If you’ve had an iPhone you’ll be able to relate to this one. There’s always that nagging feeling that your 1-2 year old iPhone is just slower than it used to be. Just this week a gangbusters report indicated that, yes, older iPhones are made slower by OS updates. Now, Apple is copping to the practice but explaining a reasoning behind it.
Apple says their phones are actually programmed to function slower to compensate for the phones battery losing life. Over the life of a phone the battery becomes weaker, holding less power and being able to power the phone for less time. They have programmed the phones to slow down processing when this happens so that the phone does not have worse problems or even shut itself off. They did this through one of their many iOS software updates. Apple has put out a statement saying:
“Our goal is to deliver the best experience for customers, which includes overall performance and prolonging the life of their devices. Lithium-ion batteries become less capable of supplying peak current demands when in cold conditions, have a low battery charge or as they age over time, which can result in the device unexpectedly shutting down to protect its electronic components.Â
Last year we released a feature for iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone SE to smooth out the instantaneous peaks only when needed to prevent the device from unexpectedly shutting down during these conditions. We’ve now extended that feature to iPhone 7 with iOS 11.2, and plan to add support for other products in the future.”
Other beliefs are that the company actually slows down old iPhones when new ones are introduced to get consumers to buy the new one, and keep the money cycle moving through Apple. That theory is not proven but certainly debatable.
