Ride the Lightning

Is Apple Losing Its Shine? Apple Secretly Slows Older iPhones, Fesses Up, Facing Lawsuits

January 4, 2018

As CNET recently reported, on December 20th, Apple admitted it had been secretly slowing down iPhones as their batteries aged. The company's explanation: The throttled speeds kept those phones from unexpectedly shutting down.

There might be some tech truth in that excuse except that Apple did this in secret. Transparency might have made a difference. As it is, it sure looks like Apple was concealing activity designed to drive people to upgrade their iPhone thereby filling Apple's coffers.

And then the lawsuits began to roll in . . .

Apple has issued a formal apology to its customers that addresses the accusation head-on. It also promises a $29 battery replacement that, Apple says, will immediately return an iPhone 6 or later model to its original performance. The new batteries, which normally cost $79, are available now and will be through 2018, the company said in a message to customers on its site.

Apple will also issue an iOS software update with features "that give users more visibility into the health of their iPhone's battery, so they can see for themselves if its condition is affecting performance."

"We have never — and would never — do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades. Our goal has always been to create products that our customers love, and making iPhones last as long as possible is an important part of that," Apple said.

If my Facebook and Twitter feeds are any indicator, it is striking how many of the normal fanboys are wagging their fingers and crying, "Shame! Shame!"

Even without seeing the outcomes of the lawsuits, it is clear that Apple has suffered major reputational damage – trust, once lost, is hard to rebuild.

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