompt in iOS informing the user about diminished battery performance and instructions where battery can be replaced. If battery is not replaced within x amount of time there should be another prompt about performance loss and suggestion to replace the battery. This would be great feature which would allow the users to maintain their device and transparent way for Apple to tell what’s going on with the device.
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Screw you Apple! I was experiencing slow apps for a few weeks now and blamed them to the app developers, doing app restarts and iPhone restarts to fix it. It never came to my mind that Apple would slow down my iPhone!

How can I find out if my iPhone is affected by a "degraded" battery?

With Geekbench. Get it from App Store.

 

[manu chao]

Nobody knows who you are, yet major publications has run tests that clearly shows that devices ARE IN FACT being performance throttled. .

a) Do we know that old devices are throttled all the time or only when their battery charge level drops below a certain point (eg, 50%) and whether that throttling is progressive or not (eg, by 10% as charge level is >50%, 20% as charge level is >30%)?
b) Do we know how throttling the peak performance by, eg, 15% actually affects real-life performance (not just benchmarks) and how such throttling affects perceived performance for a range of tasks?

We do have systematic evidence from benchmarks and we have anecdotal evidence on real-life and perceived performance, but we do not know whether they actually refer to the same underlying phenomenon.

 

[Nuvi]

So when you buy a shoe with “shoelaces”! Will you complain that they are broken after 3 years of use? Or you go to store and buy replacement? They will loose, because Apple offers battery replacement. But hey Americans are ignorant !

The problem here is that Apple is not informing users about poor battery condition. This would be awesome feature which I would welcome with open arms.

 

[BruceEBonus]

And STILL their shares continue to rise despite this revelation.

That's brand 'loyalty' for you.

 

[lwells1441]

You are comparing Apple's to oranges. it's not how technology works. You want to compare phones to cars and pacemakers and every thing else...but a smartphone. That's because the other smartphone manufacturers haven't figured out a better way to handle this issue either.

No. I am not. All three of these applications use lithium ion cells (Medtronic, Tesla, Apple). These are direct comparisons.

And I happen to like Apple's solution of throttling degrading cells. I just happen to know enough about lithium ion chemistry that I also know there are cell design solutions that should be implemented as well.

 

[H2SO4]

Then don't install updates, you dum dum.

So what happens if my iOS10 phone has a problem and I need to restore it? Guess what iTunes will not sign it and ONLY iOS11 is available. I would therefore be forced to upgrade.
Think before you post man, think. Avoids people looking foolish.

 

[dialogos]

Then don't install updates, you dum dum.

Apple forces users to update and punishes them by revoking their "right" to revert back to a previous iOS. You do realize that it's almost impossible not to install iOS updates? I remember sometime when I accidentally installed the new iOS by clicking "later" which meant "install later" or some similar misleading message.

Try to use the iWork suite with an old iOS version and an updated macOS.

On top of that why won't they give security updates to a previous iOS version? They do it for their "Computers" right?

Or just try to restore your iphone with iTunes and see what happens ....

 

[sofila]

Well, I suppose that if one has already written Apple off as guilty, everything they do (or don't do) will paint them in the worst possible light in that party's eyes.

Well, I suppose that if one has already written Apple off as innocent, everything they do (or don't do) will paint them in the best possible light in that party's eyes.

 

[RecentlyConverted]

Ignorance of the law is no excuse.

The majority of people blindly agree to the terms. If Apple didn't provide the terms before asking for the consent, things would be different.

People blindly agree for a number of reasons.

- Where I am there are no Apple stores, independent retailers won’t accept returns on opened Apple products, so if you opened the iPhone box turned on and disagreed with the displayed T&Cs you would end up with an expensive device you can’t use or return.

- In most countries many consumers are comfortable with T&Cs knowing that companies can not enforce anything that is not legally enforceable and that T&Cs can be challenged in court.

- That many countries have strict consumer protection laws in place.

 

[smacrumon]

Simple. dont upgrade the software.

Of course Apple could implement a "Turn of battery management" switch, then all the complainers can complain their iphones shut down instead.

Not simple. The software keeps nagging users to upgrade.

 

[tooltalk]

I pray this makes them change future iPhone design to user-replaceable batteries.

Unless u want to see a proliferation of fake batteries blowing up iphones, this is probably not advisable.

 

[lwells1441]

"Brand new batteries would not be affected, but as most phone batteries run through charge cycles they get less effective (this is a well-known byproduct of lithium-ion technology and one reason everyone wants to get rid of it as soon as someone figures out something better)

No. It's not. Degradation is not a function of cycles at all. Lithium Ion degrades because of parasitic reactions on the electrode surfaces. This is a function of time and temperature spent in damaging potential windows.

As such, you can design cells to be used to minimize time spent in these damaging potential windows. However, mobile electronics doesn't avoid this because you can squeeze out an extra +10% of energy out by charging to higher voltages. They sacrifice reliability for energy density.

The problem isn't lithium ion, it's how lithium ion cells are designed for these applications.

PSA:

Since people suddenly care about lithium ion aging, i highly recommend you watch this talk by Jeff Dahn. It's one of the best talks I've seen on this topic.

 

[himanshumodi]

My iphone 6 was probably one of the worst ownership experiences I had with any iphone model. A fully charged phone would go to less than 30% in an our and then after I plugged it in it would jump to 80%. Ridiculous. Right now my Series 2 watch is significantly slower than when I first purchased it. It makes me really hesitant to install updates going forward. I used to install them as soon as they released.

That's exactly what had happened with my 6. And they wouldn't even let me replace the battery - I was willing to pay for it - because it passed their diagnostics.

 

[iLLUMI]

... and if your phone shut down periodically you would be complaning about that. What Apple is doing is smart. Where they failed is being transparaent.

The truly smart thing for Apple to do is to allow batteries to be replaced. Then no ones phone would shut down periodically. No ones phones would slow down. No one would have to suffer with slow or laggy phones.

Apple aren't being smart, they're being deceitful.

 

[laz232]

Maybe this will spur innovation from other companies, possibly even startups, and it should. Here’s hoping.

The real innovation would be companies being honest and doing what's right. As a iPhone SE holder that has gradually found his phone getting laggy, I put it down to imagination, but now I measured it using GB4 - with a result of 1100 single-core compared to 2400 for a new unit. Whereas the battery is still at 85%...

PS this appears to be Apple shirking their responsibility by delivering poor quality batteries and covering it up with a software hack ( am an IEEE Senior Member, so have some idea of the HW issues regarding power management)

 

[votdfak]

They should be grilled for this ****. I hope they'll be. How about letting iOS users know battery capacity and number of cycles, like we have on macos, and without 3rd party apps. When my MBA/MPB hits over 1000 cycles I know that my battery is ****ed. We should and must know the same thing on iOS devices.

 

[lwells1441]

PS this appears to be Apple shirking their responsibility by delivering poor quality batteries and covering it up with a software hack

^THIS.

Apple has a history of changing battery suppliers frequently. I have to imagine they need to because of the sheer volume they work in. However I think variability in how cell impedance growth develops with aging is forcing them into a 'software band-aid' corner.

It's time for Apple to grab battery manufacturing by the neck and start attacking part of the root of this issue.

 

[Ori]

15 seconds to open the camera. Utter crap. SLOWER than a 10 year old NOKIA

Change your battery.

 

[brice_]

Simple. dont upgrade the software.

Of course Apple could implement a "Turn of battery management" switch, then all the complainers can complain their iphones shut down instead.

"Simple" ? Or don't get security updates or miss interesting features, you shouldn't expect an upgrade to be that slow. No the real problem is the unexpected shutdown not the slowdown. My iPhone 6 is slower than my iPhone 4.

My battery is in a good shape, 785 cycles, around 85% of the original capacity, yet I'm experiencing major slowdown when switching apps and in some other conditions, so I'm seeing them quite often at any charge level.
And I'm still seeing unexpected shutdowns.

The problem is not the aging of the battery, that's normal thing. My iPhone 4 battery is old and need to be charged often, but the iPhone 4 was never slowed down and it never have unexpected shutdowns.

 

[honglong1976]

Samsung and LG and other smartphone manufacturers do it.

Great! do you have any information or websites showing this? I will take a look!

 

[dialogos]

Change your battery.

Until a few days ago how were we supposed to know that our phones got so slow because of an aging battery?? Until last week everybody assumed it was a more demanding iOS slowing down our phones. That was also what apple genius would officially told us.

 

[xflashx]

I don't get why people want to get notified about the battery, because a defective battery which can't supply enough power to the processor shouldnt even occur after just a year. 2-3 years should be normal, if the phone then just shut down randomly you would know your battery is dead.

I really wonder why after Apple knew about that problem they continued to slow down the iPhones instead of fixing this hardware problem.

And this continuation is what upsets me about Apple. If they really cared about their customers, they would've fixed it in the first place.

And the people defending Apple here are just unbelievable. I know a lot of people who worked really hard so they can afford an iphone, just to get a slowed down iPhone after just one year.

 

[Abazigal]

The truly smart thing for Apple to do is to allow batteries to be replaced. Then no ones phone would shut down periodically. No ones phones would slow down. No one would have to suffer with slow or laggy phones.

Apple aren't being smart, they're being deceitful.

It would solve the problem for users who bring in their phones to be serviced. It does nothing for those who are not in a position to get their batteries replaced, or aren't willing to pay to have a 3rd party do it.

 

[bmot]

Apple, one of the richest companies in the world should be able to keep a good performing experience on all their devices in all iterations of the supported OS. Any excuse here is just the result of corporate greed.

 

[Abazigal]

I really wonder why after Apple knew about that problem they continued to slow down the iPhones instead of fixing this hardware problem.

Apple is possibly solving the issue. It just won't be ready until 2019.

https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/30/16719724/apple-power-management-chips-dialog-semiconductor

And this continuation is what upsets me about Apple. If they really cared about their customers, they would've fixed it in the first place.

The software patch was the fix.

And the people defending Apple here are just unbelievable. I know a lot of people who worked really hard so they can afford an iphone, just to get a slowed down iPhone after just one year.

And I have an iPhone too. Personal emotions should have no influence on what ought to be an objective and open discussion based on facts and logic.