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Apple Being Sued for 'Purposefully Slowing Down Older iPhone Models' [Updated]
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Or they give repair shops the oppertunity to buy original batteries at Apple, so it's easier for people to have the iPhone battery replaced (at low costs).
I really wish Apple would have given a notice on your phone when it's time to replace the battery, then warning you they will slow down the processor in order to save battery time... People would understand it.
Same here. I regret installing it on my wife’s phone. iOS 11 is great on my 2017 ipad. I seriously hope Apple loses this one or at least gives us a toggle switch to go back to full speed.
For me, it's all about trust.
There's a perfectly valid reason for this throttling, and a somewhat insidious one. Do we trust that Apple did it solely for the "good" reason?
I don't. I don't trust anyone that changes an item after purchase, without informing the buyer. That's a PERFECTLY good reason not to trust Apple, and not to give them the benefit of the doubt. I hope this costs Apple (in terms of money and/or reputation) big-time. Will teach them to be more honest in their dealings in future.
There's a perfectly valid reason for this throttling, and a somewhat insidious one. Do we trust that Apple did it solely for the "good" reason?
I don't. I don't trust anyone that changes an item after purchase, without informing the buyer. That's a PERFECTLY good reason not to trust Apple, and not to give them the benefit of the doubt. I hope this costs Apple (in terms of money and/or reputation) big-time. Will teach them to be more honest in their dealings in future.
And at the same time, they should push the boundaries and give us the most powerful phone on the market, with the brightest screen, and the fastest antennaes. And then should should give us all back massages.
If you can afford a $800 phone, you can afford a $25 replacement battery a couple years later.
which is a freaking joke that your phone is being throttled with a battery that's still at 85% cause every apple store will send you back home and not replace that battery cause it's still "good". i don't mind if they do throttle phones with a battery that's below 50% health but not with 85....
I am not sure why your comment has 43 upvotes (maybe they want removable batteries or maybe they misunderstood your point?), but to my knowledge, higher charging cycle count isn't an indicator of better battery quality. It just means that the Apple Watch battery is designed to be charged at a lower voltage, which is enough to power the watch but likely insufficient to run an iPhone properly.
Simply put, if I took an Apple Watch battery, expanded it to the size of the iPhone battery and wanted the same 1000-cycle, it would have to charge way slower, and only up to 85-90% max capacity. It really makes no difference in the long run.
I'm sorry but things are not as simple.
1. Apple will not replace the battery even if we're willing to pay them!!!!
2. Couple of years???? Better make it 9-14 months.
3. We didn't know that our batteries were the culprit for our slow phones! How were we supposed to know?
You speak words of wisdom my friend, thank you for this.
I maintain my opinion that Apple is rushing through releases, adding more features without thinking things through. This is perhaps leading to unoptmized code that requires massive battery usage bursts. Rather than optimize it, but a bandaid on it and put yet another code to slow down older phones so that they don't shut down. Whichever way you slice it, bad software!
No. This is so wrong.
The voltage supplied to the chips on the logic boards is regulated by VRMs not the Electrochemical cell.
If they are indeed throttling phones with 85% battery life then the actual usable life span is only 15% (throttled phone doesn’t meet the specks of the original phone). This means the iPhone design itself is inherently faulty. How long does it take the battery to degrade to 85% condition? Less than a year? I had a battery replacement with my iPhone 6 Plus within 18 months of its purchase due to it going bellow 50% so I wouldn’t be surprised if it takes less than a year to go bellow 85%.
I think we just missed this slide:
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A pretty bad fix which slows down the iPhone after just one year? They knew that either the battery is too powerless or that the processor demands too much power or both. Random shutdowns happen on Android phones too, but generally much much later (2-3 yrs), without the need of slowing the processor down and compromising user experience. If they didn't implement their "fix" and all the iPhones started to shutdown after a year, you'd know that something isn't quite right...
The engineering point in this is that a battery's charge capacity is measured at a certain constant discharge rate.
A "good" battery (with low ESR) has a capacity that is independent of discharge rate (in C). Bad batteries do not:
Capacity vs discharge rate
So although the capacity may still be 85% - if this is at a reduced discharge rate by a software-limited CPU speed then then is not a fair reporting of the battery capacity. But I'm sure Apple support will just lie to their customers (see Retina Image Retention, Screen coating issues, nVidia soldering issues, MacBook Batteries)
Edit: clarification
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Well, I did an analysis a few pages back listing out the various options available to Apple, and why I felt the software patch was ultimately the most effective and pragmatic.
Apple Being Sued for 'Purposefully Slowing Down Older iPhone Models'
Do let me know your thoughts on this.
Sell me an authentic OEM battery and I will!
Oh no... Not possible to buy that anywhere. I can't even get a battery replaced at a Apple Store if I want to, because even at 20% wear level it still passes the Apple Store's diagnostic, and so Apple literally refuses to replace the battery - even if I want to pay for it, I won't be able to! WTF? SELL ME A OEM BATTERY OR LET ME REPLACE MY BATTERY AT MY OWN WILL!!!
This practice is RIDICOLOUS!
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.
Article Link: Apple Being Sued for 'Purposefully Slowing Down Older iPhone Models'
my replacement iphone 6 battery went down to 67% in just 1 year.... no warranty left of course.
yeah ifixit batteries are good. it's not like apple batteries are somehow magical or better than other batteries... obviously. they buy them from a big battery manufacturer like others do.
Try ifixit...https://www.ifixit.com/Store/iPhone
I got my replacement battery for my iPhone 7 plus from them and its pretty good. Can hardly tell if there is any diference from the OEM battey. I just hope Apple doesn't mess it up.
I'm not sure which post of yours you're referring to. I'm assuming you mean your analysis of battery quality.
Even if Apple is using the best batteries in the market one can buy then something isn't quite right with their processors. Yes, they are powerful and great, but if current-gen batteries aren't able to power it after just a year (!) of normal usage, then they should do something about it. In other flagship phones you can't see such a behavior or necessity to throttle down the processor so the phone doesn't unexpectedly shut down. I didnt pay 900€ for my iPhone 7 so that it will soon start to become as "slow" as an iPhone 6S or even an iPhone 6. This is an issue that Apple needs to fix, other than slowing down iPhones so that they are still operational.
--- Found your analysis.
Your analysis seems to be correct and I agree with you. What I can't understand though... It started with the iPhone 6, they knew about this problem and continued (!) to make iPhones which can only run at full speed for about a year. Other flagship phones don't need to throttle after a year (although they need to be charged more often, what is perfectly normal). I can and do understand that they throttled the iPhone 6, but ignoring this hardware problem in the iPhone 6s, 7 and possibly 8 and X and slowing these down after one year seems to be a very outrageous strategy which I do not support.
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