Apple has, after a recent update been accused of intentionally slowing down it’s older iPhones. And after a few bloggers have tested their old phones, it seems to be the case.
So is this some conspiracy to get you to buy a new phone at almost $1000 a pop, or is their a reasonable explanation to this “update?”
It maybe a combination of both. Apple does not make any extra money if you hold onto your iPhone forever. And if you have seen the iPhone “Season” commercials it looks like your supposed to buy a new iPhone every year. And I guess it’s to their advantage if they can get you to spend upwards of $1000 every 365 days. And all this blends in very well with the trash talk that Apple is slowing down your old phone to make you buy a brand new one.
But Apple claims that the update was to prevent older iPhones from shutting down unexpectedly. Which makes a little sense, knowing that older batteries do indeed discharge faster than newer ones will and a phone that quickly shuts down after a charge is inconvenient to use.
In my view it might be a mix of both reasons. Apple does want to increase sales year over year, but also needs to try and make sure their older products do not get a reputation for failing badly at the end of their life cycle. And I might 100% believe their claim of such if they had of implemented this update in a different way.
Instead of a update that installs this new battery management protocol in the background, I would have made some kind of popup asking the phone user if they would like to have their phone slowed down to increase battery life. Then the phone owner knows what is going on and made the choice themself.
By not asking for permission to implement a major change in the function of their phones, Apple left themselfs wide open to these claims against them. And I doubt if they will ever be able to get rid of these rumours without changing the update in the way I described above.
So is this a flat out fraud? Slowing down phones just to get people to buy the next one? I doubt it. My thinking takes me to a conclusion that they indeed were trying to fix something. But they’re weird implementation of the fix also implies to me that they had few qualms of hiding it in such a way that they would not be obverse to selling a few new phones along the way.
Update: 12/28/17
Apple has come out and apologized for their bad handling of this software update and is now offering consumers a $29 battery replacement. But I still have to wonder why they would not just adjust the software update to let end users decide if they want their iPhones speed changed or not. In the end still being forced to buy something or having your phone intentionally slowed down, would play into the rumors that they are just trying to find a way to force people to buy new equipment.