Apple is now facing no less than eight lawsuits over claims it artificially slowed down iPhones with aging batteries. The cases were filed in U.S. Federal Courts in California, Illinois, and New York, and all are pushing for class action status.
The first cases were filed in California and Illinois just after Apple confirmed the iPhone SE, iPhone 6, iPhone 6s, and iPhone 7 all experience slower performance as their batteries age.
Apple made a change in iOS 10.2.1 in early 2017 to address a problem where iPhone batteries that no longer hold a full charge would spontaneously reboot when processor usage spiked, demanding more power than was available. The company fixed the problem by spreading out the processor requests that otherwise caused a spike to spread out over several cycles, effectively slowing down the phone.
Apple’s fix for the problem was clever in that it stopped the reboots without requiring users to spend money on a new battery or new iPhone. The big issue in the end was that Apple didn’t tell users what it was doing.
When Apple’s fix was discovered through a thread on Reddit, it became the talk of the internet and mainstream media. The developers of GeekBench ran their own tests verifying what Reddit users were saying, and Apple openly confirmed it, too.
Apple’s silence on how it addressed the battery issue has now turned into eight U.S. lawsuits, and another in Israel, according to Reuters. Battery experts say Apple’s actions were reasonable, especially since the threshold where the fix kicks in—batteries that charge up to only 80% of their original capacity—is considered worn out and end of life.
For the plaintiffs, that’s not good enough and they’re claiming the battery degradation is a defect. Apple should’ve replaced the worn out batteries, one of the lawsuits claims, while another wants an injunction blocking Apple from using processor performance controls to work around worn out batteries. Assuming they get their injunction there’ll be a lot more older iPhones routinely crashing and rebooting.
The plaintiffs also want a lot of money. The lawsuits are asking for unspecified damages and reimbursements, which usually equates to millions of dollars.
Apple still hasn’t commented on any of the lawsuits.
Well I want a BIG QUICK buck in my account when Apple pulls an Apple – they’ve done this before and all with a VULGAR profit margin. Are you insane? Battery tech is NOT complicated (at least the ancient tried and true Li-Ion circa 1970s Apple uses) and it seems the competitors don’t have to screw the customer by lying about specs and then slowing down the expensive thing. But then, some (LG) have replaceable batteries – go figure. Then there is the option of an external battery – Tesla makes one for both Android and iOS – but where’s Apple in that??? Lost, screwing the customer again. This, along with the iOS vulnerabilities plus the face ID hack and the X sales already slowing – the Emperor has no clothes. Heck I was going to go light on Apple until I read the denials here. 📱
They all want a quick buck in there bank accounts. They don’t care about the technical facts or battery life. They think tech is easy when it’s not!
The probably will not.