U.S. government questions Apple over iPhone slowdown debacle
Following revelations that the French government opened an investigation into Apple's decision to throttle the performance of older iPhones with deteriorated batteries, a U.S. senator on Tuesday sent a letter to CEO Tim Cook requesting details about the hardware policy.
In his letter to Cook, Sen. John Thune, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, asked a series of questions to suss out the company's policies on slowing down iPhones with depleted battery cells, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Apple has been under fire since it admitted to throttling processor performance on some older iPhone models last month.
In December, a Reddit user detailed what appeared to be evidence of CPU throttling on iPhones with degraded batteries, claims that were later backed up by Geekbench's John Poole. Aggregating multiple iPhone benchmark tests, Poole found a correlation in iPhone slowdowns, battery age and iOS version, with a noted change in performance apparent between iOS 10.2 and iOS 10.2.1.
Apple released iOS 10.2.1 in 2016 to deal with unexpected shutdowns afflicting iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone SE models, though the company failed to disclose how the firmware fixed the apparent problem.
In a statement last month, Apple said the built-in iOS feature helps "smooth out the instantaneous peaks only when needed to prevent the device from unexpectedly shutting down during these conditions." The same technology has been carried forward with iOS 11.2 to cover iPhone 7, and Apple says the feature will be further implemented in future products.
Customers who took offense to Apple's decision to remotely install a performance-capping feature, or more specifically the company's lack of transparency on the matter, began to file class-action lawsuits in a bid to recoup lost expenses. More than 30 complaints have been filed in the U.S. so far, including a case being handled by Hagens Berman, the consumer rights law firm that successfully obtained a $450 million settlement from Apple over e-book price fixing in 2015.
For its part, Apple apologized for not communicating the implementation to iPhone owners. At the same time, the company dropped the cost of out-of-warranty battery replacements from $79 to $29 in a play for positive customer sentiment.
"Apple's proposed solutions have prompted additional criticism from some customers, particularly its decision not to provide free replacement batteries," Thune writes.
Thune goes on to ask how Apple is tracking customer complaints related to the processor slowdown issue, and whether the company is looking into rebates for iPhone owners who paid full price for a battery replacement prior to the discount offer, the report said. Thune requests Apple respond to the queries by Jan. 23.
News of the U.S. government's interest in Apple's handling of iPhone battery woes comes just one day after French regulators initiated an investigation into identical issues. In that case, the DGCCRF anti-fraud agency is following up on a private complaint by Stop Planned Obsolescence.
In his letter to Cook, Sen. John Thune, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, asked a series of questions to suss out the company's policies on slowing down iPhones with depleted battery cells, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Apple has been under fire since it admitted to throttling processor performance on some older iPhone models last month.
In December, a Reddit user detailed what appeared to be evidence of CPU throttling on iPhones with degraded batteries, claims that were later backed up by Geekbench's John Poole. Aggregating multiple iPhone benchmark tests, Poole found a correlation in iPhone slowdowns, battery age and iOS version, with a noted change in performance apparent between iOS 10.2 and iOS 10.2.1.
Apple released iOS 10.2.1 in 2016 to deal with unexpected shutdowns afflicting iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone SE models, though the company failed to disclose how the firmware fixed the apparent problem.
In a statement last month, Apple said the built-in iOS feature helps "smooth out the instantaneous peaks only when needed to prevent the device from unexpectedly shutting down during these conditions." The same technology has been carried forward with iOS 11.2 to cover iPhone 7, and Apple says the feature will be further implemented in future products.
Customers who took offense to Apple's decision to remotely install a performance-capping feature, or more specifically the company's lack of transparency on the matter, began to file class-action lawsuits in a bid to recoup lost expenses. More than 30 complaints have been filed in the U.S. so far, including a case being handled by Hagens Berman, the consumer rights law firm that successfully obtained a $450 million settlement from Apple over e-book price fixing in 2015.
For its part, Apple apologized for not communicating the implementation to iPhone owners. At the same time, the company dropped the cost of out-of-warranty battery replacements from $79 to $29 in a play for positive customer sentiment.
"Apple's proposed solutions have prompted additional criticism from some customers, particularly its decision not to provide free replacement batteries," Thune writes.
Thune goes on to ask how Apple is tracking customer complaints related to the processor slowdown issue, and whether the company is looking into rebates for iPhone owners who paid full price for a battery replacement prior to the discount offer, the report said. Thune requests Apple respond to the queries by Jan. 23.
News of the U.S. government's interest in Apple's handling of iPhone battery woes comes just one day after French regulators initiated an investigation into identical issues. In that case, the DGCCRF anti-fraud agency is following up on a private complaint by Stop Planned Obsolescence.
Comments
no matter the usage, no matter the conditions you used / use them in huh bud.
You are not entitled to miracles. Sooner you grow up and snap out of your delusion, the better it will be.
The phone works on average at near top performance for normal use after 2 years (say 600-700 charges); they owe you, or those dancing idiots nothing else.
If you charge your phone 700 times in one year, or spin your tires at stop lights, you won't make it to even average life span with original tires, or original battery.
Batteries have always been consumable and they can be replaced for 8-10% of the price of the phone even before the reduced price. If you throw away a phone with a still high residual value that can be restored to full function for 20% of buying a new phone (pre reduced price), you've got some other issues than just batteries.
The only way around this is for whiner like you to accept much larger phones initially; and you'll find time to whine about that too I bet.
In any case, Apple apologized and I think they have provided a generous deal for battery replacement. What I don't like is some French government action prompted this administration to question Apple and that too from an official who doesn't understand technology. Maybe, we should have out representative go question auto car manufacturer - It is commonly known that there are speed governors in car with electronics where it controls your max speed limit. The car can really go much more faster. Obviously the car companies do it so for the safety of the owner of the car, but also so that it doesn't destroy the engine due to prolonged running of engine at higher speed. Kind of sound familiar, doesn't it.
I like this analogy and I will take it little further. So, if it happens that manufacturer used special bolts only accesible in manufacturer aproved service stations, of course without any warranty whatsoever but you will loose warranty for car if you make change in nearest garage, and they are prone to sudden loss of pressure unrelated to use/abuse before they are fully worn-out, what would be your expectation about longevity?
More than anything else, I think Apple has learnt a very valuable lesson on communication here.
People are skewering Apple for thinking about the life of their products. The whole thing could have been averted with a little open communication.
There are no special bolts, you can in fact, if you are adept enough service your own god damn phone but most people won't want to because well don't want to and paying $80 god damn bucks ($30 now) to service your phone once every 2 years is trivial when you're paying $80+ bucks /monthly already for your service plan.
Your phone at that time is still worth $350+ dollars, double what a average Android phone would go for.
People with expensive watches $1000+ even get watchmakers to service their expensive sealed watches regularly (or it will stop working).
Better build something else besides a damn strawman if you want me to feed your desperate need to whine and be "outraged".
Then I would say you’re driving a Toyota Prius because those are the conditions of their warranties.
How do I know?
I drive one and I’ve actually read the warranty.
If I take it back to the dealership (and if I take it anywhere other than a proper Toyota garage then the warranty is cancelled), I cannot tell them that the battery has failed “and it’s not related to use and abuse” and expect them to take my word for it. They will examine the car to see exactly what I have been doing with it.
The same with a phone. There is no point trying to say that battery died too early because you have no idea how much the phone was used, what it was used for, and how many charge cycles the battery had to endure as a result.
The life of the battery depends more on the number of times it is charged than its actual physical age. And Apple goes to a great deal of trouble to ensure that battery is not charged more than it has to be. But in the end, the life of the battery is down to how you use the phone.
Where I live, if a taxi is not a black cab then the chances are it is a Prius. They’re cheap to run around town, but more importantly, they’re reliable. And the reason they’re reliable and last far longer than the life of the battery is because they’re well made, and the control system prevents you from thrashing the life out of the engines.
Incidently, the battery on a Prius is not covered by the same warranty as the rest of the car.
Its not the fastest car I’ve ever owned, but it is easily the most comfortable and reliable. Worst car I’ve ever owned was a Golf. Volkswagen must have seem me coming.
I bought five of them starting with 3gs and all of them iare in working condition and in use except 3gs whitch is to slow for anything but good old calls.
So, I don’t throw away anything usable and considering waterproofing on this 7, I hope that it will go through another couple of years before opening and braking factory sealant. And yes, 80 bucks (in my country it’s much more - 130 USD) is to much considering other brands and my 20 usd plan (unlimited text, voice, theatering and 4 GB, iptv and deezer are not counted)
Jeez, there are some people here that are just really bad at trolling, or are a few cards short of a full deck.
Perhaps the root question is, if the iPhone battery can only be officially changed by Apple or an authorized service representative (and at a cost determined by Apple) and we know that the term 'phone' is employed very lightly in this day and age as far more time is dedicated to non voice use than voice use, how long should a battery reasonably last?
While few or none would say 'forever' I know a few people who will argue that they need to last longer than they currently do in the current use situations.
If you use up all the minimum charge cycles that Apple says you should get out of a stock battery (allowing for ambiental impact on performance) before the warranty is up, should you have to pay for a new battery or was the original battery design simply not designed with enough capacity in the first place to handle what we already know is a typical usage pattern?
I think the French investigation will take this kind or argument into account.
There are many potential solutions to issues like this which range from increasing the battery capacity through to offering a guarantee on battery life (as opposed to focussing on cycles) and making the battery user replaceable etc.
Solutions have to be reasonable too so it wouldn't make sense to put a one kilo battery onto a phone.