zlacker

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-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.

>>soulof+(OP)
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.

>>soulof+(OP)
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.

>>soulof+(OP)
I have refuted that article like 1000 times already, if I ever see it again..

>>scarfa+y8
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?

>>dlubar+Jj
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.

>>thebru+ml
> 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.

>>dlubar+Op
> 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.

>>thebru+rt
The whole discussion is incredibly moot, because Apple should be shipping devices with more easily replaced batteries.

>>soulof+8B6
The degradation would still happen. You want your car to go into limp home mode even if the part that failed is replaceable.

>>thebru+9K6
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.

>>soulof+xT6
If it was true? All the evidence supports it. My wife’s phone was throttled and mine wasn’t. Replacing degraded batteries brought devices back to full speed. How can you draw any other conclusions?

The only thing they have changed is that they now have the OS level pop ups, the feature still exists.

>>thebru+w17
It's quite easy to draw the conclusion that other alternatives were considered such as an easily-replaced battery, but Apple's management decided on a course of action which was plausible enough to be accepted without much further questioning, and wouldn't give the user back any freedoms, and would ultimately lead to more phone sales.

>>soulof+1N8
I don’t subscribe to that at all. I see other manufacturers dropping support for their phones after one or two years and I see apple supporting them for a long time. They want to sell services and they want you to have a working phone to use them.

Apple get phone sales from me because of this stance.