Apple was being doubted for a while, apprehending that the brand is actually slowing down older iPhones by throttling the CPU. Recently, Apple confirmed this doubt and said that they are actually doing it. This made many people mad, as many people believed that it is just cheating and Apple shouldn’t do anything that affects the user experience in a negative way. Today, Apple published an apology letter titled “A Message to Our Customers about iPhone Batteries and Performance”.
As many people said that Apple is doing this to drive more sales for newer iPhones, Apple said in the letter that the company will never do anything that shortens the lives of their products. However, already they are facing lawsuits for this and contrary to what many people claimed to be the reason why Apple is doing this, Apple has decided to address and explain the issue.
Apple says that chemically treated batteries, such as the rechargeable ones used inside iPhones, become less reliable as they age and cannot deliver peak voltage, required for complex tasks. It happens as the users keep using an iPhone for a period. Eventually, it leads to an unexpected phone shutdown.
Now, here’s something that the letter mentioned to make users understand what they want: “It should go without saying that we think sudden, unexpected shutdowns are unacceptable. We don’t want any of our users to lose a call, miss taking a picture or have any other part of their iPhone experience interrupted if we can avoid it.”
The letter also included some explanation regarding the working of iOS as with iOS 10.2.1 certain improvements were made to maintain proper power management during peak workloads to avoid unexpected shutdowns on iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, and iPhone SE. Apple says that iOS dynamically manages the maximum performance of some system components when it can detect that a possible shutdown could happen.
This may lead to longer launch times for apps and other reductions in performance. And well, a chemically aged battery can be replaced with a new one, which will make the iPhone performance return to normal. But, to make things easier, avoid slowdowns, lags and performance issues, Apple will be taking the following steps:
- As of now, the cost of replacing a battery on an out of warranty iPhone was $79, which has been cut down by $50 and now users will have to pay just $29 to get the battery replaced. This new pricing will be applicable for only the iPhone 6 or later and should have a battery which really needs replacement. This new pricing will be effective from January through December 2018, and more details about this pricing and replacement methods will be announced.
- Early in 2018, an iOS update will be pushed to iPhones that will allow users to know more about the battery health in detail so that they know when the battery is affecting the performance of the device.
- Apple also added that their team is working on making the user experience even better, including improvements to how the performance should be managed and avoid unexpected shutdowns as batteries age.
Also Read: All 2018 iPhone models to include bigger batteries: KGI
This is basically what Apple has to say for now. However, they will have to face the lawsuits and this may hunt them down in future as well just like ‘iPod’s Dirty Secret’ by Casey Neistat when he exposed how he was forced to spend $255 and mailing fee, for getting the battery of his 18-month-old iPod replaced, which is just as much as a new iPod.
