“Apple on Monday said it has responded to inquires from U.S. agencies over the handling over older iPhone batteries and how it communicated changes to customers,” Ina Fried reports for Axios. “Bloomberg reported earlier Tuesday that the U.S. Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission had launched inquires into the matter.”
“‘We have received questions from some government agencies and we are responding to them,’ Apple said in a statement to Axios,” Fried reports. “t didn’t specify the specific agencies.”
“Separately, Axios reported on Tuesday that Apple is delaying some features planned for this year’s iPhone software update in order to focus on quality and reliability issues,” Fried reports.
Read Apple’s full statement here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s going to be paying something for their lack of communication with customers. Hopefully the company learns a valuable lesson from this screwup.
It’s Apple’s lack of communication that is the problem here. If Apple had clearly explained what was going on in the software, we’d know to recommend a battery replacement when users complained their older iPhones were getting “slow.” As it was, we were pretty much left to assume that the processor/RAM wasn’t up to par with demands of newer iOS releases and we’d naturally recommend getting a new iPhone.
Just yesterday, we had a friend complain that his iPhone 6 was acting “slow” and we knew to recommend a battery replacement (even though he instead opted to get himself an iPhone X on our strong recommendation). — MacDailyNews, December 29, 2017
SEE ALSO:
U.S. DOJ and SEC probe Apple over updates that slow iPhones with aging batteries – January 30, 2018
Apple previews iOS 11.3 with new battery health features, ability to turn processor throttling on and off, and more – January 24, 2018
Tim Cook: ‘Maybe we should have been clearer’ over throttling iPhones with aging batteries – January 18, 2018
China consumer group seeks answers from Apple over batterygate – January 16, 2018
South Korean consumer group considering criminal case against Apple over iPhone batterygate – January 11, 2018
French prosecutor launches probe into Apple planned obsolescence – January 8, 2018
Apple’s design decisions and iPhone batteries – January 8, 2018
Apple now faces over two dozen lawsuits for ‘purposefully’ or ‘secretly’ slowing down older iPhones – January 5, 2018
Why aging batteries don’t slow down Android phones like Apple iPhones – January 5, 2018
Apple’s $29 replacement batteries expected to hurt new iPhone sales – January 4, 2018
How to see if Apple’s throttling your iPhone – January 4, 2018
Brazilian agency requires Apple to inform consumers on batteries – January 3, 2018
Analyst: Apple’s ‘batterygate’ solution may mean 16 million fewer iPhones sold this year – January 3, 2018
An Apple conspiracy theory blooms – January 2, 2018
Apple clarifies policy on $29 battery replacements: All iPhone 6 and later devices are eligible – January 2, 2018
During a keynote, Apple showed how they were able to optimize battery life by throttling the power down during the intervals in between when they would execute queued instructions in a gang.
The engineering to balance long battery life with high power on demand far from the trivial matter the language of these complaints portray.
Human interact guidelines 101 … thou shalt inform the user
a minor but IMO important nitpick… thou shalt inform the owner!
MDN Take. Exactly correct.
I’m still in shock that no one at Apple was able to see this coming…
Tim Cook has repeatedly demonstrated his ignorance and lack of common sense. Get used to it.
Again what was the inept Apple Legal staff doing with searching out possible company issues like this and keeping them from happening with due diligence?
After all this turns ultimately turns into a legal liability and ends up costing Apple (in possible fines, regulatory monitoring and cheap battery replacements).
Costing them also bad press and a bad image. It’s funny how something like this and when Maps arrived could’ve been avoided SO EASILY.
Legal staff? Seriously? Apple needs lawyers on retainer to advise them on customer service? When did customer service require legal advice versus common sense?
Anything that might effect Apple legally should at least be passed by them for review. Seems like common sense. Where do you think customer service and other user agreements come from?
So Tim Cook actually listened to his sage lawyerly counsel and said, “Fuck it. I’m gonna do whatever I want.”
I don’t think so since they never offered it (as they should) but just stood like a doe in the headlights when the legal problems associated with it came flying in their direction and smacked them upside the head. Tim never had the benefit of their expensive counsel.