For long now, every-time apple or samsung releases a new software update, it has always rendered a previous generation model useless. Be it iPhone 4s with the release of iOS 9 or iPhone 5s with the release of iOS 10. In any case, a newer update has often meant the end of older generation models. Tech experts would point to animations and new features as the downfall of older devices as their resources could not cope up with the demands of the new OS. But in a shocking turn of events, it was recently revealed that Samsung and Apple slow down older phones deliberately, in order to increase the sale of their newer devices.
The What and Why?
Apple and Samsung have been fined a total of £15 million or ₹125 crores by investigators in Italy that have termed this practice as “planned obsolescence “. Apple is required to pay an amount of £8.82m while Samsung will have to shell out £4.41m in the coming days. The investigators also revealed that the companies have been purposefully manufacturing phones with the direct intention of slowing them down in a few years, forcing you to buy a newer variant.
The whole charade started back in January when the investigation was launched by an Italian Body responsible for monitoring competition between companies. They ended up discovering that each update from the company’s side, had a detrimental effect on the previous generation’s model’s performance. Although such practices have been suspected for a long time by forums on reddit dedicated to testing device performance ,it is the first time that a governmental body has taken its decision in favour of the people.
The Investigation also revealed, Samsung and Apple to be involved in dishonest commercial practices and drastic performances degradation of their devices with each incremental upgrade. These updates are designed specifically, to reduce performance on certain previous models, which accelerates the user’s upgrade procedure.
The companies have also been accused of not allowing downgrades and not being transparent with their customers. The investigators found that Apple and Samsung have been hiding important information about the impact pf software upgrades on certain devices. As result of this both the companies were fined the maximum amount of £5m with Apple being charged another £5m for a separate issue with their batteries.
While Apple hasn’t shown any sign of appealing the decision, Samsung has chosen to do otherwise. Samsung plans on appealing the ruling as it believes that the company provides better performance with each upgrade. This is not the only investigation related to this issue, an eerily similar investigation is also being carried out in France while a class action lawsuit has been filed for the same in California.
Although Apple has been suspected and accused of this before, this is the first time Samsung has been accused of slowing down their phones. What do you think about? Do you own any such devices? Share your experience with us in the comments section below.
