The tech giant has offered a major price cut to replace out-of-warranty batteries that affect iPhone performance. Days before issuing an apology, it acknowledged it purposely slowed down older iPhones to prevent issues.
Earlier this month, the tech giant said it slowed down older iPhones to avoid unexpected shutdowns caused by battery fatigue, which prompted an angered reaction on social media.
'Planned obsolescence'?
Apple made its battery disclosure after independent researchers published their findings that the company secretly slowed down older iPhones
At least eight class action lawsuits have been filed against the tech giant for allegedly defrauding users, including in France, where "planned obsolescence" is outlawed
Apple said it will reduce the price of out-of-warranty battery replacement from $79 (€66) to $29 (€24) for the iPhone 6 model and those released afterward
Apple's battery disclosure played into a common belief that it implemented "planned obsolescence," although there is no evidence to show it deliberately did so to encourage consumer upgrades Image: picture-alliance/dpa/dpa-Zentralbild/F. Gutierrez-Juarez
'Sorry'
In a press release announcing new measures to restore consumer confidence, Apple said: "We know that some of you feel Apple has let you down. We apologize."
Julia Calderone, an associate editor at US-based Consumer Reports magazine, criticized the company for its response to the battery disclosure, saying: "How charitable of them. Maybe Apple should fix the iOS that destroyed my battery life instead of making me buy a new battery for a phone that's barely a year old."
Nilay Patel, editor-in-chief of tech blog The Verge, offered a nuanced response on social media, saying: "I really do think Apple's performance management around old iPhone batteries is quite clever. But they needed to be upfront about exactly how slow things got before getting caught out."
The apple: Forbidden fruit, royal insignia, record label and tech logo
The importance of the apple goes back to Adam and Eve in paradise - and it's still a powerful symbol today. Here's a selection of apples in cultural history.
Image: Kimihiro Hoshino/AFP/Getty Images
A bite is a byte
The perhaps most popular apple of the 21st century is the Apple Inc. logo of an apple with a bite taken out of it, designed in 1977 by Rob Janoff. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs had the idea for the company name. He was, Jobs said, on one of his "fruitarian diets," and came up with the name on his way back from a visit to an apple farm.
Image: Reuters/M. Rehle
Adam & Eve
It all began in paradise: The "parents of all mankind" made a fatal mistake, from a Biblical point of view, by ignoring God's orders not to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge. Eve picked an apple, took a bite, and made Adam take a bite, too.
Image: picture-alliance/akg-images
The golden apple
In Greek mythology, this particular apple led to a dispute among the goddesses and eventually to the Trojan War. Young Trojan prince Paris was called on to judge who was the most beautiful: Aphrodite, Athene or Hera. All three tried to bribe him, with Aphrodite offering the love of the world's most beautiful woman. Paris awarded her the golden apple.
Image: picture alliance/akg-images
What goes up...
Legend has it that British scientist and mathematician Isaac Newton was sitting under an apple tree when an apple fell on his head - which made him think about the powers of gravity that forced the apple down and not up or sideways. The event supposedly inspired a brilliant idea: the Law of Universal Gravitation.
Image: picture-alliance/Isadora/Leemage
Royal insignia
Emperors and kings have been depicted holding an orb topped by a cross for many hundreds of years; sometimes the royal insignia tops crowns. So where does the apple come in? Take a close look at the shape of the orb: In German, the orb of the world is called "Reichsapfel," which literally means "apple of the empire."
Image: picture-alliance/Bildagentur-online
An apple a day
In many cultures, the apple symbolizes eternal life, for instance in northern European and Greek mythology. Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree," Martin Luther allegedly said.
Image: picture-alliance/akg-images
Tell's apple shot
German playwright Friedrich Schiller wrote "Wilhelm Tell," a drama about the legendary Swiss national hero who rebelled against a bloodthirsty tyrant. The 19th-century play is critical of society and still very much up to date. Tell was forced to shoot an apple off his own son's head as a punishment for disobedience.
Image: Kulturstiftung Dessau-Wörlitz
Who's the fairest of them all?
Resentful of her stepdaughter's beauty, the evil queen poisoned an apple to kill the girl in the Grimm fairy tale Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Snow White took a bite, and dropped, as if dead. Lying in a glass coffin, though, she coughed up the apple lodged in here throat just in time - and lived happily ever after.
Image: picture-alliance/chromorange/J. Menzel
At the core
In 1968, The Beatles founded their own record label, and named it Apple Records. The logo, a bright green Granny Smith apple, first showed up on the band's legendary "White Album" that same year. Apple Records sued Apple, the consumer electronics company, several times for trademark infringement.
Image: Getty Images/B. Vincent
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Why does Apple slow down older iPhones: Apple said it does so in order to preserve the iPhone experience for consumers. According to the tech giant, if it didn't slow them down, they could shutdown unexpectedly due to unevenly receiving power from a fatigued battery.
Will Apple update its software to reflect the issue: Apple said it will release in January a software update with "new features that give users more visibility into the health of their iPhone’s battery."
What happens next: Apple will offer a significant price cut to replace out-of-warranty batteries in older iPhones across the globe beginning in late January and ending in December 2018.
