Apple Offers $29 Battery Replacements in Response to iPhone Slowdown Scandal
Apple posted a response to iPhone battery and performance concerns on Dec. 28. From the "Addressing customer concerns" section:
We've always wanted our customers to be able to use their iPhones as long as possible. We're proud that Apple products are known for their durability, and for holding their value longer than our competitors' devices.
To address our customers' concerns, to recognize their loyalty and to regain the trust of anyone who may have doubted Apple's intentions, we've decided to take the following steps:
- Apple is reducing the price of an out-of-warranty iPhone battery replacement by $50 — from $79 to $29 — for anyone with an iPhone 6 or later whose battery needs to be replaced, starting in late January and available worldwide through December 2018. Details will be provided soon on apple.com.
- Early in 2018, we will issue an iOS software update with new 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.
- As always, our team is working on ways to make the user experience even better, including improving how we manage performance and avoid unexpected shutdowns as batteries age.
At Apple, our customers' trust means everything to us. We will never stop working to earn and maintain it. We are able to do the work we love only because of your faith and support — and we will never forget that or take it for granted.
Some have found the response annoying. Others have praised the "good vibes".
iFixit has in turn cut the price of its own battery replacement kits to $29 or less.
Previously: Eight Lawsuits Filed Against Apple Over iPhone Slowdowns
Apple apologizes for iPhone slowdown drama, offers $29 battery replacements
Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984
Apple just published a letter to customers apologizing for the "misunderstanding" around older iPhones being slowed down.[...] "We know that some of you feel Apple has let you down," says the company. "We apologize."
Source: Apple apologizes for iPhone slowdown drama, will offer $29 battery replacements for a year
Related Stories
Apple is facing a class action lawsuit in California over slowing iPhone speeds as batteries age:
Residents of Los Angeles, Stefan Bogdanovich, and Dakota Speas have been represented by Wilshire Law Firm and both of them filed a lawsuit with the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. The plaintiffs are accusing Apple of slowing down their older iPhone models when newer models are released and this has been happening without their consent or approval.
Another class action lawsuit has been filed in Illinois [Ecmascript required]:
A day after Apple acknowledged that their software updates slow down older iPhone models, five customers have filed a federal lawsuit in Chicago against the tech giant for what they're calling "deceptive, immoral and unethical" practices that violate consumer protection laws.
The suit was filed Thursday by two Illinoisans along with Ohio, Indiana and North Carolina residents, who had a range of models from the iPhone 5 to the iPhone 7. They claim that Apple's iOS updates "were engineered to purposefully slow down or 'throttle down' the performance speeds" of the iPhone 5, iPhone 6 and iPhone 7.
[...] Apple partially confirmed the theory on Wednesday, releasing a statement admitting updates would slow down phones, but only to prevent devices with old batteries "from unexpectedly shutting down."
TechCrunch's defense of Apple. Also at Business Insider.
Apple defrauded iPhone users by slowing devices without warning to compensate for poor battery performance, according to eight lawsuits filed in various US federal courts in the week since the company opened up about the year-old software change. The tweak may have led iPhone owners to misguided attempts to resolve issues over the last year, the lawsuits contend.
All of the lawsuits — filed in US District Courts in California, New York and Illinois — seek class-action to represent potentially millions of iPhone owners nationwide. A similar case was lodged in an Israeli court on Monday, the newspaper Haaretz reported.
Apple did not respond to an email seeking comment on the filings.
The company acknowledged last week for the first time in detail that operating system updates released since "last year" for the iPhone 6, iPhone 6s, iPhone SE and iPhone 7 included a feature "to smooth out" power supply from batteries that are cold, old or low on charge. Phones without the adjustment would shut down abruptly because of a precaution designed to prevent components from getting fried, Apple said.
The disclosure followed a December 18 analysis by Primate Labs, which develops an iPhone performance measuring app, that identified blips in processing speed and concluded that a software change had to be behind them.
[...] The problem now seen is that users over the last year could have blamed an ageing computer processor for app crashes and sluggish performance — and chose to buy a new phone — when the true cause may have been a weak battery that could have been replaced for a fraction of the cost, some of the lawsuits state. "If it turns out that consumers would have replaced their battery instead of buying new iPhones had they known the true nature of Apple's upgrades, you might start to have a better case for some sort of misrepresentation or fraud," Boston University professor Rory Van Loo, who specialises in consumer technology law, said.
[...] The lawsuits seek unspecified damages in addition to, in some cases, reimbursement. A couple of the complaints seek court orders barring Apple from throttling iPhone computer speeds or requiring notification in future instances.
Previously: Two Class Action Lawsuits Filed After Apple Admits Slowing Down iPhones
Apple to Pay $3.4 Million USD to Settle Planned Obsolescence Lawsuit
Apple has agreed to settle and pay $3.4 million to Chilean users due to a class-action lawsuit filed by iPhone users who noticed that their older devices, which include the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, and iPhone SE were performing significantly worse after an iOS update in 2017. Every registered Chilean user stands to gain $50, which has to be shared if there is more than one claim per device serial number. For instance, a second-hand phone may have two people filing a lawsuit for the same phone.
Around 150,000 Chilean iPhone users sued Apple for implementing a performance throttling feature in their 2017 iOS update. In the same year, Apple released the iOS 10.2.1 update and programmed in a feature that would forcefully slow down system performance in old iPhones by reducing the CPU's clock speed. This was done to prevent the phone from spontaneously shutting off due to poor battery health in degrading iPhones, but they failed to inform the user that this change would have a detrimental effect on their iPhone's performance.
Previously: Apple iPhones Appear to Slow Down as Battery Condition Degrades: Planned Obsolescence?
Two Class Action Lawsuits Filed After Apple Admits Slowing Down iPhones
Eight Lawsuits Filed Against Apple Over iPhone Slowdowns
Apple Offers $29 Battery Replacements in Response to iPhone Slowdown Scandal
(Score: 5, Interesting) by frojack on Friday December 29 2017, @08:58PM (7 children)
This is a software induced slow down.
The batteries are not the main complaint here. People expect reduced run time as phones age.
Further, 29 bucks and 3 weeks without your phone, (to say nothing about all your data and pictures in someone else's hands for that period), is a pretty tough pill to swallow.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by zocalo on Friday December 29 2017, @10:12PM (2 children)
Just another price of having a slightly thinner phone, I guess.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by mhajicek on Friday December 29 2017, @10:50PM (1 child)
This comes from having a design mandate that every phone be thinner than the last, to the point where some phones bend and brake if you sit down with them in your pants pocket. I'm happy with my CAT S60 which I could throw against a brick wall with only cosmetic damage. The built in infra red is nice too.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by Wootery on Saturday December 30 2017, @02:05PM
True, but they do that because it's what sells. Customers whine about poor battery life, but when it comes to actually buying a phone, they go with thin-and-sexy over chunky-with-energy-reserves.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Friday December 29 2017, @10:31PM
Of course they aren't backing out on the changes, and proffered a "solution" designed to motivate people to upgrade to the latest phone rather than be out of contact for weeks.
Planned obsolescence is obscene, as far as I'm concerned.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 30 2017, @12:42AM
No, no, it's not software induced.
Small-time internet pundits like you can't possibly hope to understand the elevated deliberations of Apple's rock star designers and genius developers.
The problem is, you're just holding it wrong.
(Score: 2) by Wootery on Saturday December 30 2017, @02:08PM
On top of that, it was already possible to do this unofficially, right?
(Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Saturday December 30 2017, @03:02PM
ironically(?), this is probably what Google *should* have done with their Nexus 6P.
It would reach 50% and then turn off - but it was clear that battery overcommit was the problem .e.g take a picture, shutdown...
Now android has a manual "battery saver mode", which is actually pretty decent. Seems to turn off the GPU and greatly limit background activity.
Thing is, if Google had done what Apple did, maybe there wouldn't be a slew of complains about the LG/Nexus battery?
Just some perspective...
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 29 2017, @09:51PM
So what do we have?
Shiny things that have a good brand, but increasingly shitty aspects. They're supposed to be desirable for the cognoscenti, but Microsoft has the smell of blood in the water, and is making a serious push for creatives - supposedly Apple's key audience.
Even Linux is increasingly viable for video, graphics, music and these days even gaming.
Apple have a record of playing rough in their walled garden, and publically annoying key people (remember the Taylor Swift debacle?) or large crowds of their fans (remember the U2 debacle?) or key elements of their key audience (remember the James Pinkstone debacle?) and now they're capping this bad behaviour by unilaterally deciding what their users want, and what their users desire as a fix.
In the customer service industry, we euphemistically refer to this sort of thing as "negative customer service experience". A more realistic description would be "tone-deaf willful blindness and customer hostile choices".
(Score: 4, Insightful) by looorg on Friday December 29 2017, @10:14PM
So they fuck with the battery and users should pay for the replacement. Isn't there some classaction lawsuit going on?
(Score: 5, Informative) by Gaaark on Friday December 29 2017, @11:44PM
"regain the trust of anyone who may have doubted Apple's intentions"
I don't think anyone doubts their intentions.... their intent was to force you to spend money in upgrading! What else was their intent?
If i used their 'products' and had spent money to upgrade to a new phone, i'd look at this 'price reduction' as a slap in the face.
"Sorry? I already upgraded... can you give me my old phone back with a new battery and patch the software? No???"
slap me!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---