Not long ago, a study was published suggesting that Apple deliberately sabotages its old products. The study was performed by student Laura Trucco at Harvard University. By reviewing worldwide searches for “iPhone slow,” she found that this phrase was searched more, by a significant amount, whenever a new iPhone was about to be launched.

Trucco then compared her results to the findings of other searchers for Apple’s competitors’ phones,  such as “Samsung Galaxy slow,” and found that the phrase was not searched for more around the time that a new Samsung phone model was released.

The number of Google searches for “iPhone slow” spiked every time a new phone model was launched and made available to the public.

This isn’t uncommon, as most likely you’ve heard people complain about how their iPhones or Mac laptops continue to get slower over time. The point is, it’s fishy how it always coincides with the launch of Apple’s new products.

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Over the past few years, this type of sentiment has been common across social media.

It’s also a common business practice. Goods are made to break, if they weren’t, corporations like Apple wouldn’t really experience much profit. Sure, new applications and features may be added, but a lot of money is probably going to be lost if people’s old iPhones are just as fast, and work just as well as the new ones.

Now, Apple has admitted to the correlation, but provided an explanation. Because older iPhones have aged batteries, the device slows down and doesn’t perform as well because it’s compensating for the poor battery and it spends more energy on trying to avoid forced and unexpected shutdowns, not because they want people to upgrade.

That being said, it’s quite clear that they do want people to upgrade, it’s the only way to sustain the company. They must keep releasing new products every single year, and the truth is, they probably already have a few years worth of products lined up so they can keep ahead of themselves.

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In a statement to Buzzfeed, Apple said:

“Our goal is to deliver the best experience for customers, which includes overall performance and prolonging the life of their devices. Lithium-ion batteries become less capable of supplying peak current demands when in cold conditions, have a low battery charge or as they age over time, which can result in the device unexpectedly shutting down to protect its electronic components.

Last year we released a feature for iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone SE to smooth out the instantaneous peaks only when needed to prevent the device from unexpectedly shutting down during these conditions. We’ve now extended that feature to iPhone 7 with iOS 11.2, and plan to add support for other products in the future.”

So what’s the solution to your slow iPhone? Get a new battery. That being said, they are purposefully designing their phones and providing you updates in accordance with planned obsolescence.

Reprinted with permission from Collective Evolution.

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