Apple DOES slow down your iPhone as the batteries wear out forcing customers to upgrade earlier, new study claims
Scientists analysed performance data from thousands of the devices - and discovered that that speeding up a slow iPhone could be as simple as getting a new battery
APPLE updates slow down ageing iPhones by cutting performance power to save the batteries, researchers have claimed.
Scientists at tech firm Primate Labs analysed performance data from thousands of the devices - and discovered that that speeding up a slow iPhone could be as simple as getting a new battery.
The huge analysis revealed that iPhone 6S performance takes four massive nosedives after each update that follow iOS 10.2.1.
Founder John Poole wrote: "The distribution of iPhone 6S scores for iOS 10.2.0 appears unimodal with a peak around the average score.
"However, the distribution of iPhone 6S scores for iOS 10.2.1 appears multimodal, with one large peak around the average and several smaller peaks around lower scores. Under iOS 11.2.0 the effect is even more pronounced."
The tweak programs iPhone processors to slow down if they detect battery degradation - meaning the fix for a slow iPhone could be as simple as changing the battery.
Batteries naturally degrade over time - with the iPhone one designed to last for just 500 charge cycles.
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Deliberately slowing the processors can have the effect of hiding a dying battery, as top-of-the-range processing takes up more energy.
Poole added: "This fix will also cause users to think, 'my phone is slow so I should replace it' not, 'my phone is slow so I should replace its battery'.
"This will likely feed into the ‘planned obsolescence’ narrative."
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