Apple Faces Another iPhone Lawsuit Over 'Programmed Obsolescence'

[I7guy]

This endless investigations cost resources, and I'm not talking about money. Have you ever been in an deposition? These things take 10 hour days for each person involved, even weeks to carry out. Rather have engineers work on what's next.

I suppose there isn't much Apple can do with it and get out of it, the question is how will they handle this. I personally don't understand the part about the 6s, since my sons' 6s was on ios 14 and performance was fine. Performance was good since ios 12. The iphone 6 yeah, that was ram gimped with a mixed bad of those who said it was fine, vs those who complained about performance, from what I remember on MacRumors threads then.

 

[Suckfest 9001]

Not talking about money.

Ok? If it’s number of engineers then well they can buy more. It’s always a matter of money

 

[Manzanito]

As an owner of an 6s plus I found nothing wrong with the update. The phone went from turning off at 10% battery to not doing that. Only when the battery was at 2-3% would I notice it was performing worse. And I also got to switch the battery for 29€ at an apple store almost a year after the fuss. I was so glad with my phone that I only changed it recently for a 12 pro.

Apple could have used a little more transparency on the matter though, but then again, that’s not exactly their forte.

 

[I7guy]

As an owner of an 6s plus I found nothing wrong with the update. The phone went from turning off at 10% battery to not doing that. Only when the battery was at 2-3% would I notice it was performing worse. And I also got to switch the battery for 29€ at an apple store almost a year after the fuss. I was so glad with my phone that I only changed it recently for a 12 pro.

Apple could have used a little more transparency on the matter though, but then again, that’s not exactly their forte.

Agree with the bolded as that was my experience before I traded my 6s in and my sons' experience. Maybe this suit will go nowhere, but you never know.

 

[jonnyb098]

Once again I’m in agreement with this investigation. I’m not about to let apple off the hook because a bunch of macrumors posters ran to their defence. I want it investigated and handled properly, guilty or not.

That being said, apple doesn’t add enough features in between major releases to warrant some of those performance drops in my opinion. There’s something going on and I’m glad others are noticing.

All very true and valid points. But considering a lot of people are having performance issues right now on the LATEST devices this goes beyond into the realm of poor QC and even incompetence. Apples launched a public beta program a few years ago and their releases are getting MORE BUGGY.

 

[sracer]

What sucks is, I’ll bet apple never intended for it to be this way. Seems like they were actually trying to prolong the device usage and help folks with old batteries still be able to use the device. Some engineers didn’t think about legal stuff of the court of public opinion. Hope they were fired.

If I were a betting person, I'd take that bet.

If this was all a simple miscommunication on Apple's part, then Apple Genius bars would have been recommending a battery replacement for those slower devices rather than recommend customers buy a new phone.

This keeps getting lost whenever this case gets discussed. This isn't about some slide-rule toting engineers not thinking about the legal stuff or court of public opinion but about Apple's marketing dept and bean-counters leveraging the software behavior with weakened batteries to sell new devices before they were actually needed (by keeping this information from the customer).

 

[live2innovate]

Really, don't add features, just fix bugs.. I can't even count the times that people complain, they didn't change anything. This lawsuit is for people still driving around in their 71 Oldsmobiles

 

[Suckfest 9001]

All very true and valid points. But considering a lot of people are having performance issues right now on the LATEST devices this goes beyond into the realm of poor QC and even incompetence. Apples launched a public beta program a few years ago and their releases are getting MORE BUGGY.

I agree. In my opinion Apple’s software department is struggling and badly. I’ve never had this many day to day bugs since iOS 7. Speed wise I think iOS 14 is fine but stability is a bit of a joke (for me) currently. But again I’m keeping my mind open to the results of this investigation which is a skill sorely underrepresented around these parts

 

[technole]

Considering iOS 12 actually introduced speed enhancements for older devices such as 6S, they won't have much of a leg to stand on. Now they can't keep dragging old models through the mud forever.

Even my iPad mini 3 chugs along on iOS 12, not as super fast but certainly usable. I just know I should expect it that way since it still has the iPad mini 2 guts.

 

[I7guy]

All very true and valid points. But considering a lot of people are having performance issues right now on the LATEST devices this goes beyond into the realm of poor QC and even incompetence. Apples launched a public beta program a few years ago and their releases are getting MORE BUGGY.

I honestly don't agree with what this definition of performance is. While one can classify "stuttering" as performance in perhaps the broadest sense, it doesn't impact how fast things get done.

My son has an iphone 12 and that phone is faster than my xs max, and it doesn't have any performance issues at all.

 

[jonnyb098]

I agree. In my opinion Apple’s software department is struggling and badly. I’ve never had this many day to day bugs since iOS 7. Speed wise I think iOS 14 is fine but stability is a bit of a joke (for me) currently. But again I’m keeping my mind open to the results of this investigation which is a skill sorely underrepresented around these parts

Yeah iOS 13 and 14 have been particularly painful. Last year they had to do a Friday release patch to fix a massive RAM leak in safari where pages constantly reloaded if you left the app and reopened it. Homepods got bricked. This year is just loads of performance issues with ios14 on top of the people who have that yellow and green tint issues. Supposedly a lot of this is fixed in 14.5 coming soon but it just proves how software can really gimp a device.

Hell even my Apple Watch since the latest update to watch OS 7 has terrible lag and stuttering. This is not the polish apple is know for. Sad but all of us want an expect better, and know apple can do better if they re-focus.

 

[GizmoDVD]

New features should only be available for the brand new phone. I like that model!

 

[Bustermd]

Planned Obsolescence is a term that's thrown around a lot and no one ever backs it up with a logical argument.

So, I'll put in on you: what is a reasonable length of time for a computer or smartphone to be in service? At what point is it not "Planned Obsolescence" and just "old and obsolete." Most IT people that I've spoken to expect the lifespan of a Windows PC to be 3-5 years, as a baseline starting point.

The iPhone 6 is now 6.5 years old. Is it reasonable for people to expect devices that old to work exactly the same as they did when they were new, especially with newer OSes designed for more powerful devices? A car doesn't run the same after 6.5 years. My couch which has no moving parts doesn't feel the same after 6.5 years. Yet Apple users complain vehemently about devices that are from 2015 or earlier.

 

[jonnyb098]

I honestly don't agree with what this definition of performance is. While one can classify "stuttering" as performance in perhaps the broadest sense, it doesn't impact how fast things get done.

My son has an iphone 12 and that phone is faster than my xs max, and it doesn't have any performance issues at all.

kinda think you are missing the overall point....

Considering Apple is known as a premium brand/product line, if people experience issues there’s nothing wrong with holding them accountable. When people stop doing that then in the long run everyone will suffer.

Pick your favorite car brand for example. Let’s say you buy a new Maserati and the steering wheel shakes. Sure that doesn’t really impact the performance of getting you from A to B, but you spent a lot of money on a product you expect drive a lot more smoothly.

 

[az431]

Bwahaha Apple is being bombarded from all sides, every day a new hit.
Like! +1

Yeah sure I know, ALL baseless... good Apple, they just want the best for us!

I wonder how long it will take for them to realize that it's all intelligently planned and lovely interlocked.
The AppStore + sideload prohibition + reduced performance + healthcare, car, home automation, etc. all carefully tied together, till there is no easy way out.

There’s an easy way out. Switch to android.

 

[technole]

Yeah iOS 13 and 14 have been particularly painful. Last year they had to do a Friday release patch to fix a massive RAM leak in safari where pages constantly reloaded if you left the app and reopened it. Homepods got bricked. This year is just loads of performance issues with ios14 on top of the people who have that yellow and green tint issues. Supposedly a lot of this is fixed in 14.5 coming soon but it just proves how software can really gimp a device.

Hell even my Apple Watch since the latest update to watch OS 7 has terrible lag and stuttering. This is not the polish apple is know for. Sad but all of us want an expect better, and know apple can do better if they re-focus.

iOS 13 was a bug crushing fest last year, way more updates than usual for a cycle but it was also covid and they pivoted to add that tracking feature and bugs came with it too.

 

[farewelwilliams]

Ok? If it’s number of engineers then well they can buy more. It’s always a matter of money

No.

Apple can't just buy engineers off the shelf. Many talented engineers simply don't want to work at Apple. And hiring B players for your team just gets in the way.

Go check Apple's job listings and you can see hundreds of software engineer listings several months old.

 

[Suckfest 9001]

Yeah iOS 13 and 14 have been particularly painful. Last year they had to do a Friday release patch to fix a massive RAM leak in safari where pages constantly reloaded if you left the app and reopened it. Homepods got bricked. This year is just loads of performance issues with ios14 on top of the people who have that yellow and green tint issues. Supposedly a lot of this is fixed in 14.5 coming soon but it just proves how software can really gimp a device.

Hell even my Apple Watch since the latest update to watch OS 7 has terrible lag and stuttering. This is not the polish apple is know for. Sad but all of us want an expect better, and know apple can do better if they re-focus.

Yup right now the most annoying bug is that I had a favourite mailbox before (for which you can specify separate notification settings).

I have
- stopped the notifications (turned OFF)
- unfavourited the mailbox
- made sure that Favorite Mailboxes isn’t a thing anymore in settings (because I have none at this point)

And yet I still get notifications for it. It just works.

 

[az431]

kinda think you are missing the overall point....

Considering Apple is known as a premium brand/product line, if people experience issues there’s nothing wrong with holding them accountable. When people stop doing that then in the long run everyone will suffer.

Pick your favorite car brand for example. Let’s say you buy a new Maserati and the steering wheel shakes. Sure that doesn’t really impact the performance of getting you from A to B, but you spent a lot of money on a product you expect drive a lot more smoothly.

Seems like you’re missing the point. No one expects a 7 year old Maserati to drive exactly the same as it did the day it was new.

 

[Suckfest 9001]

No.

Apple can't just buy engineers off the shelf. Many talented engineers simply don't want to work at Apple. And hiring B players for your team just gets in the way.

Go check Apple's job listings and you can see hundreds of software engineer listings several months to a year old.

That sounds like apples problem

 

[az431]

Ok? If it’s number of engineers then well they can buy more. It’s always a matter of money

Wow that simple? Why hasn’t Apple thought of that?

 

[Suckfest 9001]

Wow that simple? Why hasn’t Apple thought of that?

Like what are you apples brother in law? They’re a corporation being challenged on something as is utterly boringly normal practice for any corporation of this size. They’ll be fine I promise.

 

[I7guy]

kinda think you are missing the overall point....

Considering Apple is known as a premium brand/product line, if people experience issues there’s nothing wrong with holding them accountable. When people stop doing that then in the long run everyone will suffer.

Pick your favorite car brand for example. Let’s say you buy a new Maserati and the steering wheel shakes. Sure that doesn’t really impact the performance of getting you from A to B, but you spent a lot of money on a product you expect drive a lot more smoothly.

I didn't miss the point and didn't say bugs shouldn't be fixed as it relates to the comments of the iphone 12. These are generic comments that accrue from every iphone release. And at the end of the cycle all of the various nuances (at least for the most part) tend to be ironed out.

I don't agree with the premise of the lawsuit and hope it falls flat. But that is the legal systems' call, I'm just an observer.

In your example, are you going to sue the manufacturer (Maserati) because the steering wheel shakes, or are you going to bring it in for service....lemon laws not withstanding.

 

[farewelwilliams]

That sounds like apples problem

In which you, as the user, suffers because those engineers took time away from implementing features to help with the investigation. Not to mention if Apple could add more engineers, that would blow up the budget and either cut features from next year's release or raise prices, essentially passing the cost onto you.

Congrats, that investigation earned you a $20 check settlement in which that will help you pay for next year's $100 more expensive iPhones that don't have that rumored feature you were looking for.

 

[Xxdonovanxx2021]

I have an iphone 6 and it is suffering badly not damaged or anything, it's just feeling like the A8 chip is more a nothing and it causing my battery to constantly drain cause of performance turbo