Samsung responds to Italy’s smartphone ‘planned obsolescence’ investigation

Last week, Italy’s antitrust body confirmed that it has opened up an investigation into Apple and Samsung in an effort to determine whether or not these companies actively slow down older devices in order to push users into upgrading. Now this week, Samsung has responded to this, denying the idea that it plans to make older phones obsolete over time.

If the investigation concludes that Samsung and Apple sent out updates that may have a negative impact on performance without warning customers, then both would be in violation of four separate articles of Italy’s national consumers’ code. This would result in multi-million euro fines.

In a statement given to Nikkei, a Samsung spokesperson denied the allegations, stating: “Samsung does not provide software updates to reduce product performance over the life cycle of the device. We will fully cooperate with the Italian Authority for Market and Competition's investigation to clarify the facts”.

Apple has not yet responded to the AGCM's investigation. However, given that Apple recently did throttle older iPhones in order to preserve their batteries, the company is in a tight spot when it comes to denying this one.

KitGuru Says: There is recent evidence to put Apple in the AGCM's sights, though we don't have any evidence to show that Samsung has been up to similar tactics. Either way, we'll be interested in seeing future updates on this. Do you guys think that phone companies actively slow down their older devices to push people into upgrading? Or do you think it is just a conspiracy theory?

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