The IT Nerd

Earlier today I posted a story about a report from Geekbench showing evidence that Apple was slowing down iPhones via software as the device ages. At the time I said this:

Assuming that this is accurate, this is craptastic. Users expect their shiny iPhone to run at full power all the time. But if it can’t, the phone has to tell the user that it’s scaling back the performance to save battery life or whatever other reason it needs to scale back performance. By not telling the user that this is happening really makes Apple look like they’re doing something underhanded. Now to be clear, I don’t know if they are or not. But they need to explain this right the hell now. If they don’t, Apple’s bad year where the “it just works” mantra went out the window will simply get worse and carry on into 2018.

Now Apple has said something via a statement to TechCrunch:

Our goal is to deliver the best experience for customers, which includes overall performance and prolonging the life of their devices. 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. 

Last year we released a feature for iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone SE to smooth out the instantaneous peaks only when needed to prevent the device from unexpectedly shutting down during these conditions. We’ve now extended that feature to iPhone 7 with iOS 11.2, and plan to add support for other products in the future.

So in short, Apple says it’s a feature and not an evil plot to get you to buy a new iPhone. I am not sure that this will put this thing to bed. But Apple is hoping that it does. Let’s see how that plays out.

This entry was posted on December 20, 2017 at 4:20 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Apple. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.