Apple has been fined 25 million euros for cautiously slowing down older iPhones. I am completely shocked when I saw the news. When everyone thinks Apple company is probably one of the most successful companies in the world; yet, Apple is still using this unethical way to make people upgrade their phones. According to what Apple said, they did only for prolonging devices’ life. When they intentionally slowing your iPhone down, the batteries could become less capable of supplying demands, taking much longer to react to an app. Your iPhone can get unexpectedly shutting down if the batteries have been severely damaged over time.
I personally think Apple is a great technology company, but I don’t think it’s ethical to deliberately slow down users’ phones. After reading this news, it reminds me of another news about Facebook got fined $5 billion for privacy claims. Both Facebook and Apple are extremely well-known companies yet both got fined because lying to the users one way another. I think no matter how successful a company is, the most essential thing is to be ethical and showing users their respect and giving them the privacy they deserve.
source:https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-51413724
This is a topic that would not have caused as much trouble if Apple wasn’t deliberately slowing down their old phones. It is common for old technology to run slow because its age, however, now that Apple is purposefully doing this is where the ethical issue arises.
The issue that I have with this is how Apple was only fined three hours worth of profit. That is practically a penny for the company. Due to this, it will most likely not result in a large change in Apple’s ways. It will probably only cause them to blame wear and tear or old age results and continue their practices (Sonnemaker 2020).
Overall, Apple is a gigantic corporation that does not necessarily need us to buy every single new item to keep their revenue up. The sad part is that most people will continue to buy Apple Products due to customer loyalty. I hope Apple is able to recover from this technological and Public Relations disaster and fix their mistakes to ensure better relationships with customers.
Reference: https://www.businessinsider.com/france-fines-apple-27-million-for-intentional-iphone-throttling-2020-2
Honestly, I’m somewhat surprised that people are not more aware of Apple’s less-than-savory practices. Planned obsolescence, the purposeful policy of designing products not to last to generate sales from returning customers, has been confirmed officially by Apple as far back as 2017. Apple has been investigated by the US, Israel, Italy, and France for years, and fined several times. Samsung has also been fined for similar activity.
The practice of planned obsolescence has been around since the mid-20th Century. I think this is a problematic way to design products, not just in terms of mistreating consumers, but also creating excessive waste through accelerated development cycles. I’d much rather have a more durable product, designed to last, even if it was more expensive upfront. Major smartphone manufacturers have created a culture where it is encouraged to purchase the newest model of a phone, when in fact the hardware should last a few years more. The case is true for many other products, which is something consumers should be concerned about and consider when purchasing new products.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/oct/24/apple-samsung-fined-for-slowing-down-phones
https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamsarhan/2017/12/22/planned-obsolescence-apple-is-not-the-only-culprit/
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-batteries-israel/israeli-agency-investigating-apple-over-handling-of-iphone-slowdown-idUSKBN1HH1W8
I have to agree with your stance; it is very disappointing that Apple does this on purpose. I have been a loyal Apple user over the years and did not realize that the reason why I had to upgrade after a couple of years is not within my control. At the height of this issue, Apple also decided to introduce measures that promote battery health. Through the Settings app, one can see the current capacity of his/her iPhone.
I bought my iPhone last April 2019, and my battery health then was at 100%. Almost a year later, I checked my battery health, and it is now at 94%. The description says: “Lower capacity may result in fewer hours of usage between charges.” Just like any other purchased item, the iPhone is expected to deteriorate over time. However, how can this deterioration be slowed down?
I learned about this new feature called “Optimized Battery Charging”. According to Benjamin Mayo (2019), “With this prediction of daily behavior, Optimized Battery Charging prevents your phone from fully charging to 100% as soon as you plug it in. Instead, the iPhone battery will charge to about 80%. This means it will stay at around 80% for most of the night, even though it is connected to the charger the whole time. Just before 8 AM, the iPhone will then finish charging and should hit 100% just as you take it off the charger to get on with your day.” This is the perfect and simplified explanation of the feature.
To support battery health, you should not overcharge your phone or even keep it below 20%. Every phone can only support a certain amount of charging cycles. Optimized Battery Charging solves the overcharging aspect of people’s habits, but people need to work to change harmful routines. Use Apple-certified chargers, close apps when not in use, and use authentic Apple batteries (should you need to replace yours). These are just some of the few measures I personally follow to prolong the life of my iPhone.
Source:
Mayo, B. (2019, October 1). iOS 13 iPhone features: What is Optimized Battery Charging? Retrieved from https://9to5mac.com/2019/10/01/ios-13-iphone-optimized-battery-charging/
There have been rumors and complaints about Apple intentionally slowing down their phones for years. There have been multiple stories throughout the years of Apple either admitting they do this or in this case, being punished for it. It is understandable that Apple’s older models may not be fully capable of updated iOS, thus adapting the software for the aging lithium ion battery within the phones. However, the biggest problem lies in the privacy and lack of transparency issues brought by Apple.
These two issues have been some of the biggest problems in the tech industry. Multiple tech companies have had issues with data privacy most notably, in which users have no idea how their information and data is being used by the tech companies. Because lawmakers are constantly trying to familiarize themselves with advances in technology, it is also important for consumers to be diligent about the practices of these tech companies, because many times they can slip through the cracks.
I of course think it’s terrible that Apple would slow down older iPhone models without properly informing those who would be effected by this. Even more so, the fact that they don’t give the user an option is even more annoying. I know a lot of people who are not very tech savvy with iPhones. I know for a fact that if their phone started slowing down all of the sudden they would probably assume that they need to replace it. I think Apple’s reasoning that they’re doing it to prolong the device’s life is definitely false. They are a business, and recently their iPhone sales have been taking a hit because people are realizing that they don’t need to replace their phone every year. How I see it, this is a way for Apple to try and get people to upgrade their phone that they’ve been using for years. Also, I don’t think fines like this are ever really effective. Apple makes $25 million in under 3 hours. I think that if the government ever really wants to stop Apple from doing shady and unethical stuff like this, or wants Facebook to stop violating people’s privacy rights then there needs to be harsher consequences.
Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/france-fines-apple-27-million-for-intentional-iphone-throttling-2020-2
While I understand the reasoning behind why Apple slows down older iPhone models, I do believe that they should properly inform their customers how they would benefit from having their phone speed throttled, and provide customers a way to opt out of this should they please to. Presently, according to an article on Metro, iPhone users can currently disable performance enhancing features (such as the slowing of the battery) in their phone’s settings. I think that with this feature in place, customers will feel they have more control over their phone’s lifespan. Despite that I think Apple altering their customer’s phones after they have already been purchased without consent is unethical, I do think it’s important when considering that an old battery in a phone could be potentially dangerous, and that throttling the battery will also make the device last longer, even if it performs more slowly. Also, cellphones have a limited lifespan to begin with. I feel that another issue with older iPhones is installing updates that are optimized for newer models, and that perhaps the older models are not as equipped to handle the updates and new installations. Though I agree that what Apple did was morally wrong, I think the issue is more so that Apple slowed the phones without consent from their customers — not necessarily the slowing of the phones.
https://metro.co.uk/2018/11/02/apple-is-slowing-down-the-iphone-8-and-iphone-x-heres-how-to-stop-it-8098229/
Hearing about this fine surprised me only because it has taken so long to happen. The news of Apple intentionally slowing down devices first surfaced back in 2017 with claims of the 6, SE, and 7 being slowed down by recent updates. While Apple says that they were only slowing down the devices to prolong their life, they had to know that people would upgrade a slow phone, and thus increase their sales. I also think that Apple is a very good technology company, but slowing down phone, whether to protect the battery or get users to upgrade, is unethical and needs to be stopped.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/apple-fined-27-4-million-in-france-for-slowing-down-older-iphones-without-warning/