Apple came under fire for purposefully throttling older iPhone performance because of aged batteries, and the company even admitted to doing it. They implemented a “power management” plan through an iOS update.
The “power management” plan was to help prevent phones from crashing in situations when their batteries couldn’t hold enough juice to supply when the phone needed it. It wasn’t necessarily the fact that Apple implemented the system, rather it was because iPhone users didn’t know about it and weren’t given a choice whether if they wanted to participate in the plan or not.
Apple issued an apology and lowered the price of battery replacements to reduce backlash, and further stated that a future iOS update will inform users when the phone detects battery problems and give users a choice whether they want to participate in the feature or not.
In an interview with ABC News, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that not only will iPhone owners be able to check the health of their batteries, but will also have the option to turn off the performance-slowing power management feature, should they want to. Cook said “maybe we should have been clearer,” and stated that Apple’s motivation behind these types of decision is to always have the user in mind.
The bigger question now is will these moves help Apple avoid numerous lawsuits that it’s facing because of this fiasco? Only time will tell. The preview of these changes is expected to come in a developer preview later this month.
