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Apple Apologizes For iPhone Slowdown Drama, Will Offer $29 Battery Replacements (theverge.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Apple just published a letter to customers apologizing for the "misunderstanding" around older iPhones being slowed down, following its recent admission that it was, in fact, slowing down older phones in order to compensate for degrading batteries. "We know that some of you feel Apple has let you down," says the company. "We apologize." Apple says in its letter that batteries are "consumable components," and is offering anyone with an iPhone 6 or later a battery replacement for $29 starting in late January through December 2018 -- a discount of $50 from the usual replacement cost. Apple's also promising to add features to iOS that provide more information about the battery health in early 2018, so that users are aware of when their batteries are no longer capable of supporting maximum phone performance.
Saying all of that in the beginning would have saved them a lot of grief. It's not like they solved a mystery today. So, why did they not simply disclose this? They could have buried it in a KB article and been done with it.
Beware of the Leopard.
As I understand it, the lawsuits don't really have much to do with battery life, but rather Apple intentionally slowing devices as new devices are released. Do I have that right? IANAL, of course.
Beware of the Leopard.
And those are likely to be dismissed - no evidence yet shows any correlation between iOS version and performance scores that's not actually due to a poor battery.
FWIW, I replaced the battery in my 3yo iPhone 6 a few months ago, and it despite heavy use it hadn't dropped enough to trigger the slowdown. It had degraded noticeably from a battery life standpoint though, so well worth replacing regardless.
You're special forces then? That's great! I just love your olympics!
for Apple a bit like BGR did
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
From the article on the $29 battery replacement:
Apple's also promising to add features to iOS that provide more information about the battery health in early 2018, so that users are aware of when their batteries are no longer capable of supporting maximum phone performance
I'm more happy about that than anything, it will be great to have something concrete to point to if someones phone seems slow and I want to rule out an old battery being part of the issue.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
That's inside a phone SEALED SHUT with **GLUE**.
So early on after iOS 10 was released, we started to see a significant number of people reporting an issue where their phone batteries would be at 30% (or thereabouts) and suddenly the phone would just quit. This apparently is the problem the 10.2.1+ slowdown was intended to fix, and the one Apple is saying is due to older batteries not being able to provide as much power under load, as it were.
So if this was simply an "old degraded battery" issue - why didn't we have people reporting these problems in iOS 9, iOS 8, or earlier? It seems to me that the battery problem can only be part of this story.
#DeleteChrome
I'm guessing this comes with some paper work to sign bowing out of any class action. I've replaced three iPhones now due to declining performance and I'm guessing this was to culprit.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
1. User buys iPhone.
2. iPhone gets "slow."
3. Users sells iPhone back.
4. Replace battery.
5. Sell "refurbished" iPhone to another user for a tidy profit.
by including in iOS the ability to see health information of battery like you can on MacBooks. Show the Cycle Count and Condition and other pertinent info so users have a better idea of when the battery is bad and needs replacing.
Then start designing a phone with a battery that can easily be replaced without a suction cup, specialized screwdriver, and three or four other tools.
If the average consumer canâ(TM)t pop a new one in then the phone is consumable, not the battery.
... it's better to ask forgiveness than permission.
If they remove the slowdown, then they will be admitting that the excuse was a lie in the first place. So providing inexpensive batteries doesn't force them to admit to lying and open themselves up to a lawsuit.
Obviously I don't know if the original excuse was true or not, but this was pretty much the only thing that they could have done in either case.
Does anyone know enough about Li Ion batteries to weigh in on whether or not this makes sense? Does the peak power capability drop enough that its likely it couldn't support the power use?
These are my favorite types of corporate apologies:
"We at Apple want to apologize to any of our snowflake consumers who misunderstood our intent to force them into our new models. We did not mean to offend these little pricks who expect our products to work more than a couple of years. Now send us some money and we'll totally fix the problem we created."
You are welcome on my lawn.
Seriously... How can anyone even think that this was an unintentional by-product of some other update? Has Apple really gotten that sloppy with their software development process? ... Really.... Apple is famed for their software developemnt process and the user experience it creates. imo, this was an intentional "feature" that the fan bois would love. Unfortunately, it backfired.
A battery pack costs Apple about $5: https://technology.ihs.com/api/binary/595761
Which means they are only making a $24 profit instead of $74.
Where is Apple getting the free labor from?
Did they do it all on purpose for some twisted marketing reason, from slowing it down, to leaking the problem, to giving a solution. The X is not selling well. I was at my carrier's store getting a new phone today (not an apple) and asked about the X. The manager said they had 20 in stock and they were not moving. Worse for them, they own it, can't discount it and can't return unsold inventory back to apple. There could be some very unhappy carriers if the get stuck with a bunch of X's. Could this battery getting headlines actually help sales of the X in some weird way?
Well, sort of. I figured they’d offer free battery replacements to settle the lawsuits, but I guess they’re trying to get out in front of it. IMO, and standard IANAL disclaimer applied, if they had offered the replacements for free, it would make it difficult for the plaintiffs in the lawsuits to show any harm. Apple could cite legitimate engineering reasons why they took the action they did, and show that they were willing to restore devices to full original performance levels at no cost to the device owner, effectively making them whole. I doubt many judges would have the time of day for people who voluntarily refuse to avail themselves of a free service.
Wouldn’t surprise me at all if they end up having to reduce the price to free in order to settle the lawsuits, and then deal with the hassle and expense of refunding the money to everyone who coughed up the $30 before it was free.
The parent is stating that Apple is "only making a $24 profit" which isn't true.
The battery might "costs Apple about $5" but the parent fails to factor in the cost of labor, rent, electricity, and other overhead costs. Apple's true profit is lower.
Make iPhones with USER-REPLACEABLE batteries, FFS. I have an old string-trimmer with a rechargeable/removeable Li-Io battery. On a full charge, when the battery gets low, there's a slight decrease in RPM for a while, then it dies. I then squeeze the release mechanism on the trimmer, slide the battery off, & drop it into the charger. I then grab my fully-charged spare battery, slap it onto the trimmer, & I'm back in business. How fuckin' cool is that?
Has Apple really gotten that sloppy with their software development process?
Have you not been paying attention to the parade of Apple software bugaboos, large and small, that’ve occurred in the fairly recent past? Do you - or anyone in your circle of friends - honestly think iOS 11 is functionally better than iOS 10? Do you honestly believe that High Sierra is an improvement over Sierra, or that Sierra was an improvement over El Capitan?
Looking back a bit further... did you watch as Apple basically threw away a professional niche they pretty much owned with the ill-planned “update” known as Final Cut Pro X?
The days when Apple was known for software quality far above the competition is long gone. It’s true a number of us have still stuck around... I can’t really say if that’s just inertia, due to a potentially ill-founded hope they’ll return to the quality company they once were, or caused by something else though.
#DeleteChrome
is make a striped down bare bones OS that just does the basic things the phone was made for, make phone calls, text msgs, camera, at least allow them to continue being used as a phone if the full features are vulnerable or no longer available as supported secure software, no need in annoying customers any worse than necessary or bricking otherwise good phones both of which would be bad business ideas
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
Although people who are accustomed to paying Apple's prices probably won't be bothered.
The first time I replaced the battery in an Android phone (an HTC G1) it cost me $6.95. Including shipping. The second time it was cheaper.
(Appropriately, my captcha says "nameless".)
The iOS update itself is the cause.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Scaling back performance "because of the battery".... lmao. Yea right. They were scaling back performance to push new device sales.
$29 Battery replacement is not a good solution. They are most likely still profiting from this because batteries aren't that expensive anyway. Telling someone they can have a $10 battery installed for $29, onsale from the normal $99 price, is still helping people who've you've scammed into buying newer devices.
Completely unacceptable. They should have some sort of compensation for the damages, not just a cut in profits.
Your phone depends on complex thermal and power management to avoid unpleasant things like suddenly shutting down, burning your privates or bursting in flames. When the later case occurs, like with Note 7, you have a cause to complain. Otherwise, it's normal for performance to vary based on the weather or a particular bumper case. Would you prefer for devices to be artificially throttled when conditions allow faster operations so you don't get disappointed when they are a little slower?
the non-apology.
a chance to give apple more money!
Oh, boy!
$30 rather than $1k for a new phone.
Apple sure are some evil geniuses...
Has Apple really gotten that sloppy with their software development process? ... Really.... Apple is famed for their software developemnt process and the user experience it creates. imo, this was an intentional "feature" that the fan bois would love. Unfortunately, it backfired.
Have you been living under a rock for the last 3-4 years? Apple's software quality is on par with a high school computer class these days. They can't even merge OS fixes from one OS forward into the next release branch.
Hmmn, I wonder if they also do this with Macbooks as well? Seems an easy way to avoid complaints with the batteries in laptops as well?
It's not free - look at the that summary and you'll see that labour is approximately 2.4% of cost price.
Seriously? So the labor to replace the battery only costs 12Â?
Ken
Car companies sell cars with lots of parts that wear out. You generally pay for new ones when the car is serviced.
Oh, goodness gracious- you caught us. We're so embarrassed that we'll use this opportunity to sell you something else, like an overpriced battery. Aren't we just a bunch of naughty little rascals?
Hey, look over there- it's the iPhoneXs! The "s" is for "suckers", but you knew that, and we know you'll STILL buy it!
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
It would put them closer to par with their hardware development process. They've been designing hardware with major flaws for years and never acknowledging a thing. If a customer complains loud enough, they get a free replacement with no explanation - but no recalls, no attempts at anything better. Especially see every Macbook Pro for the last 10 years.
As I understand it, the lawsuits don't really have much to do with battery life, but rather Apple intentionally slowing devices as new devices are released. Do I have that right? IANAL, of course.
My understanding is that the lawsuits are about the fact that Apple concealed from users the fact that slowing down thw phones was done to prevent a degraded battery from causing intermittent shutdowns, in the hope that users would buy a new phone rather than opting for a much less expensive battery replacement.
Oh, so now it only costs twice as much as other phones' batteries... until the price cut expires in a year.
Sounds about as good as the Republican tax plan.
All of this would be prevented by offering user-replaceable batteries. But gracious, no, we can't have that! We must keep customers on a hedonic hamster-wheel of annual upgrades! And wouldn't it be blasphemous if the phone had to be a whole millimetre thicker to support such replacement!
'He who has to break a thing to find out what it is, has left the path of wisdom.' -- Gandalf to Saruman
if anything I only see my battery get stronger over time!
that is the sort of dumb shit I would expect an apple fanboy to say. Seriously Apple are arseholes we know that, that doesn't mean you should make up garbage like that and if you actually believe it is true you better sell it back to Samsung as I am sure they would be interested in this magical battery.
Even a severely degraded battery is capable of supporting maximum phone performance.
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.
No other phone on the market slows down no matter how bad the battery gets.
I'm not willing to make the same claim that Apple is the only phone maker smart enough to optimize for what people most want out of a phone generally - battery life.
I'm pretty sure some other Android maker must care more about users than performance metrics? Yet you seem so sure, hmm.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
"User Replaceable Battery -There is absolutely no reason why Apple, and every other mobile device can't do this."
Yes there is, it's because all of the space taken up by battery casing and door support is space you could have used for more battery.
That's why most Android makers are also going with sealed batteries - which are still user replaceable if you care, which most do not.
Also dropping the option for user replaceable batteries solves a huge problem - the utter crappiness of third-party batteries these days. Sure back in the old days you could buy some other replacement battery for a motorola flip phone and things would be fine. But electronics now are a lot more demanding, I've seen third party batteries now cause issues for things like cameras because they simply are not built to the same specs as the manufacturer battery. With Apple and every other maker having sealed batteries, it presents less opportunity for users to make catastrophic mistakes.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Actually I do find the feature useful. I would prefer my phone last longer than for the apps to run smoother.... itâ(TM)s.... ultimately a phone.
But hey, we got cheaper Batt replacements so not a bad outcome! ;)
Actually I think all they could have done is to make it a setting and default it to on.... so whoever donâ(TM)t like it can turn it off.
Fuck, you're being obtuse. Up until recently, people thought their best option to a slow phone was a newer $1000 phone, not a $79 repair. People think of battery as operating life, not operating performance. If it reports having juice, it should be at max speed, right? By hiding this "feature", many people couldn't make an informed decision. Given the new information, how many people would have been happy to replace the battery instead of the phone? Apple is going to take a beating on new sales because now that this is public, those old, slow ass phones will get a $29 new battery and resold for cheaper than a new phone. The resale market is going to boom and people will not upgrade as often.
Fucking iOS. Push the motherfucking fix, already!
I'm an apple fan, and their not making the info available right up front, "hey guys, new feature! we call it replicant-survival mode, where the candle which burns half as bright burns... ah whatever you get it, anyway, it is there", was definitely an oversight/bad decision/rubbish.
A lot of people will sensibly think, yeah ok, that feature makes sense, even if there was no way to turn it off. If you have an old phone, you are probably into "conserving" anyway, so it makes lots of sense.
It certainly is.
It looks like either they did a really poor job of power supply design (other phones don't "suddenly shut down" and they don't have this "feature"), or that they're just throttling for the obvious reason: they want you to buy a new phone.
As for their protest, quoted verbatim here from their letter:
They threw the PPC emulation out the window for just as little reason (no, probably less.) They let all those user's software suddenly go obsolete for a reason that boils down to "weren't going to pay for the emulation any longer", again, when they had tons of cash to maintain the tech and users had tons of PPC software. I still support PPC software running on (very) old machines, specifically because there is no reasonable in-OS upgrade path that lets that stuff keep running. The irony is that the massive power of the machines we have now would make those apps run very well indeed — and we know Apple did this as a choice, not a need.
I have more examples. From apps they took out of the store because they had integrated the tech into a new phone, thereby removing the possibility of users of an older phone having the tech unless they upgraded — to severe bugs they leave mouldering in old versions of the OS while not allowing upgrades to the new version of the OS, Apple is a known serial offender of the "let's pressure the customer."
Apple is lying here. Flat-out lying. And caught at it.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Oh, so now it only costs twice as much as other phones' batteries... until the price cut expires in a year.
Sounds about as good as the Republican tax plan.
Prove it"
An actual fix would be to allow users to decide whether they want performance or battery time.
Fuck, you're being obtuse. Up until recently, people thought their best option to a slow phone was a newer $1000 phone, not a $79 repair. People think of battery as operating life, not operating performance. If it reports having juice, it should be at max speed, right?
By hiding this "feature", many people couldn't make an informed decision. Given the new information, how many people would have been happy to replace the battery instead of the phone?
Apple is going to take a beating on new sales because now that this is public, those old, slow ass phones will get a $29 new battery and resold for cheaper than a new phone. The resale market is going to boom and people will not upgrade as often.
Dumbfuck. When you get your battery replaced by Apple, you get your original phone BACK.
I'm an apple fan, and their not making the info available right up front, "hey guys, new feature! we call it replicant-survival mode, where the candle which burns half as bright burns... ah whatever you get it, anyway, it is there", was definitely an oversight/bad decision/rubbish.
A lot of people will sensibly think, yeah ok, that feature makes sense, even if there was no way to turn it off. If you have an old phone, you are probably into "conserving" anyway, so it makes lots of sense.
I think Apple realizes NOW, that it should have been more transparent about what their "fix" for the premature shutdown issue was actually doing. My personal opinion was that they expected that their timing changes would be small and relatively infrequent, and so really WOULDN'T be noticed by Users. But then Real Life intervened, and some phones' batteries were bad enough that the temporary throttling WAS noticeable; especially when compared to what performance was AFTER a battery-change...
And the rest is history.
TL;dr
Even big, "evil" corporations make mistakes. Apple is handling this as best as can be expected.
if anything I only see my battery get stronger over time!
that is the sort of dumb shit I would expect an apple fanboy to say.
But unsurprisingly to everyone else, a Fandroid said it.
Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
Not even Apple fanboys will go that far.
They will normally tout how a long time missing feature once implemented is so superior to the other implementations (The swipe features in iOS 11 is so much more innovative then WebOS a decade ago).
If the feature isn't in the device, they will defend why they don't need such a feature. (We don't need a fast charger as part of our device, as most people will just charge it overnight)
Any fanboys for any technology seem to be equally as bad. But right now Apple is in the #1 spot so there is some added smugness.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
This "removable" meaning is that anybody is able to remove and insert the battery, not only a bunch of specialized and well equipped geeks.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
Source: apple.com, Amazon.com
I'm glad they're finally figuring this out. Maybe batteries will become easier to replace?
Sorry, I don't know what came over me. Of course they won't. By the time the battery is significantly degraded, the next version of the product will be out.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
But hey, we got cheaper Batt replacements so not a bad outcome! ;)
I suppose, in the sense that someone telling you "I'm going to temporarily stop assaulting you" is a "good outcome".
You're not getting my point. I'm sure it's my fault for not being clear. I wasn't saying it wasn't possible to design such a lousy power supply that a phone would not collapse under load, or that there weren't such badly/cheaply designed phones out there; On the contrary, I was saying there are phones out there that don't do this, so this unequivocally demonstrates the opposite (to the non-engineers... we engineering types already know very well it's possible to make sure adequate power is available if the battery isn't on its very last legs): It's 100% possible to design and emplace a power supply that won't collapse under load when the battery is not fully charged.
Bottom line: either the iPhone would collapse and required this slowdown, in which case Apple put an under-par power supply in their very-expensive-phone and tried to hide it, or it's propaganda to cover up the fact that they were trying to drive customers to a new phone, or it is both.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Source: apple.com, Amazon.com
So, you're SERIOUSLY going to compare Apple's REAL OEM batteries to some slabs of plastic-wrapped aftermarket bacon off of some STILL-UNREFERENCED source on AMAZON?'!?
Got it!
Apple is missing an opportunity to introduce a proprietary battery enclosure and interface to solve this in future phones. Make it water proof with all white plastic design and it'll sell better than earpods. They can even claim they invented removable batteries.