The Online Newspaper of Lakewood High School

Lakewood Times

Lakewood Times

Lakewood Times

    Apple was fined for slowing down iPhones

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    Apple was fined 27 million dollars for slowing down old iPhones without notifying the public. France’s competition and fraud watchdog agency DGCCRF declares that the company has not informed the consumers that installing the new iOS updates 10.2.1 and 11.2 could slow down their old devices.

    In December 2017, Apple admitted that it did slow down old iPhone devices, but that was done to prolong their lifespan and not to make customers buy the latest iPhone. The lithium-ion batteries get weaker once the phone starts to age, which can result in the iPhone unexpectedly shutting down in order to protect its hardware. TechRadar says that a battery replacement was all people needed to improve the performance of their phones. But the problem is that Apple was withholding information from the public about this recent software update, and that was simply unacceptable among French customers.

    The list of Apple smartphones that have been discovered to slow down is not as short as it seems. According to BBC News, it includes:

    • iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus
    • iPhone SE
    • iPhone 7 and 7 Plus
    • iPhone 8 and 8 Plus running iOS 12.1 or higher
    • iPhone X running iOS 12.1 or higher
    • iPhone XS, XS Max and XR running iOS 13.1 or higher

    Not only is this a long list, but it also includes models that are very recent, which means that if the public wants a normal functioning iPhone, they need to buy the latest model every year. That’s something only a few people can afford, and it is inconvenient for people to switch devices once they have become used to their current one.

    “My battery runs out faster when I upgrade to a new iOS, and I only have an iPhone 7, which is not that old,” junior Hayley Welsh states.

    The French say that Apple “committed the crime of deceptive commercial practice by omission” and has agreed to pay the fine as well as publish a press release on its French site for one month. iOS now offers clearer information to consumers about when performance management has been switched on.

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