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There are several government units investigating Apple’s performance reduction on iPhones with older batteries, and now the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office is joining the mix.
Reported by Apple Insider, the new probe into Apple comes after Seoul’s Citizen’s United for Consumer Sovereignty filed a complaint against Apple. The complaint claimed that Apple is really slowing down iPhones to force customers towards upgrading sooner than they would otherwise need to or be necessary. This accusation is what many have turned to, but looking at it from a customer loyalty perspective, doesn’t really hold up.
Apple in its defense denied any wrongdoing for early-upgrade conspiracy. Last week, CEO Tim Cook told ABC News that “we deeply apologize for anyone who thinks we had some other kind of motivation.” Apart from the apology, Apple published an open letter on this matter and reduced the battery replacement cost from $79 to $29.
In the ABC News interview, Cook also said, “When we put it out, we did say what it was, but I don’t think a lot of people were paying attention. Maybe we should have been clearer as well.” This type of statement led to further bad press and angry customers because in a sense, Cook is turning the blame to customers instead of taking any head towards Apple’s mismanagement on the matter.
In an upcoming iOS update, Cook said that it will include a feature that will offer more detailed battery health information and will give customers the option to disable the performance throttling. Of course if you turn off the performance reduction, it will have an impact on your battery life and could see an increase in the annoying shutdowns even when the battery has a charge. This is the route Apple should have originally taken instead of taking choices away from the consumer.
