It all started when a Reddit post's loose interpretation of subsequent benchmark tests posted by Primate Labs’ John Poole. After that, the "Apple throttles old iPhones" meme has reared its ugly head.
The gist, as it always is, is that Apple is being super petty and trying to force customers to upgrade their phones by making their old phones run slower.
As expected, Apple's answer is no. It would be beyond stupid and incredibly shortsighted for Apple to do this and, if it was actually true, would likely lead to tangles of a governmental and legal nature that no company like Apple would ever want to happen.
Instead, Apple is focusing attention on smoothing out the very high and quick peaks of power draw that can cause problems with older batteries.
Here’s a statement that Apple provided about the power profile that people were seeing when testing iPhones with older batteries:
Basically, according to TechCrunch, iPhones were hitting peaks of processor power that the battery was unable to power and the phones were shutting off. Apple then added power management to all iPhones at the time that would "smooth out" those peaks by either capping the power available from the battery or by spreading power requests over several cycles.
Apple will continue to add this smoothing to more devices over time to avoid shutdown issues, freezing and other problems.
It’s important to note that this is a lithium-ion chemistry issue, not an Apple issue. Batteries just get crappy over time. This is an attempt to make phone work for longer with less issues, not to get users to switch away from it.
Last year, Apple also added a notification for the user when the battery gets to a really rough state, but it’s pretty conservative about that, so it will likely not trigger until well after iOS feels it should start capping the max power draw from batteries.
The gist, as it always is, is that Apple is being super petty and trying to force customers to upgrade their phones by making their old phones run slower.
As expected, Apple's answer is no. It would be beyond stupid and incredibly shortsighted for Apple to do this and, if it was actually true, would likely lead to tangles of a governmental and legal nature that no company like Apple would ever want to happen.
Instead, Apple is focusing attention on smoothing out the very high and quick peaks of power draw that can cause problems with older batteries.
Here’s a statement that Apple provided about the power profile that people were seeing when testing iPhones with older batteries:
"Our goal is to deliver the best experience for customers, which includes overall performance and prolonging the life of their devices. Lithium-ion batteries become less capable of supplying peak current demands when in cold conditions, have a low battery charge or as they age over time, which can result in the device unexpectedly shutting down to protect its electronic components.The short-form version of what Poole’s benchmarks are showing is the result of a power curve-smoothing algorithm that Apple rolled out last year to mitigate iPhone shutdown issues.
Last year we released a feature for iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone SE to smooth out the instantaneous peaks only when needed to prevent the device from unexpectedly shutting down during these conditions. We’ve now extended that feature to iPhone 7 with iOS 11.2, and plan to add support for other products in the future."
Basically, according to TechCrunch, iPhones were hitting peaks of processor power that the battery was unable to power and the phones were shutting off. Apple then added power management to all iPhones at the time that would "smooth out" those peaks by either capping the power available from the battery or by spreading power requests over several cycles.
Apple will continue to add this smoothing to more devices over time to avoid shutdown issues, freezing and other problems.
It’s important to note that this is a lithium-ion chemistry issue, not an Apple issue. Batteries just get crappy over time. This is an attempt to make phone work for longer with less issues, not to get users to switch away from it.
Last year, Apple also added a notification for the user when the battery gets to a really rough state, but it’s pretty conservative about that, so it will likely not trigger until well after iOS feels it should start capping the max power draw from batteries.
Posts
0 comments
Post a Comment