Future updates to Apple's iOS software will include an option to disable throttling on iPhones.
The move is Apple's latest attempt to appease angry users after news broke in December that it had been intentionally slowing down old iPhonnes to maintain battery life.
More than 30 lawsuits have been filed in the US and one lawsuit is underway in South Korea. There's also an official investigation from French prosecutors.
Having apologised and offered replacement batteries at a discount, Apple has now said it will make a major change to iOS to let people disable throttling.
A Reddit post from December got the ball rolling. It highlighted an issue where processor performance on iPhones was decreasing because of battery age. Battery capacity is generally expected to decrease with age but the iPhone’s performance should stay the same. A blog post on GeekBench explored the issue further, confirming that once a battery was replaced on an iPhone 6s or 7 running an up-to-date version of iOS, the iPhones performance noticeably improved. An iFixit engineer also found similar results when they performed tests.
Apple confirmed on December 20 that it was throttling iPhone performance as iPhone batteries age and their capacity deteriorates to avoid other performance problems. It followed this by publishing a public apology letter to customers on December 28.
"We know that some of you feel Apple has let you down. We apologise," the letter says. "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."
Apple disputes that it is trying to get people to buy new iPhones. It says it has been throttling to prevent devices from “unexpectedly shutting down” and “to protect its electronic components”.
So, rather than planned obsolescence as many had assumed, it turns out there’s a good reason for throttling performance. Apple is instead addressing issues with devices that contain older lithium-ion batteries that can shut down when exposed to random peaks of current draws. A similar issue arises when iPhones are exposed to freezing or extremely high temperatures – the devices would shut down to prevent damage to internal components.
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While Apple has now admitted this is an issue, customers will rightly be angry it’s taken the company so long to come clean. In his post on GeekBench, John Poole writes: “Users expect either full performance, or reduced performance with a notification that their phone is in low-power mode. This fix creates a third, unexpected state.” In short: Apple is changing how iPhones perform to hide a deficiency in battery power.
Apple doesn’t make it easy to replace batteries. If your iPhone isn’t under warranty it costs £79 or around £30 from a third party, which Apple discourages using. But to make the fix you’ve got to know the issue was the battery in the first place.
So if you’ve been noticing your older iPhone deteriorating in performance lately, you’re not crazy - and Apple could be doing more to let customers know that. If you don't want to buy a new phone, getting the battery replaced will not only improve battery life, but performance as well.
Unsurprisingly, this anger has spilled over into a number of lawsuits against Apple. CNN has produced a list of the ongoing cases, which include those in the US, South Korea, and France. Lawsuits allege that Apple has breached its contract with customers and deliberately shortened the lifetime of its products.
In its apology on December 28, Apple pledged to reduce the cost of an iPhone battery replacement by £54. For people with an iPhone 6 or later this means the cost of a new battery is £25. The deal is open to people until the end of 2018.
Apple has also confirmed the next public iOS 11 update will include a way to show users when their iPhone is reducing its performance. “We’re going to give people the visibility of the health of their battery so it’s very, very transparent,” CEO Tim Cook said in an interview. “This hasn’t been done before.”
A new setting will give people the option to turn off the performance drop. It's likely the update will be in iOS 11.3 and, all being well, it will be released in March.
And if you're thinking of getting something new, be sure to take a look at the WIRED Recommends guide to the best smartphones.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
