>Apple acknowledged in December that it had intentionally slowed iPhones with degraded batteries through software updates to avoid sudden shutdown problems, but

>Apple acknowledged in December that it had intentionally slowed iPhones with degraded batteries through software updates to avoid sudden shutdown problems, but denied it had ever done anything to intentionally shorten the life of a product. >The company later apologised for its actions and reduced the cost of battery replacements. It also added battery health information to iOS and allowed users to turn off the slowing down of the iPhone’s processor. On the other hand, Apple would be sued over the sudden shutdowns because of the battery degradation, or over the battery degradation because of the cost of battery replacement, or ... etc. Class action suits are a cost of Apple doing business in giant volumes. They (and every company) are making tradeoffs with their products and I know from my own experience that making tradeoffs is an art and not a exact calculus. So Apple can deal with the legal actions - they have the money. But of course this is another high barrier of entry from anybody else looking to get into the business.