iPhone slowdown: Apple confirms US agencies are investigating
After it was discovered Apple is purposely slowing down older iPhone's due to poor battery performance, the company has found itself in the middle of a controversy that doesn't seem like it will go away anytime soon.
On Tuesday, it was reported the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are investigating Apple to determine whether or not the company is purposely slowing down older iPhones to force customers to upgrade.
Then on Wednesday, ZDNet's sister-site CNET received a statement from Apple acknowledging it has "received questions from some government agencies," and is in the process of responding to those questions. The statement does not clarify which agencies the company has been in contact with.
When reached by ZDNet, the SEC and DOJ both declined to comment.
After the slowdown was first discovered, Apple published a letter explaining why the company was limiting performance on devices with older batteries. In short, the company had implemented a method to limit random shutdowns and restarts by throttling performance starting with iOS 10.2.1.
In an attempt to make amends, Apple lowered the price of a replacement battery from $79 to $29 for the duration of 2018. Any iPhone 6 or later is eligible, regardless of battery health.
Furthermore, the company has promised more transparency regarding when a device is being actively slowed down due to battery health and will offer customers the option to disable the feature via a software update.
According to Apple, the software feature to view battery health and turn off any performance restrictions will be available through its developer beta program in February, and as a public update in this Spring.