Apple has been in the news this past week because users have discovered that the company has throttled the performance of phones with old batteries. While this extends the life of a battery that is older and more prone to failure, users felt slighted by the lack of notification from Apple about what it was doing with their property. Many class action lawsuits have already been filed against Apple, with one in particular really reaching for the stars and asking for a settlement of $999 billion. Seriously.
In response to the backlash, Apple has decided to lower the cost of out-of-warranty battery replacements for iPhone 6 models and later from $79 to $29—a discount of over 60 percent. The program will start in late January and will be available worldwide by the end of 2018.
Apple posted a formal apology to its website earlier today:
“We know that some of you feel Apple has let you down. We apologize,” the letter reads. “There’s been a lot of misunderstanding about this issue, so we would like to clarify and let you know about some changes we’re making. 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 also noted that it will give users more visibility into the healthy of their phone battery in an iOS update in 2018.
Will this move help assuage consumers’ ire over Apple’s earlier decisions? It remains to be seen.
H/T Ars Technica