Summary: On December 20, Apple admitted they use algorithms to slow older iPhones.
This week, Apple admitted that it intentionally slowed down older iPhones, and less than two days later, the company was hit with two-class action lawsuits.
IPhone users have long suspected that their phones slow after a certain age, but Apple stated that this was done not to force upgrades but to stop phones from shutting down unexpectedly. Nevertheless, angry users in Illinois, Ohio, North Carolina, and Indiana have filed a lawsuit in Illinois on Thursday, according to The Chicago Sun-Times; and a second lawsuit was filed that same day in Los Angeles by Stefan Bogdanovich.
Both lawsuits are seeking class-action status and claim that Apple’s “immoral” business practice is intended to force users to upgrade their expensive phones.
“iOS updates, plaintiffs claim, were engineered with this very purpose in mind—fraudulently forcing iPhone owners to purchase the latest model offered by Apple,” the Illinois lawsuit stated.
The Los Angeles lawsuit added that iPhone users never consented to a slowed down phone and that they were never given an option.
Apple told CNBC that their goal in slowing down the phones was to deliver a good experience for their customers.
“Our goal is to deliver the best experience for customers, which includes overall performance and prolonging the life of their devices,” Apple said. “Lithium-ion batteries become less capable of supplying peak current demands when in cold conditions, have a low battery charge or as they age over time, which can result in the device unexpectedly shutting down to protect its electronic components.”‘
According to Digital Trends, iPhone 6, iPhone 6S, iPhone SE, and iPhone 7 have software that slows down your phone to preserve your battery. Later models most likely will also have this feature.
Digital Trends state that although people may be getting angry at Apple’s announcement, their action is actually necessary until technology develops better batteries.
“Batteries don’t supply infinite power at a steady rate, they get less efficient over time because we’re right on the limit of what a Lithium-Ion battery can do,” Digital Trends stated. “Add in our regular abuses of the battery, whether it’s running it out until the phone switches off, then using every charger to hand — fast chargers, battery packs, third-party chargers, in-car chargers — to top up the battery a little every day, and it’s perhaps surprising they last as long as they do.”
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