Apple seeks to clarify battery issue

SAN FRANCISCO — US tech giant Apple Inc has confirmed that the slowdown resulting from degradation of batteries will only affect older iPhones and shouldn’t impact other products.

In its latest update support document on the company website, Apple said iPads, Apple Watches or MacBooks will not be slowed down by software updates for older iPhones with degraded batteries.

“This feature’s only intent is to prevent unexpected shutdowns so that the iPhone can still be used,” it said.

“This power management feature is specific to iPhone and does not apply to any other Apple products.”

It said that with a low battery state of charge on older models of iPhones, users are more likely to experience unexpected shutdowns.

“In extreme cases, shutdowns can occur more frequently, thereby rendering the device unreliable or unusable,” Apple said.

The Silicon Valley-based company did not provide any other details about how iPads are not impacted by the battery slowdown.

Some industry analysts speculated that this may be attributed to the bigger batteries being used on the tablets, which are charged less frequently due to their larger capacity.

Apple conceded in December that it deliberately reduced the performance of older models of Apple devices with aging batteries in order to prevent unexpected shutdowns.

The company has since been criticized for what many users described as a trick to force them to buy newer but more expensive devices.

They claimed that if they had known their batteries were to blame for the slowdown, they would have replaced the batteries instead of buying a new phone.

In order to quell the anger of its users, Apple agreed in late December that it would cut $50 off the out-of-warranty iPhone battery replacement for the next year, so that anyone with an iPhone 6 or older can have a new battery replacement for merely $29 starting later this month.