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Apple Being Sued for 'Purposefully Slowing Down Older iPhone Models' [Updated]
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When you say problem are you referring to the issues caused by inevitable battery performance degradation or the “problem” of iPhone performance throttling?
The first option isn't a default because your expectation shouldn't be to replace a Galaxy battery 12 months into ownership. You can update your OS only as often as updates appear. Some months, you cannot get a security patch for said month. You can keep it "clean" with trusted software and manage memory properly, but that still will not get rid of bugs or hardware age. No phone is impervious to software issues and hardware degradation. Hardware issues could exist and be very benign until they appear. I didn't notice issues with my Note 8 in the first few days. It took days to notice issues with contacts, random reboots/crashes, lousy battery life, etc.
Fine, your experience with Samsung is good. Others don't have the same success with them. I am just letting others know to be careful with Samsung because there are reasons why they're flawed as well. Note 8 didn't have fire issues with the battery. That was the Note 7. But be idealistic with Samsung because that won't change my consumer habits with them.
The real problem here is not the software change to lower voltage & clock speed.
The real problem is the inherent design defect in the iPhone 6 itself whereby the CPU requires voltages that an even slightly degraded battery can no longer supply. THIS is the problem Apple should be held accountable for.
My iPhone 6 had this problem from day 1, shutting down in the cold with 80% battery. It no longer shuts down randomly like it did for years, but it is now unusably slow. The phone's design was defective from the day it shipped. Everything after that is merely mitigation of this design defect.
The real problem is the inherent design defect in the iPhone 6 itself whereby the CPU requires voltages that an even slightly degraded battery can no longer supply. THIS is the problem Apple should be held accountable for.
My iPhone 6 had this problem from day 1, shutting down in the cold with 80% battery. It no longer shuts down randomly like it did for years, but it is now unusably slow. The phone's design was defective from the day it shipped. Everything after that is merely mitigation of this design defect.
No, because then Apple would be saying "we still sell old iPhones, forget about our magical new commercials with lovely new iOS goodness, that's not for you we're gonna slow you poor people down".
This is a big part of Apple's problem: they tie new features to OS updates. I understand that some go hand in hand but surely not all. New features are often updates to existing apps, or just new apps; why do they need a new OS to run? Apple uses every opportunity to tell us all that we have to update the OS: they entice us with new features; and they scare us with security threats. They then sell the homogeneity of their platform as a boon to developers, enticing them to commit more to iOS. All of this polishing Apple's turd as a premium device worth paying extra for.
Hiding the throttling feature is exactly the same as VW faking emissions tests - but in reverse. VW sold you a car that was supposedly more clean and frugal than it was, but let it run dirty and thirsty when it detected that it wasn't on a test. Apple sell you on performance but artificially limit that performance when the failure to do so would highlight how crappy their batteries are (and I'm still not convinced that this isn't just an excuse for them simply throttling the phones to sell more phones).
I wonder what likelihood there is for a countersuit by Apple given they are trying to make an older product work and are being harassed for it? Some lawyers could use a good a$$ kicking.
If it was just the battery, then why does my iPhone 6 also run so slow when plugged into power?
Strange the phone only got slow once new phones went on sale!
Strange the phone only got slow once new phones went on sale!
Of course they want you to buy new devices but they don't purposely brick their devices with the sole intention of having people buy new ones, that would be stupid and lead to a revolt, what they do is quite the opposite. They spend a lot of time and bust their humps making devices better and last longer than the normal standards for the industry, that's part of the reason why they hold their value longer than most products in this industry.
The merits of the suit are dubious, but I expect this will go the way of most class actions: the lawyers will get a kajillion dollars, and the members of the class will get a coupon to Taco Bell.
You really are trying to compare a car to a low cost electronic device. Phones are vastly different and slowdowns/depleted batteries are good for Apple’s sales. Have to do something to get users to upgrade frequently.
How is it any different? People don't want a crap product. Breaking something with the sole intention of getting users to upgrade or buy new devices is NOT in Apple's long term interest. That's not why this solution they have is in place.
Ask anyone in the vaping community to explain ohm's law to you. The reason vaporizers explode in people's faces is from overloading a degrading battery. The probably didn't want to get sued for having the same issue the note 7 had so they did this. It is probably not necessary but in this age of everyone suing for any reason companies cover their butts to extreme levels. Look at the disclosure on any medication for an example. Half of them say they can cause death and disfigurement.
The difference between VW and apple, is no amount of different petrol would change the outcome of the test. Apple power management has a specific set of parameters (I'm assuming) whereby it kicks in and is not the same for every iphone and every battery condition.
No, sir. Emissions test, which relates to air quality health is very different than some power management.
“Problem” might have been a bad choice of wording. I was referring to the issue of battery performance seemingly degrading.
Tim Cook and Apple have nothing to worry about since they already have all your money to hire the best attorneys and pay off officials. Truth is they probably won't even need to go to that extent and will get a free pass since AAPL is in everyone's retirement portfolio from the US president on down. Everyone can pretend they're righteous until it hits them in the wallet.
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***IF*** there truly is a design defect, that would also partly explain Apple's reluctance to let users replace the battery even if they are willing to pay. Imagining having to replace a battery a second, or third time in 2 years because the circuitry is just too demanding on the battery. What use is having that massive day 1 performance if the device will become significantly hobbled sometime later? That feels misleading.
I have an iPhone 4 which has never spontaneously shut off. I also have an iPhone 6 on iOS 10.3.3 (28% battery wear) which has shut off twice at 30% in the last 3 months. It doesn't look good.
Got it.
But battery performance is a battery technology issue not an apple issue right?
What if Apple never implemented the throttling solution? Then there would be short battery life + random crash complaints?
I think they went with fixing what they have control over. #SHRUGS
Considering they implemented throttling on the 6s when it was just a little over a year old I'd say not very good. Apple was supporting a product that was still being sold new and many were still under the original warranty or an AppleCare contract. It looks like they were covering up a design flaw that could have been covered by their written policies and required a very expensive repair campaign. The phones wouldn't function as advertised so they cut performance rather than replace the batteries with ones that could produce sufficient voltage. The courts may not hold Apple liable, but it certainly isn't a frivolous claim given Apple's lack of disclosure once it knew the problem existed and implemented their "fix" through a software update.
This is similar to the Corvette Z06 lawsuit that claims Chevrolet is throttling performance of a track-oriented vehicle after as little as 15 minutes of aggressive driving. It can also happen on the street in extremely hot conditions. The cooling system isn't up to snuff and rather than fix it Chevrolet just kills the power so the engine can't generate too much heat.
Some of the phones were bought new this year.
Apple didn't want to tell anyone that it was deliberate throttling due to battery wear because the throttling begins while Apple diagnostics consider the battery "Healthy" and not in need of replacement, and so users would assume as they always have that iOS updates slowed the phone due to higher resource usage.
It's dirty.