Apple Getting Sued For $999 Billion For Slowing Down Older iPhones

in #news7 years ago

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So, the rumors were indeed correct and Apple had indeed been slowing down older iPhones and all of this wasn’t just another conspiracy theory concocted by unhappy users.

If you don’t know what’s going on or have never used an iPhone before, basically, there has been this long going belief among many users that as their iPhones got older, they started getting slower and the performance of their devices started to decrease and that, this was done deliberately by Apple to make them buy newer phones.

Till now, this was always shrugged off by tech pundits as being either a psychological effect (when new devices are launched older ones ‘feel’ slow) or at the very best, by stating that the older hardware just wasn’t enough to handle the newer iOS versions and its demands.

All the speculation about the whole thing was laid to rest when about two weeks ago, Apple admitted that it was indeed slowing down older iPhones but not to force users to upgrade but for another reason altogether.

Why Did Apple Do So?

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It is obvious that anybody would instantly think that Apple did it so that consumers get rid of their old, slow phones and buy new ones, hence increasing the profits for Apple, especially because in the last few years, Apple has indeed come off as more money hungry than ever before.

The company however, claims that they did so to “protect against battery problems and prolong the life of iPhones” and are actually calling it a ‘feature’ that they released with iOS 10.2.1.

Following the backlash by consumers all around the world, the company released an apology on its website to explain the situation and their reasoning behind it. They maintained that they would never intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product.

According to the explanation provided by them, as batteries get older, they tend to hold less charge (which is true of all lithium ion batteries). As this happens, the battery is no longer capable of delivering peak energy loads, which might cause a device to shut down again and again.

To prevent this, they pushed a software update that manages the maximum performance of the hardware to prevent these shutdowns, which resulted in slower functioning of the devices. To restore the full performance of their devices, consumers needed to get their old battery replaced.

A $999 Billion Lawsuit

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If that number sounds outright crazy to you, that’s because it is. Even Apple’s market cap is not there yet. But that’s not stopping Violetta Mailyan from suing Apple for an insane $999 billion, alleging fraud through concealment.

There are seven more lawsuits being filed against Apple including one for $100 million by Raisa Drantivy and her legal team which is a saner number at least!

This shows the anger of the people against the tech giant. Really, I think they should have been upfront about it from the get go and should have clearly stated that all consumers needed to do was to get their battery replaced and not mislead them into buying new phones altogether.

As damage control, Apple has launched a battery replacement program for the affected phones (iPhone 6, 6s, SE and 7) under which users can get their batteries replaced for $29 down from $79 that Apple used to charge before. The program will be available worldwide, till December 2018.

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Apple was great when it was a fruit

I wish I can upvote 100000x this comment! haha

hi there ... thanks so much

Another similar one is ... I loved life more when apple and blackberry was just a fruit 😜😜😜❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

ha ha ha, really nicely said :-)

Now it is a vegetable :D

Ha ha ha ... great one

I'm one of those 2.5 year old iPhone users. Does that mean my class-action payout will be bigger?

I really don't know. Talk to your lawyer.

May be Apple is slowing old iphones by secretly mining crypto-currencies on it....

lol (Top Ten Movie Plot Twists) XD

That would indeed be kind of a genius move... who knows ;)

Hahaha nice one, android ftw

I don't think so. It would have been discovered by now by ios developers.

Never trust an Apple if you can't eat it.

Ha ha ha .... this is not an apple .... some may tell you it’s an apple .... this is not an apple ....

Haha!

It's not coming as a surprise for me! However, I do think it is stupid that Apple users have to pay to get their batteries replaces since it is a "mistake" from Apple's side, so the least thing they could do would be to provide a free battery for the people whom they affected...

LOL I don't think we should expect anything 'free' from Apple of all companies. hehe

No, unfortunately not. But if they had good costumer service they would've given it to us ;-)

have you seen the price to change the glass back cover of iphoneX ?? ranges from 350$ to 550$

I have, it is absolutely ridiculous. Even the price of the phone is way to expensive in the first place!

A mistake or a plan that netted someone a large bonus for cooking it up?
Big business donates to questionable causes, often helmed by cronies or their offspring while finding all manner of creative ways to maximize their profits, while looking down their noses at all of us struggling in this landscape made less to function well and more to benefit the few.
Imagine if they actually had business ethics. What an immensely different world we would be in right now.

This is exactly why I wrote it like "mistake" ;-) It is unbelievable what it has all come down to these days... All about maximizing profits and forgetting the ethics, like you say. It's quite funny actually because I'm taking an Econ course at uni right now, and they teach us that both firms and consumers act rational and care about fairness. I guess that's just in theory...

I actually already bought a new battery by the time I saw this for my older 5S. here's to hoping that after I get it in and working that I have the performance boost

They are still doing a good job. But they need to change a few things for sure.

so buy android, once you buy it you are complete owner of it :)

The problem occurs even on android phones. I have seen Samsung Galaxy S series phones get slower just after a year of purchase.

Yes I had an Iphone 4 that I used for nearly 4 years then it started getting slower and some problems started appearing till it crashed. Now I am using Sony Xperia. Till now it is OK and no problem. Lets see for how long it can last :)
I had more problems with Samsung and now I dont want to buy it anymore. I had two Samsung phones in my life and dont understand if Samsung was the problem or the Android system.
Nice post, thank you for sharing !

That's basically what happened to my wife's iPhone 5. She's getting a Moto. I had a Galaxy S3 a few years ago. I liked it, but the power button broke, so it would just restart and restart. ha ha

hhhh My Samsung had problem with battery and the screen was frozen whenever I get a call. Was really annoying :(

I don't think the iPhone 4 was affected by this problem. The company states that only phones starting from iPhone 6 has this "feature". Anyways, I think the slowing down of your iPhone 4 was due to the processor being old.