14 DAY TRIAL // Samsung and Apple are both being investigated in Italy for planned obsolescence, as the two companies are suspected of slowing down devices with worn-out batteries in order to push customers to buy new models.
While in Apple’s case the company has already confirmed that it deliberately reduced the performance of older iPhone models to prevent unexpected shutdowns, Samsung’s involvement in the probe is surprising to say the least, especially because the firm explained recently that no such tweaks take place on its phones.
In a new statement released this weekend, Samsung clearly states that the CPU does not experience any throttling on its smartphones with aged batteries, and the company is willing to provide all the necessary information to prove planned obsolescence is not one of its practices.
“Samsung does not provide the software updates to reduce the product performance over the life cycle of the device. We will fully cooperate with Italian Authority for Market and Competition’s investigation in Italy to clarify the facts,” the firm said.
Apple tight-lipped on all claims
The South Korean device manufacturer previously said that it uses other methods to deal with worn-out batteries, explaining that power management tweaks similar to Apple’s and which slow down smartphones aren’t being used on its devices.
“Product quality has been and will always be Samsung Mobile's top priority. We ensure extended battery life of Samsung mobile devices through multi-layer safety measures, which include software algorithms that govern the battery charging current and charging duration. We do not reduce CPU performance through software updates over the lifecycles of the phone,” Samsung said in later December.
In the meantime, Apple remains tight-lipped on all these claims, leaving CEO Tim Cook be the only one to comment on the battery fiasco. Cook recently said that Apple hasn’t secretly slowed down iPhones, as the power management updates were mentioned in the changelog of each new iOS update.
Cook admitted, however, that Apple should have communicated the slowdowns with more transparency in mind, promising to release an iOS update displaying more battery information as soon as this week.