Apple, facing lawsuits, provides explanation for slowing down old iPhones

Apple says its iOS software does sometimes slow the performance of older iPhones – as conspiracy theorists have long alleged.

The company's admission, made in a statement to media, comes two days after John Poole, founder of the computer-performance testing group Geekbench, wrote a blog post illustrating how iPhone computing performance slows as battery health declines on iPhone 6s and iPhone 7 devices.

The admission immediately sparked a lawsuit from two iPhone owners in California who say Apple intentionally interfered with the phones to damage them, which became a “substantial factor in causing [owners] to replace iPhones, buy new batteries, or loss of usage of their iPhone.”

For its part, Apple says it's all in a good cause: extending the life of older models whose batteries have degraded over time or protecting against the cold.

The company said in a statement to US tech site The Verge:

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.

Evidence of the software change could be seen in power-intensive tasks – such as creating Snapchat filters – that became slower to demand less of the system.

Apple geek sites report replacing an old battery can return an iPhone to as-new performance (new batteries cost from $US79).

So it's true Apple intentionally slow down old iPhones. Proof: My iPhone 6 was bought 3years ago and recently got really slow. APP 'CPU DasherX' shows iPhone CPU is under clocked running at 600MHz. After a iPhone battery replacement. CPU speed resumed to factory setting 1400MHz. pic.twitter.com/pML3y0Jkp2

— Sam_Si (@sam_siruomu) December 20, 2017