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Apple Battery Scandal: Backlash From Consumers


Your iPhone May Be Underperforming

Year after year consumers flock to the tech giant Apple for the newest smartphones. Around the beginning of September Apple hosts a Keynote presentation to drive hype and media coverage for the announcement of new iPhones, and perhaps other accompanying products. But not everyone can afford the newest top of the line device at over $1000 per phone. Chances are you or someone you know is using an Apple branded device right now, with Apple selling over 216 million smartphones worldwide in 2017, and similar volumes in earlier years.

Your iPhone may not have the same features, camera, size, or screen as the newest Apple devices…but they all share one commonality: the use of a lithium-ion battery to power the device. This brings us to the ethical issue Apple still faces in the news today: admittedly slowing down the performance of aging iPhone models.

The Ethical Dilemma

On December 20th, 2017 Apple confirmed what many customers assumed for the past year: that the company has been slowing the performance of older iPhones. In a statement on their website, Apple admitted to the convention a year ago, to help with battery health on aging phones, instead of pushing consumers to upgrade. This statement, released by Apple, outlines that extreme weather temperatures, low charge, and battery degradation all contribute to decreased performance in their devices, which the software policy was used to help neutralize. Apple claims that the old batteries are incapable of meeting peak performance demands over time. This decision to reduce performance is in the wake that older iPhones would shut down randomly with 30-40% battery charge still left on the device. 

But why does this not effect devices using similar battery technology? Consumers want answers…

Upon release of their performance reductions, Apple users were outraged due to the lack of trust and transparency from such an innovative company, and rightfully so. Consumers want both performance and battery life when they purchase a top-quality and expensive product such as an iPhone. They should not have to choose between the two. 

For a complete and detailed account on the ethical dilemma, watch Unboxtherapy’s video below. Unboxtherapy is a trusted product reviewer on YouTube who’s opinions and clout influence many on the platform.


When looking at battery performance and age, we can see some interesting trends when this policy was implemented by Apple. Geekbench 4 is a cross-platform processor benchmark with a scoring system that measures your hardware’s power in simulated real-world scenarios. A blog post on the issue took a look at two separate iPhone models running separate operating systems to see if there was truly a difference in throttled performance. Graphing their results, we can see that an iPhone 6s running two different versions of iOS has drastically different results. On the left, the peak performance is on the average score. But on the newer OS (the right graph), there are several small peaks and one larger peak at a significantly smaller CPU score. This confirms that a change in the operating system has in fact slowed down performance on older iPhones. 

Apple has claimed that they have “never - and would never - do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product,” yet the results speak for themselves. Claiming that it was a necessary precaution may have been a fallback plan for Apple, but it was not enough to satisfy many consumers, as over 30 lawsuits have been filed in the United States alone. Consumers want a satisfying and secure performance experience when using their phones, and Apple significantly failed to provide that transparently.

Sources

Comments

Anonymous said…
Hi, I am outraged myself after reading your blog. I always wondered why my phone lost so much battery or shut down with 30-40% battery left. Now that I read your blog and I see the graphs, I understand better why that happened. The graphs clearly show how the software affects the battery life in an attempt to get users to change their phones. Do you think a company like Apple really cares if they do that to their customers? At the end of the day, they know their customers are "hooked" and can't live without an Apple product. So even if they purposely reduce battery life on their phones, they probably won't lose any customers.
November 12, 2018 at 8:10 AM
Anonymous said…
Being an iPhone user for over 5 years I can certainly relate to the frustrations of these battery problems, but whats even more frustrating to me is my iPhone slowing down every time i update my software to a new iOs. This summer just days after updating my iPhone it was so slow that I took it to an apple store to figure out what was wrong. I couldn't help but notice how uncomfortable the Apple worker who was helping me felt, because he knew exactly what was wrong and how unethical it was by Apple. The fact is Apple has such a loyal following that they think they can do anything and the sales will continue to come. With the rising of Android, they are starting to lose more and more market share each year. Do you think Apple will continue to dominate the cell phone industry, or do you see Android passing them in the near future? I'm eager to hear your thoughts.
November 12, 2018 at 8:17 AM
ABrubacher said…
Nick, thanks for the comment. I have always been an Apple fan, and a loyal iPhone user for years. I believe Apple has only about 10-20% market share of the smartphone industry because they choose to keep their software proprietary. Unlike Android, which is open-source, and free to use across many smartphone providers such as Google, Samsung, LG, One+, etc. This is a choice Apple makes to keep their software under their own sole control, to protect against hacking and security issues. Apple, in fact, has the strongest privacy of all smartphones, and that is why many flock to the iPhone. With Apple increasing prices to extreme amounts, I could see many users switching to more affordable Android options which are very capable smartphones today.

Adam
November 12, 2018 at 8:37 AM
ABrubacher said…
Shawn, thank you for your input. I don’t believe Apple thought through how consumers would truly react if this slow CPU performance to help with battery degradation got out to the media. Consumers are so savvy these days, and news travels instantaneously, how could they not have thought this information would go public? There are many schools of though on this issue. Some believe they did this on purpose, to sell new phones, and others believe this was a helpful battery saving update. I believe Apple needs to return to their core promise of being a customer centered company, and in this case, they were far from their roots, which is unacceptable.

Adam
November 12, 2018 at 8:43 AM
Anonymous said…
I vividly remember this ethical dilemma as I was waiting in line at an Apple store in Chinook mall along with the 30 other customers who were experiencing the same issue. At first I remember updating my phone and having to charge it at least 3-5 times a day so it would last. I remember when this news came out I was shocked a bit as I have always loved Apple products and this rubbed on me the wrong way. I remember having to pay $30 to replace my battery which I didn't understand. This made me very unhappy as I'm taking money out of my pocket to pay for their mistake. Do you think they should have given their customers free battery replacements? Or are they such a monopoly that they can do whatever they want and customers will always buy their product anyways.
November 15, 2018 at 5:33 PM
Anonymous said…
Adam,

As some of your other readers have mentioned, I have been an avid apple user for the past 4 or 5 years with not only Iphones, but the Ipad and Mac computers as well. I've noticed the same issues with battery life and I find it very disheartening to hear that it is intentional. When you think of companies this large its easy to see why they believe they can do anything and their consumer base will still stay loyal bu I think the key in solving that issue is for consumers to stay informed. I believe, with the many different options now for smartphones, that if users were more attentive to scandals like this we would see less unethical management decisions in the future. Do you think that this would cause more big corporations to take advantage of the customers less?
November 15, 2018 at 5:41 PM
ABrubacher said…
Brody, I too remember vividly when this dilemma regarding Apple came to light. I am in a situation very similar to you as well. I have an iPhone 6s with an aging battery that no longer lasts a full days use. In the settings I can see that my “peak performance capacity” is only at 85%. I now have the option of going directly to Apple for a $29 replacement battery, or continuing to use the phone as is with a degraded battery, and frankly lackluster performance and user experience. After all, Apple is a company focused on profit, and free battery replacements would be detrimental to their bottom line. But an alternative could have been to offer free battery replacements for a month. This would still be a big cost, but I bet customers would be more willing to stay with Apple, and see them as more genuine.

Adam
November 15, 2018 at 5:45 PM
ABrubacher said…
Ryan, thanks for your thoughtful comment on my first blog. Especially with a company as large as Apple their decisions are always going to be seen under scrutiny. I think that Apple was taking advantage of customers in this case, and believed that they were invincible when it came to software updates, their tricks, and that customers would not find out what they were doing. This concept of planned obsolescence can be seen as very deceiving to loyal customers. I feel that this event will be a learning experience for similar large companies. They will now see that they are not invincible, and they cannot do whatever they want to the consumer and get away with it. Consumers are smart, and will find your dirty laundry if you slip up.

Adam
November 15, 2018 at 5:50 PM
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