Apple slows your iPhone down "to conserve battery"

mrochester · 30 Dec 2017 at 16:01

always late said:
Lol. A professor at Harvard pretty much confirmed this back in 2014 already. This is a very interesting read:

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4134160-apples-planned-obsolescence-strategy

It's an interesting article but it doesn't actually correlate with the facts of what is happening here. Slowing down the processor due to battery degradation only effects the iPhone 6, 6S and 7 (and soon to be iPhone 8 and X too). All of the iPhones in the line chart are unaffected by this. The reasons behind people searching for 'iPhone slow' are unknown.

Here's some interesting data about the term 'iPhone slow'.

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today 5-y&q=iPhone slow

It seems that the introduction of iOS 7 (which was the first major overhaul to iOS) scored the highest with subsequent releases dropping off significantly. It seems that most people's 'iPhone slow' issue goes away away almost immediately (probably once the OS has finished all of it's search indexing). The baseline hasn't shifted since the iPhone was first introduced.

The next most significant bump we see is in September 2017 when the effects of this CPU throttling starts to occur for people with iPhone 6s and iPhone 6Ses (the update that includes the CPU throttling was released in January 2017, so it appears there was no significant impact from this update for nearly 9 months). So it looks like this CPU throttling impacts devices that are 2-3 years old.

The huge spike at the end, once the story broke, is obviously going to obfuscate any meaningful analysis for that time period.

And looking at a longer term trend:

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=iPhone slow

It appears that iOS 4 (the introduction of 3rd party app multitasking) and iOS 7 (the biggest overhaul we've seen to iOS) correspond to the 'iPhone slow' search term the most.

EDIT - I have (probably) wrongly assumed that the spike in September 2017 was a result of the CPU throttling. It's probably just a result of the new version of iOS. It's October onwards that probably indicates the CPU throttling people are starting to see, so 10 months after the update was introduced.

Diddums · 30 Dec 2017 at 16:04

mrochester said:
It's an interesting article but it doesn't actually correlate with the facts of what is happening here. Slowing down the processor due to battery degradation only effects the iPhone 6, 6S and 7 (and soon to be iPhone 8 and X too). All of the iPhones in the line chart are unaffected by this. The reasons behind people searching for 'iPhone slow' are unknown.

Nah, that's just you being blind.

ChroniC · 30 Dec 2017 at 16:07

I bemused that so many iPhone users are saying they appreciate the effort of being slowed down to save their device.
Why are they not outraged that the simple fix of a problem was hidden from them intentionally.

mrochester · 30 Dec 2017 at 16:26

ChroniC said:
I bemused that so many iPhone users are saying they appreciate the effort of being slowed down to save their device.
Why are they not outraged that the simple fix of a problem was hidden from them intentionally.

I don't do fake outrage. I would rather my phone were slowed down and worked reliably than shutting down unexpectedly. I think it's a good compromise given the limitations of battery technology.

mrochester · 30 Dec 2017 at 16:27

always late said:
Nah, that's just you being blind.

I'd be interested in hearing some meaningful, thoughtful insight from you.

RetiredGreyFox · 30 Dec 2017 at 16:28

Easy to pick out who mrochester is

Diddums · 30 Dec 2017 at 16:31

mrochester said:
I'd be interested in hearing some meaningful, thoughtful insight from you.

Then go read all my previous posts in this thread.

mrochester · 30 Dec 2017 at 16:38

always late said:
Then go read all my previous posts in this thread.

I've just been back through the thread re-reading all of your posts and I cannot find this post that you speak of. Can you link to it directly?

Diddums · 30 Dec 2017 at 16:42

No. I've come to my conclusions about you, have a nice weekend

Spook187 · 30 Dec 2017 at 16:42

ChroniC said:
I bemused that so many iPhone users are saying they appreciate the effort of being slowed down to save their device.
Why are they not outraged that the simple fix of a problem was hidden from them intentionally.

Because they won't accept that apple have been ripping them off for years, they are blinkered hipsters

mrochester · 30 Dec 2017 at 16:43

always late said:
No. I've come to my conclusions about you, have a nice weekend

Likewise. You too!

mrochester · 30 Dec 2017 at 16:45

Spook187 said:
Because they won't accept that apple have been ripping them off for years, they are blinkered hipsters

LOL, I don't think my 72 year old father would fit the definition of hipster by any stretch of the imagination.

Housey · 30 Dec 2017 at 16:54

mrochester said:
I don't do fake outrage. I would rather my phone were slowed down and worked reliably than shutting down unexpectedly. I think it's a good compromise given the limitations of battery technology.

The point is they changed the performance of the device people bought without telling them. The lack of communication is the issue, not if it's a good or bad fix to a problem that most people cared nothing about or even knew about.

mrochester · 30 Dec 2017 at 16:54

Housey said:
The point is they changed the performance of the device people bought without telling them. The lack of communication is the issue, not if it's a good or bad fix to a problem that most people cared nothing about or even knew about.

And that's been fixed now, so problem solved then?

Glaucus · 30 Dec 2017 at 16:55

mrochester said:
And that's been fixed now, so problem solved then?

What, so companies can get away with anything as long as they fix it when found out.
I bet VW will be glad of that train of thinking.

mrochester · 30 Dec 2017 at 16:57

Glaucus said:
What, so companies can get away with anything as long as they fix it when found out.
I bet VW will be glad of that train of thinking.

That's not what I said. We are talking about a specific issue that has now been resolved. No action we take now can impact the past.

Nitefly · 30 Dec 2017 at 16:59

Using the aforementioned battery life app:

iPhone 6S - bought release day, 2 and a bit years ago. 82% battery capacity.

No noticeable slowdown here.

*shrug*

Housey · 30 Dec 2017 at 17:00

mrochester said:
And that's been fixed now, so problem solved then?

I shagged your wife, now you know.

We good?

mrochester · 30 Dec 2017 at 17:02

Housey said:
I shagged your wife, now you know.

We good?

Other than indulging yourself in a bit of fake outrage, what else are you expecting to happen? What damage have you suffered and what recourse do you want to see?

Housey · 30 Dec 2017 at 17:08

mrochester said:
Other than indulging yourself in a bit of fake outrage, what else are you expecting to happen? What damage have you suffered and what recourse do you want to see?

You are terrific at missing points.

I don't do fake outrage, but I do understand corporate responsibility and risk and the damage that such actions can have. You just assumed my concern was with my iPhone and impact on me, somewhat naive. Do you have a VW diesel?