14 DAY TRIAL // Apple says in a support document that the only devices impacted by its quiet slowdown are older iPhones, with iPads, Apple Watches, and MacBook not affected in any way.
Apple confirmed in December that it deliberately reduces the performance of devices with aging batteries in order to prevent unexpected shutdowns, and the company has since been under fire in several large markets for what many describes as planned obsolescence.
Cupertino has been accused as part of class-action lawsuits and by state agencies and various organizations that it forced users to upgrade to newer devices instead of informing them that replacing the battery of their iPhone could help deal with the performance hiccups.
iPads not slowed down by software updates
Apple said the slowdown was implemented with the help of iOS updates, and the company now clarifies in an updated support document that this behavior only impacts the iPhone.
“This feature’s only intent is to prevent unexpected shutdowns so that the iPhone can still be used. This power management feature is specific to iPhone and does not apply to any other Apple products,” Apple says when discussing about the slowdown, which the company describes as “a feature.”
The company hasn’t provided any other specifics as to why iPads aren’t impacted by this battery slowdown, but GSMArena speculates it all has to do with the bigger batteries that are being used on the tablets. Thanks to the larger capacity, they are charged less frequently, and this leads to reduced degradation, though it’s pretty clear that this depends on a series of factors, including here usage patterns and installed apps.
In the meantime, however, Apple has bigger problems to deal with. In South Korea, no less than 370,000 iPhone users have joined forces in what appears to be one of the biggest class-action lawsuits against the Cupertino giants, asking for damages for the planned obsolescence that affected the company’s devices.