Apple should rebuild trust with its users

Planned obsolescence. Plotting the demise of a product. Slowing it down and making it unfit for use. That’s illegal in France and parts of Europe. An unfair trade practice in other countries like the United States. Apple, the tech giant, may be many things for many people. Sure, it’s the great innovator of our times. People are dying to get their hands on its latest devices like the iPhoneX. It’s the gold standard in technology. We can go on. But is it playing by the rules by killing off older devices to force its fans to buy newer ones every year? Products age, which is normal. What’s not done is to intentionally make them unusable. Apple has been charged with just that. The mega company, according to reports, has been slapped with more than a dozen lawsuits for allegedly slowing down older iPhones.

To Apple’s credit, it apologised when the word got out in December. “We know that some of you feel Apple has let you down. We apologise. There’s been a lot of misunderstanding about this issue, so we would like to clarify and let you know about some changes we’re making.” The tech giant offered discounts on replacement batteries. It came as some consolation, which sadly didn’t undo the damage it caused to the company’s image. To make it worse, Apple last week disclosed that there were vulnerabilities in the chips in most of its devices. The company put a patch and hoped the problem would go away. It didn’t. Now, the case of its phones slowing down has returned to bite Apple as the French have launched a probe. The core issue is fraud, and the finance ministry is directing the investigation. This could spell more trouble for Apple, whose image has been battered by these revelations. Economies and companies depend on their reputations in this virtual world. Apple by now may have realised that it cannot direct public discourse even with the best tech communication and PR tools at its disposal. This is about rebuilding trust with its users. Rebooting its human appeal and being less machine-like would help it save face because every customer counts.