Apple admits it peaces old iPhones on purpose so you cop a new one
All the iPhone users out there know that as soon as a new model comes out it sure seems like your old phone starts acting up.
You try to open an app and it suddenly closes, your phone battery goes from 32% to 2% in a matter of minutes, everything just starts working a lot slower and shittier.
iPhone update truthers have been propagating the theory that Apple intentionally slows your old phone so that you’ll be incentivized to stop paying rent and buy the new model. Cooler heads have prevailed to refute this, why would Apple do this to their loyal and loving customers?
Well, it turns out Apple is indeed doing this to their customers, a fact they had previously denied.
After GeekBench published a bunch of charts documenting the performance of old iPhone models over time, the data was irrefutable.
An Apple representative tried to do some damage control, telling Business Insider that yes, the company has lied in the past about intentionally fucking up old iPhones but it was for a good reason!
The rep spoke specifically about Lithium-ion batteries and the amount of power an older iPhone can take or something:
“Our goal is to deliver the best experience for customers, which includes overall performance and prolonging the life of their devices. Lithium-ion batteries become less capable of supplying peak current demands when in cold conditions, 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.
“Last year we released a feature for iPhone 6, iPhone 6S and iPhone SE to smooth out the instantaneous peaks only when needed to prevent the device from unexpectedly shutting down during these conditions. We’ve now extended that feature to iPhone 7 with iOS 11.2, and plan to add support for other products in the future.”
See, it’s not Apple, it’s those pesky the Lithium-ion batteries!
This is such bullshit from Apple, but it shouldn’t really come as a shock. Purposely withholding features or making new models vastly superior to the previous version is a common tech practice.
Business Insider broke down how Apple has kept new features out of old models despite being completely able to run them:
“The iPhone 4, for example was perfectly capable of running Siri, but Apple reserved that feature for the model that replaced it, the iPhone 4s. Likewise, the camera in the iPhone 3G was capable of shooting video, but Apple didn’t turn that feature on and instead made video recording the signature capability of its next device, the iPhone 3GS.”
After this news dropped, iPhone developer and tech writer Marco Arment tweeted, “For years, we’ve reassured people that no, Apple doesn’t secretly slow down their older iPhones to make them buy new ones.”
But now that the tech giant has been exposed, Arment wrote that, “The reputation damage from secretly slowing down old iPhones… will likely linger for a decade.”
https://twitter.com/marcoarment/status/943575253728538625
Yeah, I mean this is super fucked up! I can’t say that I’m surprised whatsoever by this news, more surprised that Apple admitted to making old models trash.
While Arment is probably right that the fallout from this “will likely linger for a decade,” Apple has such a stranglehold on their customers I can’t imagine anything truly comes from this.
I’ll take a completely non-functional phone over green bubbles any day. I am a sheep.