UK Legal Action Seeks Damages for 25 Million iPhone Users Over 'Throttling' Devices With Degraded Batteries

[craig1410]

So how do we opt out of this? I knew full well at the time that batteries degrade and with them devices will degrade in performance.

Yep, I had the exact same reaction. I don't want any part in this class action nonsense. I owned at least two of these devices, probably three and was very happy with them all. Then again I am an electronics engineer with good appreciation of the laws of physics and not some lawyer looking for a cash grab or journalist looking for a story to hype up.

I'm sure there will be plenty of folk who are happy to take "free money" without asking too many question as to where that money actually comes from. Hint: It either inflates future product prices or reduces future innovation.

It's the same mentality that drives people to inflate insurance claims and I want no part of it. In fact my ethics were tested a couple of years ago when I was hit from behind by another car and my insurance must have asked me a dozen times if I wanted to claim for any kind of injury. They were almost putting words in my mouth as to what type of injury would be expected from such an accident. "everyone does it..." - well I didn't.

Anyway, if anyone feels aggrieved by Apple preserving device stability in return for a small reduction in maximum performance then feel free to support this case but for anyone who just wants "free money" when they were not injured in any way then consider how that affects society first.

 

[Marshall73]

Having had at least one of each of the iPhones involved in this case I expect to receive £0.00 LOL

 

[PPopMatt]

Commenting on the claim, Apple told The Guardian: "We have never, and would never, do anything to … degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades.

Yeah, right!! It IS STILL HAPPENING!!! My iPhoneXS AND My 27" 5K iMac are SOOOOOO SLOOOOOOOOOOOW!!! NOW! @!#%$@#$^$#%&%^&!!!

iTunes on my iMac, because of some Apple OS Management Processes, cannot show last played in songs, because of the 40 second+ lag!! Finder windows take a similar 20-30 seconds to update to even show a just saved file!!!!

Again - It takes up to 40++ Seconds for the Saved Photoshop file to show up in the finder window where I just saved it. I question if I even saved it to the right folder... Completely SCREWED UP!! Its like old photography where I had to WAIT until the silver print develops to see it..

BTW, I am only considering replacing my newer 5K iMac just because of THIS Fricking DELAY (That DID NOT exist just a few months ago!!). @#!$%#^&^%*!!

 

[webkit]

I personally, in this case, don't see an issue, and I was in the category of people who had the software affect the phone. Maybe it was a crummy thing for Apple to do, but that is where it ends for me, at crummy.

Some people simply aren't willing brush off and accept "crummy things" done by a company especially as it may lead to even more (and/or worse) crummy things by that company or others in the future.

 

[nelloismello]

Screw Apple for trying to keep my iPhone with an old battery from randomly crashing by throttling it! /s

 

[nrose101]

A lot of people fail to recognize that Apple is actually run by people who have little to no ethical boundaries and would screw over someone in their own family to help increase their own wealth. I am not talking about the creative and innovative side of Apple, I am talking about the “publicly traded” business side of Apple that have very influential investor groups from the likes of the “vampire squid” Goldman Sachs, or other equally reprehensible parasites, such as BlackRock… those are the influencers driving theses types of things. Hopefully the good parts of Apple doesn’t get sucked into being more like those bad parts of Apple.

It’s because of things like this that i am cynical about other things thats proclaimed about Apple, such as them being our privacy watchdogs, and thwarting over reach of big brother. When the documents that came from Snowden/Manning and made it onto Wikileaks, I tend to believe Apple is in bed as they can be with the surveillance states coming at the direction of many of the governing bodies around the world, but has relied upon (with help of establishment controlled media) the “persona” and “narrative” that they are not like Microsoft… I want to believe Apple is better than that… but sadly i can’t… I have to allow reality to dictate what i believe and influences me. And in reality, Apple is not the goody two shoes, pro consumer, pro civil rights, advocate they want everyone to think they are… its a nice dream though.

They are better than most companies in morals and ethics.

 

[I7guy]

Some people simply aren't willing brush off and accept "crummy things" done by a company especially as it may lead to even more (and/or worse) crummy things by that company or others in the future.

Sure, but that doesn't mean it's worthy of a lawsuit. Lawsuits are easy to file, winning....not so much.

 

[polyphenol]

Where's that cheap fuel?

I was actually quite pleased that, when I did fill up today, I found unleaded at £181.9. (Sailed past 186.9 and 189.9.)

Rather odd that the usual idea of which is the cheapest/most expensive is proving an unreliable guide now.

And annoying that I filled at Tesco a few miles away in the next town. But my local Tesco, yards away, is 186.9. Today I was going there anyway, but that difference is on the edge of being worth driving there anyway. A waste of petrol, yes.

 

[BittenAnkles]

Commenting on the claim, Apple told The Guardian: "We have never, and would never, do anything to … degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades.

Yeah, right!! It IS STILL HAPPENING!!! My iPhoneXS AND My 27" 5K iMac are SOOOOOO SLOOOOOOOOOOOW!!! NOW! @!#%$@#$^$#%&%^&!!!

iTunes on my iMac, because of some Apple OS Management Processes, cannot show last played in songs, because of the 40 second+ lag!! Finder windows take a similar 20-30 seconds to update to even show a just saved file!!!!

Again - It takes up to 40++ Seconds for the Saved Photoshop file to show up in the finder window where I just saved it. I question if I even saved it to the right folder... Completely SCREWED UP!! Its like old photography where I had to WAIT until the silver print develops to see it..

BTW, I am only considering replacing my newer 5K iMac just because of THIS Fricking DELAY (That DID NOT exist just a few months ago!!). @#!$%#^&^%*!!

It's hard to take these claims at face-value, but assuming your not completely BSing, it sounds like you have a corrupt hard drive and not a throttling issue. You say your "iTunes" is slow, and if you actually mean "iTunes" and not the new music app then you're running Mojave (a 3-year old OS) and should consider updating the OS. I'm still using an iPhone 8 on 15.5 and it runs fine. It's not the most zippy, but it's and "old" phone. Your newer XS should be fine. Turn off the performance management or get a new battery. Everything isn't a plot to make you buy new devices...

 

[PPopMatt]

It's hard to take these claims at face-value, but assuming your not completely BSing, it sounds like you have a corrupt hard drive and not a throttling issue. You say your "iTunes" is slow, and if you actually mean "iTunes" and not the new music app then you're running Mojave (a 3-year old OS) and should consider updating the OS. I'm still using an iPhone 8 on 15.5 and it runs fine. It's not the most zippy, but it's and "old" phone. Your newer XS should be fine. Turn off the performance management or get a new battery. Everything isn't a plot to make you buy new devices...

Mac Music App...

I have the current, up to date, OS Monterey 12.4, and an external 2TB SSD... The Internal HD is NOT corrupt.... (just checked). Nothing else has changed.

Its certainly something either Apple (or Adobe) did - as it happened with mainly OS & Photoshop upgrades..

Endless Beachball Waiting and now ........... Finder delays!

All these .... delays .... recently became .... apparent .... in .... the .... past .... 2-3 months...

Again #@$$$@%!! I should NOT need to spend $2500+- to buy a MacStudio ++ External Monitor.. to fix this "new" issue!!

Note: I have been using both Macs, PC's and Photoshop since the Mac+SE and Photoshop 1.0 in late 80's

 

[rafark]

Or simply shutting their phones to make the UX even worse

Then it’s a faulty battery. You don’t pay hundreds of dollars only to have your phone shutting down because of a faulty battery.

 

[RRK50]

My Flinstones automobile is still working great after 5,000 years. I never had to change the car battery even once.

 

[cosmolv]

I Have 2012 MacBook pro with degraded battery, can i get compensation? 😁🤓 🤦‍♂️

 

[jlc1978]

When it comes to life and danger, 1.3e-6% is 1.3e-6% too much, every life matters and this could have ended with death if happened at night.

Statically downplaying accidents, does not make it better, life matters even one of million.
Anyway, we know that this didn't happen just once.

It’s a matter of risk tolerance. If the risk of fire is above your threshold, don’t buy a device with lithium batteries.

 

[Glideslope]

Not this crap again? 😩

Yup, it’s that little mass surrounded by the ocean, again………….

 

[Makosuke]

With newer iOS and Apple's support for older devices, they introduced basically what computers have been doing for years. Apple's other options were not to support older devices and forcing people to buy newer ones or simply shutting their phones to make the UX even worse.

Actually, they did have a third option: Let users of devices with degraded batteries install the OS and let the OS run without any restrictions.

This of course would have done the same thing as the devices would do before the feature was added, which is randomly shut down at unexpected times when there still appeared to be battery left. Exactly what older cell phones did all the time prior to (and occasionally even with) this feature, and exactly what laptops have done in the same situation for most of the past 20 years.

Some fraction of users outraged by this change would instead have correctly assumed the battery was bad rather than blaming planned obsolescence, and the rest would have complained just as much because they assume everything is planned obsolescence due to malice.

 

[sideshowuniqueuser]

Not this crap again? 😩

You make your bed....

 

[BittenAnkles]

Mac Music App...

I have the current, up to date, OS Monterey 12.4, and an external 2TB SSD... The Internal HD is NOT corrupt.... (just checked). Nothing else has changed.

Its certainly something either Apple (or Adobe) did - as it happened with mainly OS & Photoshop upgrades..

Endless Beachball Waiting and now ........... Finder delays!

All these .... delays .... recently became .... apparent .... in .... the .... past .... 2-3 months...

Again #@$$$@%!! I should NOT need to spend $2500+- to buy a MacStudio ++ External Monitor.. to fix this "new" issue!!

Note: I have been using both Macs, PC's and Photoshop since the Mac+SE and Photoshop 1.0 in late 80's

It's hilarious that you think you're being forced into a new machine when you obviously have an isolated problem with some software or some driver or some OS component. You have so many options at your disposal that come before getting a new machine. Since you're a long-time savvy mac user I don't need list your options... The whole "woe as me, evil Apple is making me spend $2500 on a new computer" is bizarre clout chasing.

 

[I7guy]

Some people simply aren't willing brush off and accept "crummy things" done by a company especially as it may lead to even more (and/or worse) crummy things by that company or others in the future.

Or not. Nobody says you should brush it off. Do what you think is right. Apple probably knows that not being as transparent as they should have was not a good look. As I said it’s easy to sue, winning is the tough part.

 

[alexhardaker]

Has anyone gone back to look at the OS update release notes to see if they made any mention of the throttling? 99% of people don’t bother reading stuff like that.

Why would they bother spending resources to support older phones with new OSes when they could just be lazy like most Android manufacturers and stop providing OS updates after a couple of years, encouraging people to get a new phone after their contract is up? There more of an argument for planned obsolescence, in my view.

I don’t believe they purposefully tried to slow down phones to get people to upgrade. It’s better to have a phone slow down than turn off. Leaving it to turn off would point towards more of an attempt to get people to upgrade their phone, in my opinion.

If it was always their policy to not offer a battery replacement unless the battery health, during a test at an Apple store, was less than 80% then I’d say it’s just bad luck for them here with what started happening with the iPhone 6 models and the batteries.

 

[sidewinder3000]

Anyone who believes that Apple creating a workaround for old phones with bad batteries in order to keep them operating at all is somehow a malicious act of throttling "to get people to upgrade" is either willfully ignorant or just plain stupid. It is, literally, THE OPPOSITE of trying to get you to upgrade. It's helping people keep their old phones even if they've neglected them so much they haven't even bothered to replace the battery.

This lawsuit is specious, at best.

 

[akbarali.ch]

Torn on this one (regardless of what I personally think about 'Throttlegate'). I'm all for consumer protection, but really don't want to see the UK move towards a class action culture like in the US where everything just seems to be an opportunity for lawyers to get richer in the name of championing consumers, who end up coming away with barely anything.

yes, absolutely, its for the lawyers and not for customers.

 

[MasterControlProgram]

So many people are talking as if throttling to prevent shut downs was a normal thing. It wasn’t. This was the first time Apple had started doing it, everything from the first iPhone to the 5S had never had any throttling when the batteries aged because their peak power draw was never high enough to cause a degraded battery to shutdown.

Sure, batteries degrade and even back then people knew that over time batteries would hold less charge over time, but this was the first time Apple nerfed performance to avoid shut downs. Not only that, but they did it without telling users what they were doing and in the case of the 6S it was throttling only a year after it came out.

Battery degradation had never been a problem like that before and quietly making phones perform worse was a terrible way to handle it. I would have happily bought a new battery if I’d known that was why a flagship phone was suddenly running like a dog. Instead Apple kept it quiet and that’s why people are angry; not because they think batteries should magically last forever but because their phones were suddenly frustrating to use with no obvious cause.

 

[bgillander]

I think the throttling is less annoying than the Battery Health that tells me my battery is 92%, while my SE V1 will drain 45% if I update 20 apps. The Apple Store replaced the battery to see if it made a difference because they couldn’t explain the diagnostic data, but it was 6 months out of warranty and 3 months out of the half price replacement, so I got to pay full price because I don’t really use my cell phone much and I believed the Health reading until it just kept draining too often to ignore. The replacement battery worked fine for a couple of years and is now behaving similarly though the new battery now says 92% Health, so I guess I got a lemon SE. My previous iPhones were rock solid and their original batteries still work better than this one, so I guess I’ll give Apple another chance, but if this were my first iPhone it would also be my last.

 

[jimmy_uk]

The court of public opinion is now in session 🍿