Posted on 12/27/2017 6:25:21 AM PST by grundle
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 26 (Reuters) - Apple Inc defrauded iPhone users by slowing devices without warning to compensate for poor battery performance, according to eight lawsuits filed in various federal courts in the week since the company opened up about the year-old software change.
The tweak may have led iPhone owners to misguided attempts to resolve issues over the last year, the lawsuits contend.
All the lawsuits - filed in U.S. District Courts in California, New York and Illinois - seek class-action to represent potentially millions of iPhone owners nationwide.
A similar case was lodged in an Israeli court on Monday, the newspaper Haaretz reported.
Apple did not respond to an email seeking comment on the filings.
The company acknowledged last week for the first time in detail that operating system updates released since "last year" for the iPhone 6, iPhone 6s, iPhone SE and iPhone 7 included a feature "to smooth out" power supply from batteries that are cold, old or low on charge.
Phones without the adjustment would shut down abruptly because of a precaution designed to prevent components from getting fried, Apple said.
The disclosure followed a Dec. 18 analysis by Primate Labs, which develops an iPhone performance measuring app, that identified blips in processing speed and concluded that a software change had to be behind them.
One of the lawsuits, filed Thursday in San Francisco, said that "the batteries' inability to handle the demand created by processor speeds" without the software patch was a defect.
"Rather than curing the battery defect by providing a free battery replacement for all affected iPhones, Apple sought to mask the battery defect," according to the complaint.
The plaintiff in that case is represented by attorney Jeffrey Fazio, who represented plaintiffs in a $53-million settlement with Apple in 2013 over its handling of iPhone warranty claims.
The problem now seen is that users over the last year could have blamed an aging computer processor for app crashes and sluggish performance - and chose to buy a new phone - when the true cause may have been a weak battery that could have been replaced for a fraction of the cost, some of the lawsuits state.
"If it turns out that consumers would have replaced their battery instead of buying new iPhones had they known the true nature of Apple's upgrades, you might start to have a better case for some sort of misrepresentation or fraud," said Rory Van Loo, a Boston University professor specializing in consumer technology law.
But Chris Hoofnagle, faculty director for the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, said in an email that Apple may not have done wrong.
"We still haven't come to consumer protection norms" around aging products, Hoofnagle said. Pointing to a device with a security flaw as an example, he said, "the ethical approach could include degrading or even disabling functionality."
The lawsuits seek unspecified damages in addition to, in some cases, reimbursement. A couple of the complaints seek court orders barring Apple from throttling iPhone computer speeds or requiring notification in future instances.
Only fair. Since Microsoft stole Apple’s “windows” (GUI) idea, now it’s Apple’s turn to steal Microsoft’s “make it worse so they have to buy a new one” idea.
They did nothing wrong. But this should be a lesson to them, not to change things without making a big announcement.
Apple makes “good stuff”,
but they can “stuff it” with their dishonesty
There’s a chart out there that correlates Google searches for “slow iphone” with the release dates of new iPhone models. This chart demonstrated the correlation over several years and models.
The thinking is that Apple includes handicapping elements in updates just prior to new product releases, hoping consumers will decide to replace their “slow, old” phones with the new model.
That’s what I was hoping this suit was about.
Jobs stole it from Xerox.
For those who don’t understand how difficult it is to pack all that logic in a cell phone, this makes more sense than having to open up your phone every 2 years to replace the batteries.
Instead, try a Class Action Suit against Telemarketers if you want to make your phones last longer.
Apple stole Xerox’s GUI first.................
Apple is long due for punishment
They play nasty games with the customer. Sick of never ending updates...
Good. Apple needs to be taken down a peg or two.
Apple didn’t steal squat from Xerox. Microsoft, on the other hand, was forced to settle with Apple to the tune of something like $150 million if memory serves me correctly.
True. I was just making a joke.
I saw the article on wattsupwiththat and there was a direct correlation with new iphones and slowed older phones for every iphone release. It is not the battery, Too regular and too correlated with the new phones.
If it were the battery then they are really bad engineers to design such a shortfall. Interesting that all the android phones do not suffer this battery issue. Must be better engineers.
Lesson? Turn off your iphone updates before every new iphone release- or go android, which is what I did.
MS never stole windows from Apple. Xerox developed GUIs and mouse controllers nearly a decade before Apple used them.
The huge settlement Microsoft paid Apple begs to differ, and Apple paid Xerox for their visit to PARC, nothing was stolen. Xerox had developed a very rudimentary mouse with an equally rudimentary graphical user interface, but had done nothing with it, it basically died on the vine at Xerox.
“Lesson? Turn off your iphone updates before every new iphone release- or go android, which is what I did.”
Good advice, but I’m stuck with iPhone for work purposes.
Yesterday I installed the latest update (iOS 11.2.1) and things seem back to normal. Funny, but the release notes only mentioned security updates. Nothing about speed or other performance bugs.
Apple’s China products suffer a set back. On the bright side, it will be the lawyers new gold mine.
Apple makes me angry.
So if I buy a new iPhone 7...Will Apple allow my new phone down? Or does it wait until the battery gets old?
It sounds like they did a whole lot of wrong. Amazing how they only “fix” the old battery issue when a new phone is released. Oh and it just so happens that the fix slows down the old phone making consumers buy new phones. If and they didn’t tell anyone.
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