doogald
Trusted Member
(Heck, when we know the battery in our car is on its last legs, we don't expect the car to go only 80% as fast, or run only some of the accessories. It runs until the battery can no longer start and run the car)
So, would you rather your car just die while it is running when you press the gas when this fictional car battery is on its last legs, or just not speed up but continue running? Because that's what Apple did - slow the phone down **temporarily** so the phone just doesn't die in your hand. As it is, only electric cars run on batteries - most cars run on gasoline, and the battery just powers the electrical system. So, this is more like a car that can no longer deliver gasoline as fast as the engine needs it when you try to push the car hard. Would you want that fictional car to be smart enough not to die on the highway when you try to accelerate past a slower vehicle, or just fail hard and stall despite the fact there is plenty of fuel to keep on going at a normal speed? That's what this change is doing to the iPhone - it's preventing it from running the turbocharger but allowing it to continue at normal speed without a hard failure, making your car stop and forcing you to restart it and find that the gas tank still had enough fuel to continue going when it stopped.
Unfortunately, smartphones are not cars. Cars are designed and meant to be regularly maintained over many years; smartphones are designed to be useful for only a short amount of time, and any smartphone maker who has tried to make a modular device that can be upgraded has not been successful in the market.
But to deny - as long as they did - that users felt the OS upgrades slowed the devices (without explaining why) and then happily encourage their own retailers and 3rd Party providers to sell a new phone to customers when a battery swap would do? How many 6, 6s, 7, and 7s phones are sitting in junk drawers, replaced because they weren't working as expected, and Apple did not say why?
This slowing just started last January, and only for 6/6s/SE, and these slowdown conspiracy theories are far older than that, allegedly for older iPhones than those.
I can guarantee that there is not a single iPhone 7s sitting in a junk drawer, though.
(I honestly think that more people upgrade not because their phones are slow but because the batteries no longer hold a charge for a sufficient amount of time.)
Take advantage of the cheaper battery swap while you can, but ensure you sign nothing that removes your right to consumer protection, or to recompense should lawsuits proceed.
Right, sue, sue, sue, that's the American way. (Why would you get excited about entering a class action suit that will fill lawyers' pockets and get you a check for a few cents or maybe dollars in ten years?)
If you feel so strongly about it, make Apple hurt where it counts by not buying another iPhone. And, if you still want an iPhone, be happy that there is a vigorous group of journalists holding Apple's feet to the fire; without them, this program to change batteries for $29 rather than $69 (and only when the battery has less than 80% original life left) never would have happened.