In First Ruling of Its Kind, Apple and Samsung Fined For Deliberately Slowing Down Old Phones (theguardian.com)

An investigation by Italy's competition authority has found that software updates "significantly reduced performance" on Samsung's Android handsets and iPhones. From a report: Apple and Samsung are being fined Euro 10m ($11.4m) and Euro 5m ($5.7) respectively in Italy for the "planned obsolescence" of their smartphones. An investigation launched in January by the nation's competition authority found that certain smartphone software updates had a negative effect on the performance of the devices. Believed to be the first ruling of its kind against smartphone manufacturers, the investigation followed accusations operating system updates for older phones slowed them down, thereby encouraging the purchase of new phones.

In a statement the antitrust watchdog said "Apple and Samsung implemented dishonest commercial practices" and that operating system updates "caused serious malfunctions and significantly reduced performance, thus accelerating phones' substitution." It added the two firms had not provided clients adequate information about the impact of the new software "or any means of restoring the original functionality of the products."

Comments

Italian Legal System

[Thelasko]

I would like to remind everyone that the Italian legal system is the same one that tried to put geologists in jail for an earthquake, and tried Amanda Knox for murder despite already convicting another person for that crime.

Let me know when another country reaches the same findings, because I don't have confidence in Italian courts.

Re:Italian Legal System

[AmiMoJo]

The very first sentence of your own link:

"The man accused of sending a group of scientists to the central Italian city of Lâ(TM)Aquila in 2009 to falsely reassure citizens that no major earthquake was about to strike"

The issue was that they told people there was little risk, which resulted in them not taking precautions. They were not prosecuted "for an earthquake", as you suggest.

Their legal system has enough issues for you not to have to strawman it.

As for Knox, in most European countries it is possible for two people to convicted of the same murder. Even if only one of them physically murdered the victim the law considers being closely involved, as it is alleged that she was, is also murder. That's how the law works here, maybe in the US it would be "accessory to murder" or something, I'm not an expert.

Courts Do Not Understand Tech

[TheFakeTimCook]

This ruling is proof-positive that Courts, by and large, (and definitely this Court) do not understand "Tech".

I don't know about Google; but in the case of Apple:

Apple explained what their "motivations" were (which was to provide the User with an OVERALL more RELIABLE experience). Court OBVIOUSLY didn't get it.

Many, many instances of people with NON-clock-speed-managed phones (both Apple AND Android) having their phones showing what appeared to be "plenty" of battery charge suddenly reboot due to a voltage-dip from a sudden spike in CPU/GPU load. Court OBVIOUSLY didn't understand batteries, physics, nor di/dt issues in digital electronics.

Apple has already explained and given the User the CHOICE to "live dangerously" (by electing to disable this part of power-management). Court OBVIOUSLY didn't understand this.

Apple has already mitigated the root-cause of the matter (battery-aging), which again, is a fact of PHYSICS, by offering low-cost battery replacements to ANY of the "affected" phones.

Apple has gone to great lengths to release a version of IOS that SPECIFICALLY (and quite frankly, dramatically) IMPROVES the overall PERFORMANCE of OLDER PHONES, not by removing any "slowdowns"; but by running-around and seeing where they could make individual processes more efficient, and also by decreasing the amount of "ramp up" time for clock-speed in response to greater loads. (one spec I saw took that ramp-up time from 450ms to 80ms. Those things add-up...)

Apple is now supporting SEVEN generations of the iPhone (and about 5 generations of iPad) with the latest version of IOS 12 (the same IOS 12 that specifically and vastly IMPROVES the performance of OLDER devices).

So, tell me: How was ANY of this "Anti-Consumer"? How was ANY of this "In furtherance of a plot to trick people into Upgrading unnecessarily?"

Re: Did they put in spin loop on sleep()?

[Shaitan]

"In other words, the developers are building kernels, OS's, and apps for new hardware, not the old stuff."

Huh? That isn't a paraphrase of what you quoted at all. You quoted apple admitting they've intentionally slowed down older phones under the guise of extending battery life.