14 DAY TRIAL // Apple has been asked by several governments to explain why it slowed down iPhones with degraded batteries, and in a statement for Canadian authorities, the company pretty much reiterates the words it said in the public apology released in late December.
Company officials appeared in front of the House of Commons of Canada this week, and according to a statement seen by AI, Canada Manager of Legal and Government Affairs Jacqueline Famulak emphasized that the whole purpose of the performance throttle was to prevent unexpected shutdowns.
“We do not want our customers to experience interruptions in the use of their iPhones, whether that is making an emergency phone call, taking a picture, sharing a post, or watching the final minutes of a movie,” Famulak was quoted as saying. “To address the issue of unexpected shutdowns, we developed software that dynamically manages power usage when, and only when, an iPhone is facing the risk of an unexpected shutdown.”
Apple admitted in late December that it deliberately reduced the performance of some iPhone models with worn-out batteries in an attempt to prevent them from unexpectedly shutting down.
Battery discount and iOS 11.3
Apple CEO Tim Cook originally said the company revealed the CPU throttling in iOS release notes when updates were published, but later statements indicated that this information was only made public one month after the performance management system was shipped.
Apple defended its decision and pointed to the battery replacement program that it launched in late December and which allows customers to get a new iPhone battery for $29, instead of the original price of $79.
"We take our customer concerns seriously and have taken a number of steps to address them," Famulak said.
The company is also working on a new software update that would disclose the health of the battery and allow users to disable the performance throttling. These options are projected to become available in iOS 11.3 due this spring.