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Apple is now under US investigation for that iPhone slowdown
Apple Inc. is reportedly now under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice and also the Securities and Exchange Commission for its deliberate slowdown of the iPhone.
Late last year Apple admitted throttling the speed of the iPhone 6, iPhone 6s, and iPhone SE , something that naturally didn’t sit well with consumers. The company said the slowdown was only to prevent poor performance on older phones with aging batteries, but the company was denounced for applying the update secretly.
Apple later offered an apology for its lack of transparency – not for the actual slowdown – and also offered discounts on new batteries. This didn’t stop the public and media alike from bringing up the controversial issue of planned obsolescence. Many people whose phones seemed to be not working well after the secret update said they just bought new models.
In its defense, Apple said it would never “intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrade.”
Nonetheless, Apple is currently facing a criminal probe in France, while Italy’s antitrust organization is looking at the matter of Apple’s alleged planned obsolescence. It’s also reported that 50 proposed class action lawsuits have been brought against the company by consumers who say they were tricked into buying new phones when buying a new battery would have sufficed.
Bloomberg reported that these consumers are asking judges to order Apple not to have the right to secretly update phones in such a manner in the future and have also asked for an undisclosed sum for compensation and damages.
It’s not known how far the current U.S. government investigation has gone, but sources close to Bloomberg said the DoJ and SEC have asked the company to provide information. Both declined to comment when approached by Bloomberg, as did Apple.
Last week, Apple announced that its next update, iOS 11.3, that will launch this spring will include a feature allowing users to choose to slow down processors to prevent unexpected shutdowns. Consumers will also be able to see the condition of their battery.
Image: Yun Huang Yong via Flickr
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