Apple has agreed to pay up US$500 million (~RM2.13 billion) over an accusation that it purposely slowed down older iPhone models in order to subtly force owners to switch up to the latest iPhone model or replace their phone’s battery.
The agreement, which was disclosed last Friday, will still require approval by a US judge. To break down the settlement, Apple will have to pay consumers US$25 (~RM105) per affected iPhone. That amount may change based on the number of eligible iPhones, but Apple will still need to payout a minimum of US$310 million (~RM1.3 billion) to affected users. On a side note, the settlement will only cover US owners, and not global owners.
Moving on, the affected iPhone models include the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, 7, 7 Plus, and SE that ran on iOS 10.2.1 or later. This also includes iPhone 7 and 7 Plus models that ran iOS 11.2 or later before 21 December 2017.
Many users of the above iPhone models began complaining to Apple of a “throttling” effect to their phones after it updated to iOS 10.2.1. The fruit company initially tried to sway public opinion towards the possibility of temperature changes and other issues.
When the cat was let out of the bag that Apple was purposely creating the scenario, it apologised and agreed to sell replacement batteries for affected iPhone at US$29 (~RM121), down from US$79 (~RM332).
(Source: Reuters // Image: Getty Images)
