Unless you have been living under a rock during the past few weeks, you probably know by now that Apple have admitted throttling overall performance for phones that have an "old" battery.

After years of rumours, Apple has confirmed that it does indeed slow down older iPhones, a feature introduced last year to protect against problems caused by ageing batteries.

The feature was implemented on the iPhone 6, 6S and SE last year during a software update, and on the iPhone 7 as of December with the release of iOS 11.2. The feature is planned to be rolled out to newer devices in the future. [...]

The reason invoked by Apple is to prevent phones from shutting down completely when batteries don't have enough power.

The company explained that when a battery is in a poor condition it may not be able to supply the required maximum current demanded by the phone’s processor at full speed. If that happens, the iPhone can shut down unexpectedly to protect the internal components.

Where do you stand on the matter? Do you believe this makes sense from a technical standpoint? Or do you think it is an elaborate scheme to get people to buy new phones every couple of years? Vote and tell us what you think.

 

[WiiUBricker]

Does Apple advertise clock speeds? If yes, I imagine it may be an illegal move to not inform their customers before purchase. I recall reading an article about class action lawsuits against apple because of this.

 

[pedro702]

this is how they make you buy a new one, after 2 years or so every phone start being very slow and you just waste another $$$ on a newer model and so on.

 

[Mollycule]

I repair iPhones and often need to replace batteries -- I want to know whether this changes upon receiving a new and genuine replacement or whether they continue to throttle?

 

[DinohScene]

Planned obsolescence to the next level!

 

[TeamScriptKiddies]

This is wrong, its nothing more than a way to force consumers to upgrade. The only thing that could be potentially damaged by an abrupt shutdown is software and data. If the battery isn't supplying enough current to the components, it might act flaky, but it certainly wouldn't damage anything. Now if the battery was supplying too much current, it would certainly damage components in the phone, but this isn't the case here. Most consumers running an older phone should already be aware that the phone itself is prone to failure, so they should be backing up their data to the cloud or manually to their pc periodically anyways (even newer phone owners should be backing stuff up regularly, because you never know) so data loss shouldn't be that big of an issue. Apple is just throttling performance to make end users frustrated so they'll fork out more money for a new phone....

 

[Baoulettes]

yes I think they do, yet as I never update my iphone and jailbreak them to get feature I want I never have issue with software that slowdown my phone overtime.
(Iphone 5s IOS8 and Iphone 4 IOS6 as emergency in case my main phone die)
Both working perfectly fine never had issue and can stand a day without being pluged

 

[330]

What a stupid thing to do. A popup telling the user that the battery needs to be replaced if they want to enjoy the full experience could have been a better option.

For those saying that Apple needs to make better batteries, let me remind you that the iPhone 6S came out 3 years ago. Any phone battery older than 2 years WILL give you problems, big or small. This isn't just Apple being greedy, we're very far behind when it comes to battery technology. We were only able to tweak the software to consume less over the last few years.

 

[MadonnaProject]

I am actually STUNNED some people said its understandable. Apple sheep mind control is strong at play here.

Suppose you buy a car and over time the car runs slower (usually within a year) and the company says this is because your car has degraded over time so they've throttled its running speed. Are you actually mad?

 

[gnmmarechal]

I find it ridiculous.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

What a stupid thing to do. A popup telling the user that the battery needs to be replaced if they want to enjoy the full experience could have been a better option.

For those saying that Apple needs to make better batteries, let me remind you that the iPhone 6S came out 3 years ago. Any phone battery older than 2 years WILL give you problems, big or small. This isn't just Apple being greedy, we're very far behind when it comes to battery technology. We were only able to tweak the software to consume less over the last few years.

Not necessarily, my Note 3 was 3 years old when I upgraded, and the battery was still going strong, it easily lasted a couple of days.
Also, since Samsung's new battery QA process, their battery lifetime is supposedly much longer.

 

[TeamScriptKiddies]

I repair iPhones and often need to replace batteries -- I want to know whether this changes upon receiving a new and genuine replacement or whether they continue to throttle?

I would like to know the answer to this as well, as I also do iphone repairs as part of my job.

 

[Clydefrosch]

are people forced to update to newer firmwares not truly meant for their aging iphone?

 

[TeamScriptKiddies]

No in fact, after a certain point, the phone will refuse to update to a version of IOS it can't handle. Ironically, apps will start to be disabled demanding that you need to update the OS to use them, which you can't without getting a new phone. Another way Apple pushes planned obsolescence . There's no reason somebody can't choose to run an outdated version of an app, as long as they understand the security risks involved and don't care about it.

 

[sj33]

are people forced to update to newer firmwares not truly meant for their aging iphone?

Moot point. It’s perfectly reasonable for the average user to assume that a firmware officially supporting their phone should fully work. And the throttling introduced in later firmwares was never revealed until now.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Not to defend Apple, but it’s strange to accuse Apple of planned obsolescence with their firmware updates when so many Android phones can’t even be updated beyond the major revision they come with.

 

[330]

Not necessarily, my Note 3 was 3 years old when I upgraded, and the battery was still going strong, it easily lasted a couple of days.
Also, since Samsung's new battery QA process, their battery lifetime is supposedly much longer.

The Note 3 is huge. iPhones have to be small and thin.

 

[sj33]

No in fact, after a certain point, the phone will refuse to update to a version of IOS it can't handle. Ironically, apps will start to be disabled demanding that you need to update the OS to use them, which you can't without getting a new phone. Another way Apple pushes planned obsolescence . There's no reason somebody can't choose to run an outdated version of an app, as long as they understand the security risks involved and don't care about it.

Thing is, that’s not really true. Newer apps require newer iOS versions because they are built with the newer SDK. That’s the main reason.

It’s easy to prove this - install LowerInstall on a jailbroken phone (allows you to force-install apps intended for newer iOS versions) and see how many fail to load.

 

[r1vver]

lol, it's coz you think wrong different.
you need to think different different, right different, you know =)

 

[Kioku]

Shouldn't even be up for debate. People buy these phones with their money, and Apple slows them down in the hopes that they'll buy the newest one... And it WORKS.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

The Note 3 is huge. iPhones have to be small and thin.

There are big iPhones. Anyway, that's besides the point. A well made battery can last much longer than 2 years.

 

[Axido]

Dear Apple,

if your batteries suck that much, then put some quality batteries into your overpriced phones.

You can't do that, since there aren't perfect batteries? Okay, that's reasonable.
So, you still want to maintain intact phones that don't shut down occasionally, even though it means throttling them... Well, might be reasonable to some extent.

Just give them the option to throttle the phones themselves if they need to.
So, you think that your customers are too stupid to be able to use such a function properly? Yeah, Apple, I can see your point here.

How about giving them the option to replace their batteries to get back full functionality?
You already do that? For about $80?
Wouldn't it be more consumer-friendly to make battery replacement like it was years ago when every consumer just had to open the back of the phone, take out the old battery and put in the new one?

Yes, but then you couldn't cash in on your customers?

Screw you, Apple.


And that's why I'm fine with any other phone that doesn't have a fruit on it that has been bitten into. Maybe that's an intended metaphor for customers not getting the full fruit or something.