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No, it's not unfair at all. Apple's gotten busted for this exact thing and had to shell out $500 million in damages. https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/apple-to-

No, it's not unfair at all. Apple's gotten busted for this exact thing and had to shell out $500 million in damages. https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/apple-to-start-paying-out-500m-in-iphone-slowdown-lawsuit/ https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/apple-to-start-paying-out-5... > I really have a hard time with a realistic business model that would be significantly better. Well this one might be good for business, but as you can see, it is extremely bad for the individual.

jeromegv 3y ago
The consequence of their upgrade was a slow down. But they didn’t slow it down just because they could. It was to prevent a phone with an old shitty battery to shut down in the middle of a task when there was still battery left. Better a slow down than just no phone at all. And yes they didn’t communicate it, that’s why they got sued. But this problem was real.
scarface_74 3y ago
Did you even read your own citation? Apple slowed down older phones when the battery degraded because the other choice was the phone would shut off.
- dlubarov 3y ago
  That's Apple's claim, yes. But if they were genuinely just concerned about battery health, and not about their sales numbers, then why do the throttling covertly? Why not tell the user that throttling was happening, that it was related to power issues, and that they should consider a replacement battery?
  - thebruce87m 3y ago
    If they wanted a new sale, why not do nothing and let the phones reboot? Why only target individual handsets with degraded batteries? Why bring the phone back to full speed when the battery was changed? Why does the feature still exist? The only thing that has changed is they now tell you if it’s happening.
    - dlubarov 3y ago
      > why not do nothing and let the phones reboot Assuming for the moment that reboots were a serious concern, and not just a fabricated excuse... it's better for Apple's reputation for old phones to be slow than to be flaky. With the former, people were assuming that Apple's shiny new OS required state-of-the-art hardware to run smoothly. It just appeared as if technology was advancing rapidly, and one had to buy the latest iPhone every year or two to keep up. With the latter, there would be noone to blame but Apple, and they would develop a reputation for unreliable hardware, like Samsung or worse.
      - thebruce87m 3y ago
        > Assuming for the moment that reboots were a serious concern They still are. As a battery ages the internal resistance increases. This leads to brown-outs under high current. This isn’t unique to Apple, it’s just how batteries work.
        soulofmischief 3y ago
        The whole discussion is incredibly moot, because Apple should be shipping devices with more easily replaced batteries.
        thebruce87m 3y ago
        The degradation would still happen. You want your car to go into limp home mode even if the part that failed is replaceable.
        soulofmischief 3y ago
        This issue would still have drastically different framing if the given reason was true and users had the freedom to easily replace batteries in old devices, as well as OS-level warning pop-ups which let the user know that it's time to replace a battery and that their phone will be slower until they do. Anything less is deceptive and anti-user.
kaba0 3y ago
I have refuted that article like 1000 times already, if I ever see it again..

jeromegv 3y ago

The consequence of their upgrade was a slow down. But they didn’t slow it down just because they could. It was to prevent a phone with an old shitty battery to shut down in the middle of a task when there was still battery left. Better a slow down than just no phone at all. And yes they didn’t communicate it, that’s why they got sued. But this problem was real.

scarface_74 3y ago

Did you even read your own citation? Apple slowed down older phones when the battery degraded because the other choice was the phone would shut off.

dlubarov 3y ago
That's Apple's claim, yes. But if they were genuinely just concerned about battery health, and not about their sales numbers, then why do the throttling covertly? Why not tell the user that throttling was happening, that it was related to power issues, and that they should consider a replacement battery?
- thebruce87m 3y ago
  If they wanted a new sale, why not do nothing and let the phones reboot? Why only target individual handsets with degraded batteries? Why bring the phone back to full speed when the battery was changed? Why does the feature still exist? The only thing that has changed is they now tell you if it’s happening.
  - dlubarov 3y ago
    > why not do nothing and let the phones reboot Assuming for the moment that reboots were a serious concern, and not just a fabricated excuse... it's better for Apple's reputation for old phones to be slow than to be flaky. With the former, people were assuming that Apple's shiny new OS required state-of-the-art hardware to run smoothly. It just appeared as if technology was advancing rapidly, and one had to buy the latest iPhone every year or two to keep up. With the latter, there would be noone to blame but Apple, and they would develop a reputation for unreliable hardware, like Samsung or worse.
    - thebruce87m 3y ago
      > Assuming for the moment that reboots were a serious concern They still are. As a battery ages the internal resistance increases. This leads to brown-outs under high current. This isn’t unique to Apple, it’s just how batteries work.
      - soulofmischief 3y ago
        The whole discussion is incredibly moot, because Apple should be shipping devices with more easily replaced batteries.
        thebruce87m 3y ago
        The degradation would still happen. You want your car to go into limp home mode even if the part that failed is replaceable.
        soulofmischief 3y ago
        This issue would still have drastically different framing if the given reason was true and users had the freedom to easily replace batteries in old devices, as well as OS-level warning pop-ups which let the user know that it's time to replace a battery and that their phone will be slower until they do. Anything less is deceptive and anti-user.

kaba0 3y ago

I have refuted that article like 1000 times already, if I ever see it again..