Apple apologizes for slowing down older iPhones
Recently, iPhone users noticed their older phones were slowing down. Apple explained, in a statement to Tech Crunch, the problem was happening because updates in iOS reduce speeds to preserve the life of batteries as they continue to degrade.
After suggesting the only way to bump up the speed was to get a new battery, the company finally released an statement on their website addressing the issue and offering a solution—kind of.
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“We’ve been hearing feedback from our customers about the way we handle performance for iPhones with older batteries and how we have communicated that process. We know that some of you feel Apple has let you down. We apologize. There’s been a lot of misunderstanding about this issue, so we would like to clarify and let you know about some changes we’re making,” the statement reads. “First and foremost, we have never — and would never — do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades. Our goal has always been to create products that our customers love, and making iPhones last as long as possible is an important part of that.”
Apple goes on to explain how batteries age, mentioning number of times a battery has been charged and hot environment as some of the factors affecting its aging process. The statement mentions that, as batteries age, they become less capable of delivering peak energy lows, but “unexpected shutdowns are unacceptable” and “when a chemically aged battery is replaced with a new one, iPhone performance returns to normal when operated in standard conditions.”
So, now we have to buy new batteries for our iPhones to work properly? Pretty much, but Apple is going to help you with this by reducing the price of an out-of-warranty iPhone battery replacement for an iPhone 6 or newer from January to December 2018. During that time, new batteries will cost $29 dollars, instead of the usual $79.
Features that help users check the health of their iPhone's battery will also be available in a forthcoming software update
You can read the full statement here.
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