Apple has issued an apology to its customers after confirming that it had been slowing down the speed of iPhone models as their batteries aged as part of an effort to “prolong the life” of the smartphones.
After customers found out that Apple was slowing down older iPhone models eight separate lawsuits were made against the tech giant over the matter.
In response to the backlash the firm said it would reduce the price of replacing batteries for anyone with a iPhone 6 or later from $79 to $29 in the US and £79 to £25 in the UK.
Apple said in a formal apology:
“We have never — and would never — do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades. Our goal has always been to create products that our customers love, and making iPhones last as long as possible is an important part of that,”
“We know that some of you feel Apple has let you down. We apologize.”
In this context, ‘user experience’ refers to our overall experience of using a product and how much we liked or disliked it.
The company slowed down the performance of older models because the lithium-ion batteries’ performance diminishes over time.
“Lithium-ion batteries become less capable of supplying peak current demands when in cold conditions, [when they] have a low battery charge or as they age over time, which can result in the device unexpectedly shutting down to protect its electronic components,” the company said.
Apple will also release a software update so that users can see more information about their device’s battery health.
