Although it’s been more than a year after the original issue, Apple is still contending with flak over the company’s decision to throttle older iPhone speeds in conjunction with aging batteries. As such, a consumer watchdog group in the UK announced that Apple has agreed to notify customers if future iOS updates will affect an iPhone’s performance.
The UK Competition and Markets Authority, which began investigating the issue in early 2018, has apparently pushed Apple to come to the following agreement to better notify its customers when an iOS update could affect iPhone performance.
The U.K. government’s statement on the issue reads as follows:
“To ensure compliance with consumer law Apple has formally agreed to improve the information it provides to people about the battery health of their phones and the impact performance management software may have on their phones,” the U.K. government said on its website.
The CMA’s investigation focused on concerns that people were not warned that their phone’s performance could slow down following a software update to manage the power demands on batteries.
Following the emergence of this issue, Apple has greatly improved the tools available to consumers. With the release of iOS 11.3 last February, Apple added new Battery Health and performance management features. This allows consumers to choose the “Peak Performance” option – and run the risk of unexpected shutdowns – to avoid throttling.
Apple also ran a promotion on battery replacements throughout all of 2018, offering $29 replacement batteries for eligible users. Battery replacements are now available for $49 for older iPhones and $69 for the iPhone X. Apple is thought to have replaced 11 million iPhone batteries during 2018, a massive upgrade from its usual replacement numbers of one to two million batteries.