For years, some consumers have suspected Apple of a negative plot: The company, they said, was slowing down their older iPhones to get them to buy new ones. Now, many of them feel vindicated.
Apple has been intentionally slowing down older iPhones, and some of its users aren’t happy about it. The company faced a backlash over revelations that it has throttled the performance of older phones this week, with some not buying the company’s explanation and others complaining about the lack of transparency.
In a statement on Wednesday, Apple said that it had released a “feature” that occasionally reduces processing power on older devices to prevent them from unexpectedly shutting down. The reduction, Apple said, was necessary because older batteries could otherwise periodically overload.
Apple said that it introduced those breaks with an iOS update last year to slow down aging iPhone 6, iPhone 6S and iPhone SE models. “We’ve now extended that feature to iPhone 7 with iOS 11.2, and plan to add support for other products in the future.”
Not everyone was happy with Apple‚Äôs explanation, or the fact that the company called slowing down its products a ‘feature’. Some agreed that the company¬†was doing the right thing, but a number of critics argued that Apple could have taken other measures, from¬†modifying its operating system¬†to better manage peak demands to building iPhones with bigger batteries to slow down battery depletion.
That’s despite the fact that for most users affected, there would have been much cheaper solution available: They could have restored their Phone to full power simply by getting their battery replaced by Apple that just costs $79(around 5000 INR).
