Apple offers $29 battery replacement as apology for intentionally slowing iPhones down

Last week, Apple admitted that it was intentionally slowing the performance of aging iPhones in an attempt to preserve battery life. In turn, users were outraged, investigations followed and class action lawsuits cropped up aplenty, causing the company to issue an apology.

Throughout 2018, starting in January and ending in December, Apple will allow users to replace the batteries of their iPhone 6, 7 8 or X out of warranty for $29, down from its usual $50 price tag.

Along with this new offer, the company is attempting to improve its transparency regarding battery health with a new update. Landing early next year, the update plans to notify users when the battery in their device is no longer up to scratch and when it will begin nerfing the performance to compensate.

“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,” states Apple in its apology. “Our goal has always been to create products that our customers love, and making iPhones last as long as possible is an important part of that.”

The “misunderstanding,” as Apple is calling it, aroused from a Geekbench study into social media claims that battery degradation and performance decreases were interlinked. While this might genuinely be Apple’s reasoning for slowing its iPhones down via updates, its lack of transparency is what has led to the suspicion that the company was intentionally pushing obsolescence of its older models to sell its newer ones.

KitGuru Says: Considering the lack of public knowledge would have resulted in iPhone users not knowing a battery replacement would have solved their issue and instead pushed them towards newer devices is certainly questionable. At least Apple is taking the necessary steps to be forthright about its practices, even if it is too little, too late. Has your iPhone been slowing?

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