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Apple Confirms It Degrades Your Old iPhone

73 points by kjhughes 9y ago

_sdegutis 9y ago
So basically it does what’s reasonable to protect your hardware. Not really worthy of the ominous clickbait title here.
- for55 9y ago
  If you buy a car with a V8 engine, and after a few months it decides to become an L4 engine, without telling you, is that ok? The headline is completely correct.
  - rubbingalcohol 9y ago
    I'm not sure why you're getting downvoted when Apple advertises performance as a selling point of their devices.
    - grzm 9y ago
      I suspect because it's not a completely fair comparison from an account created apparently to post this criticism. Apple is apparently trying to mitigate the phone from shutting down under load the battery can no longer support. I'm not sure how to mangle the metaphor to make it more appropriate (my imagination is flagging), but one could argue Apple is trying to make sure the car still runs, even if it's limping along, rather than leaving you stranded on the side of the road at an inopportune time.
      - heavenlyblue 9y ago
        So instead of making you turn your car to the service; they make you buy a new car by omitting the fact that your car’s performance is degraded due to another reason?
        jackvalentine 9y ago
        This is the crux of the matter - the lack of transparency may have earned them millions (billions?) in additional sales. It remains to be seen how this news affects their goodwill but I suspect not much.
        grzm 9y ago
        As has been pointed out in multiple other comments here and elsewhere and in other articles, you can actually get the battery replaced as opposed to buying a new phone, which would be bringing your car into service. I had a phone which was exhibiting poor performance. I called up support, and they were able to run diagnostics remotely, and determine the battery needed to be replaced, which I was able to have done the following day. There are plenty of people who would rather Apple made a different tradeoff with respect to batteries in general, which is fine, and people are free to buy a different phone. My comment was trying to answer the question posed to my parent as to why someone might have downvoted their parent. Let's not continue to abuse this already poor metaphor.
        philipwhiuk 9y ago
        "As has been pointed out in multiple other comments here and elsewhere and in other articles, you can actually get the battery replaced as opposed to buying a new phone, which would be bringing your car into service." But the ordinary consumer has no idea. They just see their phone is slower than the fancy new ones. Why would they assume it's a battery problem.
        grzm 9y ago
        > "They just see their phone is slower than the fancy new ones." I really don't know how to respond to this. Isn't that going to be the case regardless? New phones are going to be faster. If they see a performance degradation on their phone, they've got some options to them. The easiest would be to have the phone looked at, as I did. They could also search the web for ideas as to what's wrong. Or they could give up and buy a new phone, maybe not Apple. There's a whole host of things going on here. Some people want user-replaceable batteries. Some people want better diagnostics in the phone. Some want better control over what's going on in the phone. I understand and in some cases sympathize with these positions. I also understand that Apple has to make tradeoffs when designing their products, both hardware and software, keeping in mind how people are going to use them and how they'll interpret different behaviors. Same thing with every other manufacturer out there. I'm bowing out of this. I intended just to point out why someone might have downvoted the comment above, and I've let myself get dragged into justifying alternative ways of thinking about the situation. I guess this is what leads to a lot of comments asking why something was downvoted or flagged or whatever: some people aren't willing to take the time to think through what alternatives might be, and whether they might be be reasonable, even if you don't agree with them. That's a shame, because it's crucial to being able to understand people you don't already agree with or how others may perceive your own actions. I'm not here to argue for argument's sake.
- lovehashbrowns 9y ago
  I really don't think that's the case here. This issue is probably related to the battery, but the fact that there was no notice indicates to me that there are ulterior motives at play here. Obviously their corporate-speak is going to highlight the one kernel of truth in the matter, and they'll never admit that this was done for the side-effect that it would have on sales of new devices.
jackvalentine 9y ago
I just wish they'd been more transparent - perhaps a message in the battery section of settings saying "your performance may be impacted because of your degraded battery. It's recommended you replace it" or something. New batteries are $119AU which I think is a reasonable price to pay after two years or so. Everyone knows components in cars need replacing, including batteries, so I think people can be reasoned with in to accepting the same is for consumer goods you want to keep beyond the average phone contract term.
- simonblack 9y ago
  "I just wish they'd been more transparent " I don't see it as a lack of transparency. That smacks of underhand and fraudulent behaviour. I won't buy another iPhone. In a similar vein, you can no longer move photos from your computer to your iPhone unless you subscribe to the paid Cloud service. iTunes will no longer allow you to do that.
  - jackvalentine 9y ago
    OK.
  - godelmachine 9y ago
    Since when was this restriction imposed ?
- Justin_K 9y ago
  119 for a $5 battery is not reasonable.
  - jackvalentine 9y ago
    With installation and warranty on the work carried out it's entirely reasonable.
    - Justin_K 9y ago
      That's just bullshit overhead that Apple likes to bake in. How about a removable battery so customers arent screwed every 2 years?
Danilka 9y ago
WTF, from 1400mhz to 600?! This is a one hundred percent push of new product onto people with a good preemptive coverup! If a person uses their iPhone regularly, they will go through the battery cycles that Apple defined and he or she is a loyal customer, hence the usage. No one knows that you "suppose to" update the battery and it's not easy. So, people just buy new phones. I am amazed that everyone is just cool with this. It is an extremely clever strategy and results in billions in extra sales for Apple.
sjg007 9y ago
Queue class action lawsuits.
ericzawo 9y ago
Why aren't more people talking about this? iPhones are wildly popular and this is a gigantic confirmation of something the public has suspected for years.
- analogmemory 9y ago
  It’ll be all over the news tomorrow.
rkhassen 9y ago
A co-work of mine sent me this article after his iPhone 6S slowed down considerably after installing iOS 11. He thought that his battery was defunct and causing the issue. I suggested he turn off the animations that are designed to run on the latest phones and are more processor intensive. (One other thing that will help, however, is to cut back on the transition animations in iOS 11. Go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Reduce Motion and toggle it to off.) And like magic, his phone ran as fast as it ever did! I did the same thing with my sluggish iPhone 5, and did a reinstall clearing all my data, and it runs really great now, as if it were brand new! Makes me wonder how many people will think they have the battery issue when in reality they have features turned on that will inherently bog down the older phones. You'd think Apple would auto detect the model and by default have features like animation turned off. But perhaps their motivation is not to give their customers the best experience?!? f you want to speed up your older iPhone, this article covers most of what I did for my iPhone 5 last year: http://bgr.com/2017/09/19/ios-11-features-iphone-how-to-speed-up/ http://bgr.com/2017/09/19/ios-11-features-iphone-how-to-spee...) Totally aside from the above, I turned off the animations on my iPhone X and it seems to run slower. Not sure what that is all about.
- lathiat 9y ago
  Turning off animations feels (to me) faster even on the same phone and OS version. Probably a false sense. Perception...
- nkristoffersen 9y ago
  Apple did disable some graphic effects for older phones during one of the big changes. I recall the iPhone 4 didn't blur the backgrounds like newer phones.
- rlanday 9y ago
  iOS 11 had some stability issues on my 6s. It got a lot better when I installed 11.1.
funwie 9y ago
I see no situation where slowing phone‘s performance is better compared to giving the user options to improve phone’s performance. Something is fishy.
mankash666 9y ago
Let's cut into Apple's bullshit. LiOn ageing is not unique to Apple. The problem is that their batteries are so horribly low powered (1800 mAh for iPhone 6s), especially for the price of the overall phone, that normal known ageing patterns would render the battery below spec of max power the iPhone draws at peak performance. It's BAD design. Note 8 ships with 3300mah and iPhone X with 2700mah. Both cost a $1000. Which one do you think will last longer if 2500mah were the max power threshold?
goombastic 9y ago
They should change their marketing; 50% faster than before* In small letters: *for 500 charge cycles. After that it will run at the speed of your coffee maker.

73 points by kjhughes 9y ago

_sdegutis 9y ago

So basically it does what’s reasonable to protect your hardware. Not really worthy of the ominous clickbait title here.

for55 9y ago
If you buy a car with a V8 engine, and after a few months it decides to become an L4 engine, without telling you, is that ok? The headline is completely correct.
- rubbingalcohol 9y ago
  I'm not sure why you're getting downvoted when Apple advertises performance as a selling point of their devices.
  - grzm 9y ago
    I suspect because it's not a completely fair comparison from an account created apparently to post this criticism. Apple is apparently trying to mitigate the phone from shutting down under load the battery can no longer support. I'm not sure how to mangle the metaphor to make it more appropriate (my imagination is flagging), but one could argue Apple is trying to make sure the car still runs, even if it's limping along, rather than leaving you stranded on the side of the road at an inopportune time.
    - heavenlyblue 9y ago
      So instead of making you turn your car to the service; they make you buy a new car by omitting the fact that your car’s performance is degraded due to another reason?
      - jackvalentine 9y ago
        This is the crux of the matter - the lack of transparency may have earned them millions (billions?) in additional sales. It remains to be seen how this news affects their goodwill but I suspect not much.
      - grzm 9y ago
        As has been pointed out in multiple other comments here and elsewhere and in other articles, you can actually get the battery replaced as opposed to buying a new phone, which would be bringing your car into service. I had a phone which was exhibiting poor performance. I called up support, and they were able to run diagnostics remotely, and determine the battery needed to be replaced, which I was able to have done the following day. There are plenty of people who would rather Apple made a different tradeoff with respect to batteries in general, which is fine, and people are free to buy a different phone. My comment was trying to answer the question posed to my parent as to why someone might have downvoted their parent. Let's not continue to abuse this already poor metaphor.
        philipwhiuk 9y ago
        "As has been pointed out in multiple other comments here and elsewhere and in other articles, you can actually get the battery replaced as opposed to buying a new phone, which would be bringing your car into service." But the ordinary consumer has no idea. They just see their phone is slower than the fancy new ones. Why would they assume it's a battery problem.
        grzm 9y ago
        > "They just see their phone is slower than the fancy new ones." I really don't know how to respond to this. Isn't that going to be the case regardless? New phones are going to be faster. If they see a performance degradation on their phone, they've got some options to them. The easiest would be to have the phone looked at, as I did. They could also search the web for ideas as to what's wrong. Or they could give up and buy a new phone, maybe not Apple. There's a whole host of things going on here. Some people want user-replaceable batteries. Some people want better diagnostics in the phone. Some want better control over what's going on in the phone. I understand and in some cases sympathize with these positions. I also understand that Apple has to make tradeoffs when designing their products, both hardware and software, keeping in mind how people are going to use them and how they'll interpret different behaviors. Same thing with every other manufacturer out there. I'm bowing out of this. I intended just to point out why someone might have downvoted the comment above, and I've let myself get dragged into justifying alternative ways of thinking about the situation. I guess this is what leads to a lot of comments asking why something was downvoted or flagged or whatever: some people aren't willing to take the time to think through what alternatives might be, and whether they might be be reasonable, even if you don't agree with them. That's a shame, because it's crucial to being able to understand people you don't already agree with or how others may perceive your own actions. I'm not here to argue for argument's sake.
lovehashbrowns 9y ago
I really don't think that's the case here. This issue is probably related to the battery, but the fact that there was no notice indicates to me that there are ulterior motives at play here. Obviously their corporate-speak is going to highlight the one kernel of truth in the matter, and they'll never admit that this was done for the side-effect that it would have on sales of new devices.

jackvalentine 9y ago

I just wish they'd been more transparent - perhaps a message in the battery section of settings saying "your performance may be impacted because of your degraded battery. It's recommended you replace it" or something. New batteries are $119AU which I think is a reasonable price to pay after two years or so. Everyone knows components in cars need replacing, including batteries, so I think people can be reasoned with in to accepting the same is for consumer goods you want to keep beyond the average phone contract term.

simonblack 9y ago
"I just wish they'd been more transparent " I don't see it as a lack of transparency. That smacks of underhand and fraudulent behaviour. I won't buy another iPhone. In a similar vein, you can no longer move photos from your computer to your iPhone unless you subscribe to the paid Cloud service. iTunes will no longer allow you to do that.
- jackvalentine 9y ago
  OK.
- godelmachine 9y ago
  Since when was this restriction imposed ?
Justin_K 9y ago
119 for a $5 battery is not reasonable.
- jackvalentine 9y ago
  With installation and warranty on the work carried out it's entirely reasonable.
  - Justin_K 9y ago
    That's just bullshit overhead that Apple likes to bake in. How about a removable battery so customers arent screwed every 2 years?

Danilka 9y ago

WTF, from 1400mhz to 600?! This is a one hundred percent push of new product onto people with a good preemptive coverup! If a person uses their iPhone regularly, they will go through the battery cycles that Apple defined and he or she is a loyal customer, hence the usage. No one knows that you "suppose to" update the battery and it's not easy. So, people just buy new phones. I am amazed that everyone is just cool with this. It is an extremely clever strategy and results in billions in extra sales for Apple.

sjg007 9y ago

Queue class action lawsuits.

ericzawo 9y ago

Why aren't more people talking about this? iPhones are wildly popular and this is a gigantic confirmation of something the public has suspected for years.

analogmemory 9y ago
It’ll be all over the news tomorrow.

rkhassen 9y ago

A co-work of mine sent me this article after his iPhone 6S slowed down considerably after installing iOS 11. He thought that his battery was defunct and causing the issue. I suggested he turn off the animations that are designed to run on the latest phones and are more processor intensive. (One other thing that will help, however, is to cut back on the transition animations in iOS 11. Go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Reduce Motion and toggle it to off.) And like magic, his phone ran as fast as it ever did! I did the same thing with my sluggish iPhone 5, and did a reinstall clearing all my data, and it runs really great now, as if it were brand new! Makes me wonder how many people will think they have the battery issue when in reality they have features turned on that will inherently bog down the older phones. You'd think Apple would auto detect the model and by default have features like animation turned off. But perhaps their motivation is not to give their customers the best experience?!? f you want to speed up your older iPhone, this article covers most of what I did for my iPhone 5 last year: http://bgr.com/2017/09/19/ios-11-features-iphone-how-to-speed-up/ http://bgr.com/2017/09/19/ios-11-features-iphone-how-to-spee...) Totally aside from the above, I turned off the animations on my iPhone X and it seems to run slower. Not sure what that is all about.

lathiat 9y ago
Turning off animations feels (to me) faster even on the same phone and OS version. Probably a false sense. Perception...
nkristoffersen 9y ago
Apple did disable some graphic effects for older phones during one of the big changes. I recall the iPhone 4 didn't blur the backgrounds like newer phones.
rlanday 9y ago
iOS 11 had some stability issues on my 6s. It got a lot better when I installed 11.1.

funwie 9y ago

I see no situation where slowing phone‘s performance is better compared to giving the user options to improve phone’s performance. Something is fishy.

mankash666 9y ago

Let's cut into Apple's bullshit. LiOn ageing is not unique to Apple. The problem is that their batteries are so horribly low powered (1800 mAh for iPhone 6s), especially for the price of the overall phone, that normal known ageing patterns would render the battery below spec of max power the iPhone draws at peak performance. It's BAD design. Note 8 ships with 3300mah and iPhone X with 2700mah. Both cost a $1000. Which one do you think will last longer if 2500mah were the max power threshold?

goombastic 9y ago

They should change their marketing; 50% faster than before* In small letters: *for 500 charge cycles. After that it will run at the speed of your coffee maker.