Apple slowing down older iPhone's.

[BandOfBrothers]

This has been suspected by quite a few owners etc and has been discussed many times on other forums but Apple themselves true to form have never commented. 

I can see the plus side of this decision however Apple doing this on the quiet isn't something I do agree with. 

Apple's iPhones slowed to tackle ageing batteries.

"Apple has confirmed the suspicions of many iPhone owners by revealing it does deliberately slow down some models of the iPhone as they age."

From > BBC News Tech Link.

(Other sites are available with this news on too)

[hrym]

This does seem to have generated a storm of complaints, doesn't it?  The explanation - preventing the device from shutting down unexpectedly - is a valid one and not only protects the electronics but should also reduce the likelihood of a device bricking if power fails during a system file write.

What seems to have become a PR disaster could so easily have been avoided, though.  All Apple needed to do was announce the change and make a feature of it: "Protecting your device and prolonging its useful life".   There could also be a toggle option in settings to allow braver users to turn it off ("I understand the risks").

[BandOfBrothers]

It's been an ongoing debate across many forums @hrym in regards to planned obsolescence.

Apple have never commented which can pretty much sum their commumication up on this particular subject matter. 

They say it's to stop unexpected reboots and because a battery declines over time its also to allow the battery to last as long as possible. 

What ive found in my own personal experience is that Apple take pride in allowing as many models of iPhone and iPad to have the newest iOS release.

They show slides and charts in their Keynotes and highlight how Android is much more fractured across the range of android phones.

Sometimes they remove a feature of the iOS if the older phones hardware wouldnt be able to cope with it  

With my iPhone's my iPhone 6 Plus was crippled and I had to toggle off quite a few features so it stopped lagging. 

My partner not too long ago decided to have her iPhone 5 battery replaced due to it no longer lasting a full day even when id tweaked it to drag as much on screen time as possible. She had to carry round a portable power bank.

It was so slow and her phone was pretty clean in regards to files, Apps and info on it etc. 

When we had her battery replaced it was like a new phone. No lag.

Her phone wasn't unexpectedly shutting down either. 

[hrym]

The immediate assumption in many quarters was that it's planned obsolescence and to encourage people to buy new phones.   Apple's response was that it's to protect the device and (arguably) prolong its usable life.   As I said, promoting it this way in the first pace and even making it togglable could have precluded most of the complaints.  I can't help wondering whether it's a side-effect of the walled-garden/mother-knows-best attitude.

A while back, Sony announced that they'd noticed people were upgrading their devices less often and, to help prolong life, they were going to slow charging when batteries reached 90% in oder to avoid the sitting-at-100% situation that shortens their life.  I don't know if it ever happened (my wife's 2017 XA doesn't do it), but it was at least an acknowledgement of the state of the market.

Mobile phone technology is maturing.  New models don't have the same leap in features and performance they used to and OS advances don't bring advantages that require more powerful hardware.  Even older models can cope with the demands of app developments without slowing or stalling.   So, it's inevitable that the annual/biennial update cycle will slow - especially with phones now costing £600 and up.   We haven't quite reached the point where prices start to decline as technology stabilises, but that can't be all that far off - screen resolution is already sharper than the human eye can see, so does it need to get better?

The result of all this (and why this is relevant to this thread) is that battery life becomes a crucial issue.  I don't mean whether you can get through a day without a recharge*, but simply the number or recharge cycles the battery can take.  Currently, two years is about OK and the assumption is that the device will be replaced.   That must be about to change so, either there'll be advances in this area, or we'll start to see replaceable batteries come back.  That'll mean an end to ultra-slim phones, but maybe we've been down that route and are prepared to row back from it in return for a usability boost.

* I mean with a new battery, not one that's not holding charge due to age.