The iPhone ‘batterygate’ controversy, in which Apple was caught slowing down older iPhone models with degraded batteries, has almost reached its conclusion. According to the 34 states and the District of Columbia investigating this issue, it was found that Apple was ‘misleading information’ about iOS updates and was throttling the performance of previous iPhone models without the owner’s consent. As a result, Apple has agreed to pay a settlement of $113 million.
Apple Has to Pay an Additional $500 Million for a Separate Lawsuit
In addition to the $113 million, Apple is required to clarify its practices around battery health and power management. Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich said the following statement on how companies should maintain transparency with its customers.
“Big Tech must stop manipulating consumers and tell them the whole truth about their practices and products. I’m committed to holding these goliath technology companies to account if they conceal the truth from their users.”
The bad news about this settlement is it wouldn’t be counted in the $500 million amount that Apple has agreed to pay directly to affected iPhone users to settle a class-action lawsuit in the U.S. This will be equivalent to paying out $25 per iPhone. To recap what happened, older iPhone models such as the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s were feeling sluggish after being updated to a new iOS version.
Later, it was found out that Apple was throttling the processor's clock speeds to deliver the best battery life to customers. Since aging batteries were providing reduced screen-on time to users, the best way to mitigate battery life was to reduce the CPU’s frequency so users’ devices can last longer.
Unfortunately, because Apple didn’t make its activities public, it received a ton of backlash and later admitted to making iPhones slower, but maintained its stance, stating the move was carried out for the right reasons. To warn users that their batteries are nearing their replacement cycle, Apple allows owners to check Battery Health and make an informed decision after looking at the stats.
Image Credits - iFixit
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source https://wccftech.com/apple-pay-113-million-iphone-batterygate-settlement/
