Apple will allow users to abandon the forced slowdown iPhone

Tim Cook apologized to those Apple users who "might have thought that Apple deliberately slows down old smartphones"

Apple will still allow users to change one of the secret settings in the system, which became known through an investigation on Reddit.

This is a forced lowering of the clock speed of the iPhone processor , if the battery is in operation for a long time. Probably, we are talking about a period from one year to one and a half of operation. Approximately in such a period of time Apple releases new models and plans that the owners of the old "iPhones" will want to buy a new model.
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Tim Cook, in an interview with ABC News, said that users could still change this setting in the system and disable the forced slowdown of the phone, which was actually done for the benefit of the users themselves and to improve the usability of the device.

When it became known about the hidden function, Apple was forced to give an explanation. She assured that slowing down old smartphones is not at all for the purposes of planned obsolescence, as one might think. It turns out that this is done in order to avoid inadvertent shutdown / restart of the smartphone - taking into account the battery parameters. The charge / voltage of the battery and the ambient temperature are taken into account. The colder it is on the street and the older the battery is, the more Apple reduces the frequency of the processor. The algorithm for slowing down the processor began to work with the iOS 10.2.1 update, released in January 2017.

“Our goal is to give customers the best experience. This includes both the overall performance and the longevity of their devices as long as possible. Lithium-ion batteries cannot meet peak current needs if they are in cold conditions, have a low charge, or are obsolete. This could trigger the device to shut down urgently to protect its electronic components, ”wrote Apple.

When the news about the secret setting of iOS began to be discussed on the Internet, this resulted in a scandal for Apple for obvious reasons. The company is known for enforcing “care” about users that it does not consider to be the actual owners of the devices - the entire ecosystem is aimed at making it difficult for the iPhone, iPad and iMac to be self-repaired, and users are expected to buy a new model in some time.

But here I still had to apologize. Tim Cook apologized to users who "might have thought that Apple deliberately slows down old smartphones." He suggested that people “do not pay attention” to explanations when the old models are slowed down in the iOS software updates to fit the new functions. “Maybe we were not quite clear,” said Tim Cook [note: nothing was said about this particular feature in the iOS 10.2.1 update]. “We deeply apologize to all those who thought that we had some other motivation.” In fact, as was said, the slowdown of smartphones was done solely to improve “the impression of working with a mobile phone,” that is, to reduce the likelihood of a sudden reboot of the device.

Last month, the company even reduced the cost of batteries from $ 79 to $ 29 for replacement without warranty. That is, I agreed to sell them, probably, with minimal profitability. Reduced the cost of batteries for only a few models of smartphones. The cost of the rest of the original components remained unchanged, so that the replacement of the screen or other component in the company center of Apple still comes to hundreds of dollars. And independent repair shops Apple does not allow to work normally and urges owners of their equipment in any case not to go there.

Tim Cook said that reducing the cost of a battery instead of replacing it for free is “reasonable” because people are already planning to replace the battery in the future at some point.

When asked about the possibility of making the phone cheaper than a thousand dollars, Tim Cook replied that, in his opinion, the price of the iPhone "is at a level that corresponds to its value." “We have put a lot of innovation in these phones, and therefore we think that they have a reasonable price.”

Despite Apple’s apologies, a number of users are still going to sue the company for secretly enforcing a slowdown of the smartphone’s operation during 2017-2018. Preparing a class action lawsuit .