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.
So, what’s the issue?
READ NEXT
Apple could hire 2,962 Tim Cooks with its $38bn US cash repatriation
Apple could hire 2,962 Tim Cooks with its $38bn US cash repatriation
By MATT BURGESS
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."
Why is Apple slowing phones down?
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.
