South Korea, Italy also calling out Apple for slowing iPhones
Apple continues to get into hot water over a power management feature that throttles performance on older iPhones to avoid unexpected battery shutdowns.
A South Korean consumer group has now filed a complaint, though it’s not clear whether the complaint will trigger a formal investigation (via Reuters).
The group, Citizens United for Consumer Sovereignty, had already filed a lawsuit against the company.
This is just the latest in a series of complaints Apple is facing over the issue around the world. Earlier this week a consumer group in China wrote to company with concerns.
The French government is also investigating whether Apple’s actions constitute ‘programmed obsolescence’ (which is illegal in the country).
US senator John Thune has also written to Apple to express concerns and raise questions.
Yesterday Italy’s antitrust body also opened an investigation into iPhone ‘performance-gate’. Though its probe is wider as it’s also investigating whether Apple rival Samsung has used software updates to slow its phones to drive consumer upgrades — as is alleged.
At the time of writing neither company had responded to a request for comment.
The watchdog suspects Apple and Samsung of orchestrating “a general commercial policy taking advantage of the lack of certain components to curb the performance times of their products and induce consumers to buy new versions”, according to Reuters.
Earlier this week Apple CEO Tim Cook said it’s working on an iOS update that will inform iPhones users if their phone is being performance throttled because of the age of its battery. It will also be giving users the ability to switch off the power management feature if they wish (though Apple does not advise doing so).
It’s not clear when the update will drop for all iPhones users but it’s slated to ship to developers sometime next month.
Published at Fri, 19 Jan 2018 10:53:02 +0000