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Apple Reaches Settlement to Pay $15 to Some iPhone 4S Owners Who Experienced Buggy Performance After iOS 9 Update

I had a launch-day iPhone 4S...

Then I had a launch-day iPhone 5.

My iPhone 4S was long since retired by the time iOS 9 came around. Geez. I keep my phones longer these days, but back then there were much more significant changes from generation to generation.
 
iPhone 4S on iOS 6
 

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MacRumors said:


Apple has agreed to settle a long-lasting six-year class-action lawsuit that accused it of knowingly slowing down iPhone 4S devices following the iOS 9 update in 2015, agreeing to pay some iPhone 4S owners who had experienced poor performance $15 each for their claims.

iphone-4s.jpg

The class-action lawsuit was initially filed in December 2015 by plaintiffs representing a group of iPhone 4S customers from New York and New Jersey. The lawsuit accused Apple of falsely marketing the iOS 9 update as providing enchanted performance on devices it supports, including the iPhone 4S.
Apple marketed iOS 9 with the tagline "The most advanced mobile experience. Now even more so." The update included proactive Siri Suggestions, Slide Over, Split View, Picture in Picture on iPad, etc. On the iPhone, Apple promised "under-the-hood refinements [that] bring you more responsive performance." The class-action lawsuit argues that the claim was false marketing for the iPhone 4S, the oldest iPhone iOS 9 supported.

ios-9-performance-claims.jpeg

Apple claiming iOS 9 offers faster performance for supported devices, including the iPhone 4S​

Under the settlement, Apple allocated $20 million to compensate iPhone 4S owners in New York and New Jersey who experienced poor performance after updating to iOS 9. Customers who believe they are entitled to the $15 must "submit a declaration under the penalty of perjury that, to the best of their knowledge, they downloaded iOS 9, or any version thereof, onto their iPhone 4S... their iPhone 4S experienced a significant decline in performance as a result, are entitled to a payment of $15 per applicable device."

A website will be created where customers who believe they are entitled to the settlement will be able to submit a form, providing their name, email, iPhone 4S serial number (if possible), and mailing address. See the full motion here.

Article Link: Apple Reaches Settlement to Pay $15 to Some iPhone 4S Owners Who Experienced Buggy Performance After iOS 9 Update
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Heh, APPLE: howzabout we get you a couple of beers and you forgetaboutit?
 
webkit said:
This is not so much about the $15 each person gets but rather the $20 million "penalty" Apple has to pay out in hopes that it will deter them (although for a company the size of Apple, $20 million probably isn't much of a deterrent) from trying to do something similar again in the future.
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Wrong. It’s about the 8-10 million of those that go into the lawyers’ pockets. That’s the only reason these lawsuits happen.

If this had been the EU, the customers would get zero, and Apple would be fined 200 million. Which might actually have an effect*. The only constant is the lawyers would still be rich.

*I’m talking principles here, since I personally actually don’t think Apple was in the wrong.
 
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BootsWalking said:
iPhone 4? That was 12 years ago. I think I'll file a lawsuit for my Apple Lisa. I think one of the floppies was dirty.
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1) Do u think the lawsuit started TODAY and it was won TODAY?
2) Yes, if your lisa get an update, today, that it will brick it, i'm sure you can file a lawsuit
 
Errr.... I suspect I might be in a minority here, but I'm still using my 4S! I've changed the battery and the rear glass panel, it runs OS9.3.6, takes photos, makes calls, Messages works, I can play solitaire, do conversions, check web pages.... what's not to like?

So... how do I claim my $15? :)
 
At least in the meantime the 4S became jailbreakable and thus downgradable (I think).
 
quatermass said:
Errr.... I suspect I might be in a minority here, but I'm still using my 4S! I've changed the battery and the rear glass panel, it runs OS9.3.6, takes photos, makes calls, Messages works, I can play solitaire, do conversions, check web pages.... what's not to like?

So... how do I claim my $15? :)
Click to expand...
You would have had to sign on to the class action some time ago. No surprise that your 4s is still working. I never got to keep my old iPhones. I have lots of "cheap" relatives. ;)
 
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usagora said:
You can easily find the info online, but it was to prevent iPhones with older batteries from experiencing shutdowns from overloading. If you didn't like it, the option was always there to upgrade to a newer iPhone and keep up with the times. Or of course the other option was to act entitled and petty and seek a class-action lawsuit.
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So what did prohibit Apple from developing a version that did just that without slowing down the phones? Oh right, money. It’d take time and money to develop a suitable update that won’t render peoples phones almost unbearable to use. Of course Apple has other priorities.
Calling people entitled about this matter is a reach and you should know that.
No one should have to have his costly tool stripped of usability by a basically forced OS update.
Saying those people should just buy a new phone, that is entitled. Did it ever cross your mind that not everyone can or wants to afford to just buy a new iPhone because Apple knowingly screwed up their otherwise working old one with just one update?
In your comment you are legitimatising planed obsolescence and talking in favour for it. That is being entitled.
Also, if you have forgotten, they have (been found to be) lying about the performance. They practically tricked people to update their phones and make them slower, and you are actually trying to excuse that.
 
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BittenAnkles said:
The slowdown was a byproduct of a more advanced operating system with more advanced features that wasn't optimized for the hardware of the 4S. So yeah, old devices are subject to limitations as technology progresses. The alternative is to not service those phones, but then everyone would complain about that. I'd rather have a "slow" phone that has the latest updates (security, features, etc.) than be left behind completely after a couple years. I say this as someone with an almost 5-year old iPhone 8 running the latest and greatest iOS 15 release. Is my phone slower than it used to be. Yes! But I don't see how I'm injured in this scenario. It's unreasonable to expect a phone to be continually supported with updates and also never see any performance loss as new features and technologies are added.
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It’s a different story though when you’re constantly “reminded” by your phone to update and you can’t make it stop, also, again, Apple actually, undoubtedly, lied. They lied about the performance and that’s what got them sacked.
There’s no defending that.
 
usagora said:
slowed down / throttled ≠ bricked

In fact, the whole point of the throttling was to AVOID the phone becoming unusable do to power draw spikes.
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So in my specific case when I “upgraded” my 4s from iOS7 to iOS8 Safari became unusable. It took ten seconds after typing in a search term for the text to appear in the field. I don’t mean the actual search. I mean just for the letters I was typing in to appear. Would you have been OK with that level of performance?
 
mikethemartian said:
So in my specific case when I “upgraded” my 4s from iOS7 to iOS8 Safari became unusable. It took ten seconds after typing in a search term for the text to appear in the field. I don’t mean the actual search. I mean just for the letters I was typing in to appear. Would you have been OK with that level of performance?
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That’s hardly normal though. I have an iPhone 4S in my hand that’s running iOS 9 and it’s still perfectly useable, even today.
 
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Reggaenald said:
So what did prohibit Apple from developing a version that did just that without slowing down the phones? Oh right, money. It’d take time and money to develop a suitable update that won’t render peoples phones almost unbearable to use. Of course Apple has other priorities.
Calling people entitled about this matter is a reach and you should know that.
No one should have to have his costly tool stripped of usability by a basically forced OS update.
Saying those people should just buy a new phone, that is entitled. Did it ever cross your mind that not everyone can or wants to afford to just buy a new iPhone because Apple knowingly screwed up their otherwise working old one with just one update?
In your comment you are legitimatising planed obsolescence and talking in favour for it. That is being entitled.
Also, if you have forgotten, they have (been found to be) lying about the performance. They practically tricked people to update their phones and make them slower, and you are actually trying to excuse that.
Click to expand...
Its worse than planned obsolescence. Planned obsolescence is just not having the newest features. In this case it is actually crippling a device that already worked fine. Apple could have fixed the issue making the legal case null and void but they probably figured it would be easier to not fix it and just pay the legal costs.
 
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Reggaenald said:
So what did prohibit Apple from developing a version that did just that without slowing down the phones? Oh right, money. It’d take time and money to develop a suitable update that won’t render peoples phones almost unbearable to use. Of course Apple has other priorities.
Calling people entitled about this matter is a reach and you should know that.
No one should have to have his costly tool stripped of usability by a basically forced OS update.
Saying those people should just buy a new phone, that is entitled. Did it ever cross your mind that not everyone can or wants to afford to just buy a new iPhone because Apple knowingly screwed up their otherwise working old one with just one update?
In your comment you are legitimatising planed obsolescence and talking in favour for it. That is being entitled.
Also, if you have forgotten, they have (been found to be) lying about the performance. They practically tricked people to update their phones and make them slower, and you are actually trying to excuse that.
Click to expand...

Technology marches rapidly on. Poor people aren't buying iPhones - they're a luxury item. If you can't afford to replace an older iPhone when it becomes unable to keep up with newer iOS versions to your satisfaction, then you should find another smart phone option or just go with a non-smart phone. That isn't "entitlement" for me to have this perspective - I'm clearly not saying Apple owes me anything (which would be what entitlement is in this case). I don't buy technology assuming it will be future proof for years. I either live with not having cutting-edge performance after a while or decide to upgrade.
 
headlessmike said:
That’s hardly normal though. I have an iPhone 4S in my hand that’s running iOS 9 and it’s still perfectly useable, even today.
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I still have my 4S that I just use as a bedtime alarm which it is fine for but if I just try to open Safari it crashes the phone with whatever the latest version of iOS they released for it. Neither you or I know how typical my experience was at all because that information isn’t made publicly available by Apple. But at least hearing about this case, albeit it involved iOS9 and not iOS8, at least shows me I wasn’t some isolated case and there was enough knowledge of the issue for Apple to have acknowledged it.
 
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usagora said:
Technology marches rapidly on. Poor people aren't buying iPhones - they're a luxury item. If you can't afford to replace an older iPhone when it becomes unable to keep up with newer iOS versions to your satisfaction, then you should find another smart phone option or just go with a non-smart phone. That isn't "entitlement" for me to have this perspective - I'm clearly not saying Apple owes me anything (which would be what entitlement is in this case). I don't buy technology assuming it will be future proof for years. I either live with not having cutting-edge performance after a while or decide to upgrade.
Click to expand...
They sell iPhones at Walmart. They aren’t a luxury item. As nice as they are they are just massed produced consumer devices.
 
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mikethemartian said:
They sell iPhones at Walmart. They aren’t a luxury item.
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Um, that's not what defines a luxury item. They also sell 75" screen TVs at WalMart and the latest gaming systems. These are not things that people who are struggling are going out and buying - because they're luxury items.
 
I was looking at my 4s the other day. Found it in box.

I think I have said this before.

Part of me would love to have a 4/4s sized device. Running maybe a version of watchOS and a watch chipset.

Basically a feature phone.

Phone, iMessage, Music, podcast, maps, limited browser and an okay camera... a very limited device.

Have synced to my regular iPhone so calls and iMessage go to both devices. Or it can be setup as a stand alone device.

It would not be my primary phone just something simple that has some basic functionality.
 
I7guy said:
To get the $15 will be more than $15 of my time.:apple::apple:
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FHoff said:
Wow. I hope this makes those users feel better.
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This is for the principle not for the money. Apple’s “most advanced operating systems” have been turning into total rubbish, buggish and unreliable. To be fair I am talking mostly about macOS and the Siri/HomeKit ecosystem not so much iOS but I hope this is a wake up call for their software team.
 
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