Apple’s Apology for Batterygate Didn’t Go Far Enough

Megalith

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Despite apologizing twice for its battery fiasco, people aren’t convinced that Apple is any sorrier: publications such as USA Today are questioning why “the world's most profitable company, a firm that paid CEO Tim Cook $102 million in salary and bonuses in 2017” has declined to offer replacement batteries free of charge.

Analyst Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights says Apple's replacement battery costs less than $10. He estimates that only around 100,000 consumers will take up Apple on its offer. Even if the battery replacement was free, he says some 250,000 people would participate, the result of which would be "barely a blip to Apple's earnings."
 
Apple will offer free batteries when Samsung, Huawei, Motorola, HTC, LG, Nokia, Sony and Blackberry offers them, and not a minute sooner.

Samsung gave everybody free battery replacement when their note 6 fiasco shit hit the fan and when they kept exploding refunded everybody their money. So why is apple still charging for faulty batteries again?
 
Samsung gave everybody free battery replacement when their note 6 fiasco shit hit the fan and when they kept exploding refunded everybody their money. So why is apple still charging for faulty batteries again?

Because consumers allow Apple to do such things instead of voting with their wallet.
 
The batteries are not defective. Why the fuck should anyone expect free batteries?

fuckin entitled brats.

Unlike other companies, Apple pointed out that batteries degrade over time. So that probably made the low-IQ folks think they were entitled to a free battery replacement.

Everyone with a little common sense knows that batteries lose capacity over time. Just because other companies don't talk about battery degradation doesn't mean their batteries last forever.
 
Plus, it's easier fitting a battery to a Samsung than an iDevice....
 
and it's silly to think that only 250,000 users would actually claim a free battery replacement if apple offered it....... as the stupid article suggests.

Trust me, MILLIONS of people will be lining up for free batteries, who the fuck wouldn't? and it would put a dent on apple's earnings.

$29 is pretty reasonable cost to revive an old phone which was used for 3 years
 
and it's silly to think that only 250,000 users would actually claim a free battery replacement if apple offered it....... as the stupid article suggests.

Trust me, MILLIONS of people will be lining up for free batteries, who the fuck wouldn't? and it would put a dent on apple's earnings.

$29 is pretty reasonable cost to revive an old phone.

Having said that, Apple have been very cagey and underhanded about this whole saga. People have been complaining of poor performance with every iOS update on older phones since...Forever, and only now does Apple come clean on what's going on? Furthermore, lets face it, the whole 'slowing down' thing is a marketing ploy - Plain and simple.
 
recent high end samsungs are no easier to replace batteries than iphones. They don't have replaceable batteries.

Well that sucks. I love my Nexus 5, I've stripped it down numerous times over the last four years and it still runs like a champ!
 
Having said that, Apple have been very cagey and underhanded about this whole saga. People have been complaining of poor performance with every iOS update on older phones since...Forever, and only now does Apple come clean on what's going on? Furthermore, lets face it, the whole 'slowing down' thing is a marketing ploy - Plain and simple.
I'm not entirely convinced the slowing down thing is entirely marketing. My iPhone was at 16% and the phone just shut off. I turned it back on and there was 9% battery life. Something probably required a surge of power that was too much for my old battery to handle. Throttling would probably prevent this shutdown on most devices.
 
I'm not entirely convinced the slowing down thing is entirely marketing. My iPhone was at 16% and the phone just shut off. I turned it back on and there was 9% battery life. Something probably required a surge of power that was too much for my old battery to handle. Throttling would probably prevent this shutdown on most devices.

Making you aware of the issue, thus allowing you to replace the battery, would also have rectified the issue.

It's marketing, plain and simple - Slow the phone down, force users to buy a new device.
 
There is a simple solution for Apple (Google could use it too):

A simple property in the settings that lets the user decide what to do as their battery capacity degrades over time.
It could simply switch between a low power profile that would reduce performance to maintain longer times between charges or it could select that performance remain the same and require more frequent charging.

Anybody that has used the same mobile device for 2 or more years knows that its capacity deteriorates over time and charges. Most android users are well familiar with the need to charge their phones as they get older (unless like me they have one with swappable batteries). Most Apple users are familiar with that too prior to iOS 10 (when the performance throttling was introduced).

Apple's mistake was assuming that customers would prefer throttling their expensive handsets over more frequent charging. They are finding out differently now. Perhaps in a future iOS update they can simply let the user decide how they want their phone to deal with this situation rather than forcing Apple's decisions on them. I really wouldn't mind seeing this show up in Android as well though I do today have the option of using low power profiles that I can use as my battery life degrades.
 
Making you aware of the issue, thus allowing you to replace the battery, would also have rectified the issue.

It's marketing, plain and simple - Slow the phone down, force users to buy a new device.

I keep forgetting about the whole "they should have fucking said something" when I consider this whole issue.

Reducing speed and stress on the battery makes sense. I don't see a problem with it. It's a good choice to have...but that "choice" word isn't a choice, is it? That's where Apple screwed up. That's where, like you, I now believe it was certainly a marketing ploy. I use to do marketing for a car dealership and they'd pull shit like this if they could just to make a couple grand lol...you don't think Apple would to make billions? Please!

Yeah, you're right. They slipped, and know it, with the whole "we didn't tell ya!" ordeal was a known move.
 
recent high end samsungs are no easier to replace batteries than iphones. They don't have user replaceable batteries.

Yep most high-end and even midrange phones no longer have easily replaceable batteries. Almost all of them require melting glue and removing a bunch of tiny screws, circuit boards, etc. A few even require soldering.

At least most phones do still have a headphone jack though, for now...

Apple's mistake was assuming that customers would prefer throttling their expensive handsets over more frequent charging. They are finding out differently now.

It's hard to think of it as a "mistake" when their modus operandi as a company (particularly with iOS/iPhones) is basically "we know better than the customer". This is just one of the few times it has come back to bite them in a somewhat publicized way. And by "bite them" I mean they will do a few cheap battery replacements that they still make money on, and most people will still buy the next iPhone hotness (let's face it a lot already did). :p
 
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I'm not an apple guy, but I think its ok to do it if it is also done to their newest phones. Preserving your battery to last a little longer. Doing it to just old phones is fucked up.and they should be fined for that.
 
I don't think apple was trying to be deceptive here. If they we're they wouldn't restore phone speed with a new battery.

I honestly think it was an engineering decision to promote stability. But a poorly communicated one.
 
I don't think apple was trying to be deceptive here. If they we're they wouldn't restore phone speed with a new battery.

I honestly think it was an engineering decision to promote stability. But a poorly communicated one.

Don't forget, people have been complaining about slowdowns with every iOS update regarding older devices for years - And yet, this is the first time Apple has even acknowledged any deliberate manipulation.
 
The only real issue is that they didn't communicate it. The tactic itself is not a poor one, but people need to know that is what is going on.
 
Don't forget, people have been complaining about slowdowns with every iOS update regarding older devices for years - And yet, this is the first time Apple has even acknowledged any deliberate manipulation.
The other slowdowns were due to the OS having more features that use more CPU/GPU so that is why it is slower on older hardware and the reason the latest iOS versions only go back so many generations.
 
It’s particularly amusing to me that people are commenting on this “issue” without even reading articles.

We’ve gone from Apple throttling devices with bad batteries to Apple throttling all old devices and now have arrived at full retard where some folks think the batteries are defective.

It has been incredible watching the level of mis information spread and ramp up.
 
The other slowdowns were due to the OS having more features that use more CPU/GPU so that is why it is slower on older hardware and the reason the latest iOS versions only go back so many generations.

That was the unofficial reasoning made by the users themselves if I remember correctly.
 
It’s particularly amusing to me that people are commenting on this “issue” without even reading articles.
We’ve gone from Apple throttling devices with bad batteries to Apple throttling all old devices and now have arrived at full retard where some folks think the batteries are defective.
It has been incredible watching the level of mis information spread and ramp up.
Dude, we had faulty batteries by post #4, is that some sort of record?

In kindergarten we played a game where the teacher would put us in a circle and would tell a short story to a student. That student who in turn would tell the next student in line, continuing with all the students.
You can guess the outcome when it got back to the teacher.
The only difference here is we don't have a teacher telling a story so we have to make it up as we go along.

TLDR A forum is like a kindergarten w/out a teacher
I mean why would anyone read the article when they can just start posting. /sarc
 
It’s particularly amusing to me that people are commenting on this “issue” without even reading articles.

We’ve gone from Apple throttling devices with bad batteries to Apple throttling all old devices and now have arrived at full retard where some folks think the batteries are defective.

It has been incredible watching the level of mis information spread and ramp up.

So are you saying that they're throttling phones with good batteries or that new devices are going to have heavily degraded batteries? I see nothing wrong with either of those statements.

I don't think the batteries are defective but if you take Apple's statement about throttling to avoid crashes at face value then either the batteries are suffering from excessive voltage drop under load or the phones are more sensitive to voltage drop since no other manufacturer seems to be having issues. Personally I think they're full of it and using that as an excuse because they don't want to admit the real reason they're doing it.
 
So are you saying that they're throttling phones with good batteries or that new devices are going to have heavily degraded batteries? I see nothing wrong with either of those statements.

I don't think the batteries are defective but if you take Apple's statement about throttling to avoid crashes at face value then either the batteries are suffering from excessive voltage drop under load or the phones are more sensitive to voltage drop since no other manufacturer seems to be having issues. Personally I think they're full of it and using that as an excuse because they don't want to admit the real reason they're doing it.

Excessive voltage drop under load = Crashing (apparently) = Battery on it's way out = Replace battery.

Excessive voltage drop under load = Crashing (apparently) = Apple throttles unsuspecting users phone = User believing phone is out of date and old (as no one told them it was being deliberately throttled) because phone is running stupidly slow since update = User unnecessarily buys new iPhone even though they didn't need one.

Apple aren't in the business of making friends, this was a deliberate marketing ploy.
 
So are you saying that they're throttling phones with good batteries or that new devices are going to have heavily degraded batteries? I see nothing wrong with either of those statements.

I don't think the batteries are defective but if you take Apple's statement about throttling to avoid crashes at face value then either the batteries are suffering from excessive voltage drop under load or the phones are more sensitive to voltage drop since no other manufacturer seems to be having issues. Personally I think they're full of it and using that as an excuse because they don't want to admit the real reason they're doing it.

What i'm saying is that people like you aren't RTFA. The batteries are old after being discharged so many times, and apple throttles the hardware to prevent crashes.
 
People are way too self entitled...

They are already offering $30 battery replacements... They have to pay someone to install the thing fore Pete's sake...

I'm definitely not the first to support Apple but IMHO, the only thing they did wrong is not tell users their battery was degraded , effecting device performance. Being smart enough to not have the phone shut off randomly but just be slower... Not the worst thing ever. Just tell people...

The whole sealed phone, non-removable battery debate will continue to rage on but $30 to replace your (in most cases), 2-3 year old battery seems more than reasonable to me...
 
People are way too self entitled...

They are already offering $30 battery replacements... They have to pay someone to install the thing fore Pete's sake...

I'm definitely not the first to support Apple but IMHO, the only thing they did wrong is not tell users their battery was degraded , effecting device performance. Being smart enough to not have the phone shut off randomly but just be slower... Not the worst thing ever. Just tell people...

The whole sealed phone, non-removable battery debate will continue to rage on but $30 to replace your (in most cases), 2-3 year old battery seems more than reasonable to me...

And that's $30 out of warranty. Most folks have applecare which is two years w/ free battery replacement.
 
People are way too self entitled...

They are already offering $30 battery replacements... They have to pay someone to install the thing fore Pete's sake...

I'm definitely not the first to support Apple but IMHO, the only thing they did wrong is not tell users their battery was degraded , effecting device performance. Being smart enough to not have the phone shut off randomly but just be slower... Not the worst thing ever. Just tell people...

The whole sealed phone, non-removable battery debate will continue to rage on but $30 to replace your (in most cases), 2-3 year old battery seems more than reasonable to me...

Of course, what they should be doing is refunding the complete cost of the handset to those that upgraded unnecessarily because Apple withheld the truth from them in relation to the exact reason why their old phone was running slow.
 
What i'm saying is that people like you aren't RTFA. The batteries are old after being discharged so many times, and apple throttles the hardware to prevent crashes.

The article in this case is an opinion piece that offers no new information and doesn't back up what you're saying or refute what I'm saying so I have no idea why you threw that out there.
 
The language "shorten the life" is key here as the product's life isn't being shortened but being rendered so slow from the owner's perspective that the phone is practically unusable, forcing an early upgrade.
 
I wonder if I should ask for a new SSD once I've gotten close to its endurance limit? I mean its running really slow... Must be Samsung trying to force me to buy a new SSD! Corporate bastards!
 
People realize that Apple could make removable batteries but choose not to for planned obsolescence. There was proof and Apple admitted it. The only way for Apple not to look like a giant bag of dicks is to offer everyone free replacement batteries. That and their next iPhone should have removable batteries. If not to make everyone happy, but to also prevent future class action lawsuits. Someone has to be putting together one right now for this.
 
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