Apple reduced the cost of replacement batteries in response to performance controversy
Apple reduced the cost of replacement batteries in response to performance controversy
This issue would ruin the user experience of affected devices, literally cutting battery life in half, forcing Apple to implement a crude solution to prevent the phone from shutting down in this way. Apple released an update that caused phones with worn batteries to run in a lower power state, reducing the device’s performance and making the device appear slower to users. Apple was slowing down their older devices without telling their users.Â
The reasoning for this “slowing down” of devices is clear, it was tacked an engineering problem that would ruin the device’s user experience. The problem is that Apple did not inform consumers that their phone was slower, or tell them that a replacement battery would return their devices to their original speeds, leading to accusations that Apple was slowing down their older devices to force users to upgrade to newer models.Â
Apple has now released a lengthy apology to their users, promising to reduce the cost of iPhone battery replacements for iPhone 6 or newer handsets by $50 between Late January and the end of 2018. This change will reduce the cost of battery replacements from $79 to $29 in the US. Apple also plans to release an iOS update that will bring users new features to allow users to judge the health of their iPhone’s battery better, as well as improve how they manage the performance of phones with worn batteries. Â
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At this time, is it unknown if any other phone manufacturers have utilised a similar method to limit the performance of their devices, though to say the least Apple’s solution to the problem is crude and did not inform consumers about the performance changes caused by recent iPhone updates. Â
Apple’s solution limited the performance of iPhones at all times, even when a phone was fully charged and should have been capable of supply enough voltage for peak performance. An ideal solution would have been to allow devices to run as normal and then throttle when the phone discharges and runs into the risk of random shutdowns. After all, this issue only affected devices when the battery was at 50% charge or lower.
One other solution for this issue would be for Apple to offer better battery specifications for future iPhones, batteries that are more capable of meeting their power requirements later in their lifespan. Another alternative would be to release iPhones with CPUs that didn’t push the envelope as far to allow devices to avoid this issue. Either way, Apple’s phones either need better batteries or CPUs that are designed with long-term battery characteristics in mind.
Apple plans to reduce the cost of replacement batteries in early 2018. More information about this will be available in the coming weeks.Â
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