Apple apologizes for secretly slowing older iPhones

Apple apologizes for secretly slowing older iPhones. December. 30, 2017 07:47. by Ji-Hyun Kim jhk85@donga.com.

Apple eventually apologized Thursday (local time) for intentionally slowing down older iPhones. The apology came just one day after a class-action lawsuit asking for almost 1 trillion dollars in damages has been filed in the United States.

“We know that some of you feel Apple has let you down. We apologize. There's been a lot of misunderstanding about this issue,” the Silicon Valley titan said in a statement released on its website. “First and foremost, we have never — and would never — do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades.”

“Our goal has always been to create products that our customers love, and making iPhones last as long as possible is an important part of that," the company added.

Apple said it will cut battery replacement cost from the current 79 dollars to 29 dollars starting from January next year. It also promised new iOS update early next year so that users can figure out if their batteries need to be replaced.

Apple seems to have decided to officially apologize as the ramifications of this scandal have been bigger than it anticipated. This controversy surrounding Apple started with articles posted on an online community complaining about battery slowdowns. The company is now facing class-action lawsuits in countries, including the United States, Korea and Israel. Apple’s stock fell by 2.54 percent Tuesday, removing 24.5 trillion won in its market capitalization in one day.