Patrick Bennet 
Apple is a company that hardly needs any introduction, no matter where you are. However, the company’s name has been mentioned more than usual recently because of the controversy that followed after the tech giant admitted the deliberate slowing down of the older iPhone models. Apple claims that this has been done in order to extend the battery life a little more, thus prolonging the phone’s lifespan, it is still a manipulation that has been conducted without the users’ agreeing to it.
The scandal caused quite a buzz and Apple executives were forced to apologize for their actions. It was stated that the whole idea behind this was to prevent unexpected shutdowns of the phone in cases when the battery is old, low in charge or with low temperature.
The company claims that lithium batteries start to deliver power unevenly with age and that could often lead to a sudden shutdown. As stated, this is a much bigger inconvenience than just canceling a conversation – it could damage the delicate circuit boards inside the device.
Allegedly, Apple simply tried to cover up the issues with the aging batteries instead of coming up with an appropriate solution to problem like easy battery replacement, for example. This actually encouraged users to purchase a new phone instead of sorting out the issues with the old one. In the end, the scandal resulted in billions worth of lawsuits against the tech giant.
The Securities and Exchange Commission along with the US Justice Department will begin their investigation of the whole situation. The purpose of these actions is to find out if Apple violated any laws related to financial disclosures, because they think that the investor might have been deceived in some form about the previous iPhone models’ performance.
The US government also required information from Apple, including all of their public statements related to the case.
The investigation has been initiated recently and it is too early to try and guess the conclusion they might reach. Apple confirmed in a statement, that government officials contacted them for information regarding the case and the company is currently providing that information. The statement also said that the tech leader would never do anything with the intention to shorten the lifespan of a product or sacrifice customer experience for some kind of profit.
The Justice department and the Securities and Exchange Commission decided to remain silent on the subject for now.
The lawsuits are guaranteed to result in some dark clouds over Apple. They are definitely not in a good position considering the way the scandal evolved. There are eight separate lawsuits, but one of them stands out with the claim for a whopping 999 billion dollars!
The lawsuits are legitimate and have been filed in various federal courts over during the past few weeks. The customers complained about the deliberate manipulative actions that affected their phones and also about the way the company did it without the users’ consent.
Each of the lawsuits represents the claims of a number of affected users and is called a “class-action”. These complaints focus on the fact that the company simply tried to hide the issue without providing a reasonable solution like a free-of-charge battery replacement. Choosing to slow the devices down instead makes things even worse. The users behind the lawsuits also put some of the blame on a particular microprocessor that slows the performance of the phone because of aging, thus forcing the user to by a new phone. The real reason for the poor performance of the devices may turn out to be just the battery, but it would be still far easier and cheaper to replace it instead of buying a new phone.
It all seems very simple and Apple allegedly did choose to hide what they knew and instead of being honest about the occurring problem with the older phone models.
As we mentioned above, the official apology is already a fact, but it is simply not enough to set things straight. They announced a $50 battery replacement discount for the previous iPhone models, making the price $29 instead of the $79 asked originally. They also said that in early 2018 an iOS software update will be released that optimizes battery life.
After these announcements, Apple tried to avoid some backlash and took the responsibility to replace the battery of all iPhone 6 or newer models even if the phone passes the test which determines if the device could still reach 80% of its charging capacity after five hundred complete charging cycles. This is a nice attempt to fix things, but it comes a bit too late. Apple definitely has a lot of things to worry about.
H/T – Source
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