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Quelle Surprise! Apple Rips Off Owners of Older iPhones
One of the reasons I have owned Apple desktop and laptop computers (once I finally had to abandon my NeXT) was that you could use them for longer than comparable Microsoft boxes (unless you were a hard core techie and very good at cannibalizing and reassembling parts). I used my TiBook for 8 1/2 years, and then a MacBook Air for 5 1/2 years, and probably could have eked another year out of it. That plus it requiring pretty much no tech support justified the high price.

Now Apple has knocked the foundations out from under the “longer potential product life” argument. While the Cupertino company admitted to misconduct only as far as older iPhones are concerned, it’s not hard to imagine that this extends to other products as well. Here is the overview from the Wall Street Journal, which gives only the official corporate-speak version:

Apple Inc., facing questions from users and tech analysts about reduced performance in older iPhones, acknowledged Wednesday that its latest software curtails the computing power of some models to prevent unexpected shutdowns..

The statement came two days after John Poole, founder of the computer-performance testing group Geekbench, wrote a blog post illustrating how iPhone computing performance slows as battery health declines on iPhone 6s and iPhone 7 devices.

Apple said that as iPhone batteries age, or in certain conditions such as cold weather or at low charge, they can struggle to respond to a phone’s power demands. This can cause the device to unexpectedly shut down to protect “its electronic components,” the company said.

Apple Inc., facing questions from users and tech analysts about reduced performance in older iPhones, acknowledged Wednesday that its latest software curtails the computing power of some models to prevent unexpected shutdowns.

It was a rare statement from the company that shed light on how Apple internally dealt with a growing user complaint.

The statement came two days after John Poole, founder of the computer-performance testing group Geekbench, wrote a blog post illustrating how iPhone computing performance slows as battery health declines on iPhone 6s and iPhone 7 devices.

Apple said that as iPhone batteries age, or in certain conditions such as cold weather or at low charge, they can struggle to respond to a phone’s power demands. This can cause the device to unexpectedly shut down to protect “its electronic components,” the company said.

If you believe Apple’s excuses, I have a bridge I’d like to sell you. First, Apple didn’t fess up to its practice until it was caught out. Second, if this “throttling” were a benefit to customers, as opposed to Apple, they’d tell you about it proudly. I don’t know about how rapidly newer phone batteries decay, but as a laptop owner, it’s something I anticipate and expect to have to manage around as my machine gets older. Or at least they could have allowed customers to opt out of this throttling feature.

Let’s be clear as to what Apple is doing: it deliberately downgrades older phones when you update your software. And since Apple (and Google) heretofore have never demonstrated undue concern about the impact of drained batteries on devices, it’s pretty obvious that the reason for selectively downgrading the performance of older devices is to speed replacements.

And further consider: if Apple had choked performance across the board, that might have been too obvious, as well as too difficult to rationalize if outsiders could prove it or an insider leaked.

Business Insider published a more consumer-oriented story, save consistently presenting users who were early to flag the performance problem as “conspiracy theorists”. Ahem, if anyone engaged in a conspiracy, it was Apple that was conspiring against its customers. But in this Best of All Possible Worlds that we inhabit, anyone who questions the established order must be a rabble rouser or crank, right?