You might recall that back in 2016, several iPhone users complained that their devices were shutting down. Some blamed Apple and said that it was a ploy by the manufacturer to sell new iPhone models. As it turned out, Apple did throttle the CPU on certain models like the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, and iPhone 6s Plus, but it wasn’t done to sell more iPhone units.
As it turned out, some older iPhone models were running on weak batteries. As a result, when particularly processor-intensive tasks were attempted, the phone would shut down. So Apple sent out iOS 10.2.1 which throttled the CPU to prevent an affected iPhone’s batteries from trying too hard to power up the CPU. After the update was disseminated, battery-related shutdowns declined dramatically with iPhone 6s shutdowns dropping by a whopping 80%.
By the end of 2017, Apple sent out an apology and dropped the price to replace certain iPhone batteries by 63%. The whole affair has been forever memorialized by iPhone fans with the #batterygate hashtag. Eventually, Apple settled a Class-Action lawsuit with each U.S. member of the class entitled to approximately $25. In iOS 11.3, Apple added the Battery Health meter that it still has available today in iOS 14.
The Apple iPhone 12 family
It might seem like deja vu to some iPhone users; according to iphoneros (via 9to5Mac), the Consumer Protection Organization in Spain is accusing Apple of throttling recent models including the iPhone 12, iPhone XS, iPhone 8, and the iPhone 11. The Spanish group says that Apple throttled those models when it disseminated iOS 14.5, iOS 14.5.1, and iOS 14.6. The organization said that by throttling its handsets Apple has “significantly damaged consumer devices,” “drastically reduced processor speed,” and reduced battery life.
The consumer group has written a letter to Apple asking the manufacturer to come up with a way to compensate users of affected iPhone models. If Apple does not respond to the organization’s liking, it could decide to take the tech giant to court.
Later this year, owners of eligible iPhone models will have the option of updating to iOS 15 or continue running iOS 14 while receiving security patches. Meanwhile, if it turns out that this throttling is the result of a bug, Apple could push out an update to fix the issue.
