UK Edition
US government investigates Apple over iPhone battery slowdowns
The US government is investigating whether Apple broke stock market rules over a software update that slowed down old iPhones when their batteries degraded.
The Department of Justice and the Securities Exchange Commission, the main market regulator, have requested information from the company over the way it disclosed information about the update.
The investigation is focused on whether Apple followed disclosure rules in the way it responded to public outcry over the slowdown several weeks ago, according to Bloomberg.
In December it emerged that an Apple software update released a year ago slows down older versions of the iPhone if their batteries have degraded over time, a technique designed to prevent the phones shutting down unexpectedly.
Apple has batted away claims that it purposefully inhibits older handsets to push owners into buying a newer one, but has apologised for not telling users about the slowdown issue until it was discovered by researchers.
"As we told our customers in December, we have never - and would never - do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades," an Apple spokesman said.
"Our goal has always been to create products that our customers love. Making iPhones last as long as possible is an important part of that." The company has since slashed the price of battery replacements and promised a new update to the iPhone operating system in a few weeks that will allow users to deactivate the performance-throttling feature.
However, Apple continues to face repercussions from the incident. Dozens of lawsuits have been filed and French authorities are looking into whether Apple broke domestic laws banning “planned obsolescence”. US Senators have also grilled the company about the matter.
However, scrutiny from the US market regulator is potentially more serious.
Apple may provide further details about the issue when it publishes results for the last three months of 2017, the crucial Christmas period that follows new iPhone launches, on Thursday night.
Some analysts have recently cut forecasts for the next quarter, the first three months of 2018, as supply chain reports suggest it is cutting production targets for its high-end iPhone X.