Apple has been absolutely pummeled over the last week amidst accusations that the company throttles the performance of older iPhones. The company has faced accusations it has been covertly engaging in forced obsolescence -- or intentionally making devices work more poorly over time in order to drive consumers to the latest and greatest (and more expensive) devices. The problem, first discovered by reddit users and then proven by Geekbench founder John Poole, has resulted in multiple lawsuits that were quickly filed against Apple.
"Apple purposefully and knowingly released operating system software updates to iPhone 5, iPhone 6 and certain iPhone 7 phones that slowed the performance speeds of the central processing units (‘CPUs’) of these devices,” said the plaintiffs in one lawsuit.
"Apple’s software updates purposefully slowed or ‘throttled down’ the performance speeds of iPhone 5, iPhone 6, certain iPhone 7 phones and as yet unknown versions of iPhones because operating system software updates wreaked havoc on batteries within these model devices."
Apple, for its part, denies it's engaging in forced obsolescence.
The company issued a statement saying it released the update last year in order to help older phones handle the fact that "Lithium-ion batteries become less capable of supplying peak current demands" and to prevent an older iPhone from "unexpectedly shutting down to protect its electronic components."
The problem for Apple remains that the company didn't clearly communicate these limitations to customers. Apple has since made public statement apologizing for the practice, and offering $29 battery replacements to impacted out-of-warranty customers (it was originally $79).
"First and foremost, we have never -- and would never -- do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades," Apple insists. "Our goal has always been to create products that our customers love, and making iPhones last as long as possible is an important part of that."