It seems the controversy over Apple intentionally slowing down performance of old iPhones, without informing the customers, is not going to die down soon. Despite an official apology last month, the problems for the technology giant is far from over. To make things worse, Apple Inc is now facing questions from US senate committee on commerce in connection with the row.
Previously, we had reported that a France-based consumer organisation called HOP – "Stop Planned Obsolescence"– had filed a lawsuit against Apple Inc in the country.
Apple had admitted in December 2017, that with the iOS 10.2.1 update, it had slowed down the performance of the older iPhones to tackle the unexpected shutdown. It seems Apple's statement has backfired on the company.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Apple CEO Tim Cook has received a letter from Senator John Thune, chairman of the Commerce Committee, asking a series of question about Apple's decision on throttling the performance of iPhones with older batteries.
Further, in the letter, Thune also raised questions about Apple's decision to offer battery replacements at a lower price rather than replacing the batteries for free. With this decision, Apple has also faced a lot of criticism from customers who were expecting Apple to offer a free replacement.
The Wall Street Journal report also said the Paris prosecutor's office confirmed that they were investigating the matter. The investigation is conducted by French consumer fraud group, Directorate General for Competition, Consumption and Fraud Control (DGCCRF), which is a part of Fench finance ministry.
Apple rolled out the power management feature with its iOs 10.2.1 update, after received hundreds of complaints on Reddit and MacRumour forum about the unexpected shutdown of iPhone 6s. At the time of rolling out the update, company didn't inform consumers that this problem is caused by battery deterioration. Neither did Apple inform customers that the update can cause occasional performance slowdowns.
The moment Apple realized that it needs to seek an apology and make efforts to correct the issue, it was already too late. According to Mac Rumors, Apple is now facing more than 30 lawsuits including the French inquiry, accusing it of intentionally slowing down the CPUs of the older iPhones and for failing to disclose the changes to iOS 10.2.1.
