Mindful Marketing
  • Home
  • About
    • Mission
    • Mindful Meter & Matrix
    • Leadership
  • Mindful Matters Blog
  • Engage Your Mind
    • Mindful Ads? Vote Your Mind!
  • Expand Your Mind
  • Contact

Apple Slows iPhones

12/29/2017

24 Comments

 
Picture

by David Hagenbuch, founder of Mindful Marketing & author of Honorable Influence

This fast-paced world leaves many of us longing for a simpler life with a more relaxed pace.  Slower does seem better, until we realize it’s our smartphone that’s slowing.  When that reality hits of millions of consumers at the same time, there’s bound to be a backlash, which is what Apple recently experienced after stating that some of its iPhones may not be as speedy as they could be.
 
You probably noticed the recent rash of news stories, all with a similar headline: Apple intentionally slows iPhones!  Such pieces  resonated with you personally if you own an older iPhone and experienced the frustration of waiting for apps to activate or data to download.
 
What sparked the media firestorm?  Two specific posts on the social media site Reddit were the main impetus.  Through a set of before-and-after Geekbench tests to measure his iPhone 6’s processor speed, a user named “TeckFire” found that his phone became much faster after replacing the phone’s battery.  His conclusion from the experience was that “Apple slows down phones when their battery gets too low, so you can still have a full days charge.”
 
He followed up his original post by later sharing what he said was “Apple’s official statement on the matter”:

“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.”
 
Apple continued its explanation:
 
“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, that sounds like Apple admitting it sometimes slows its smartphones.  Such a controversial confession from the world’s most valuable company doesn’t happen every day, which is why news media like CNN, Forbes, and The New York Times, quickly picked up the story.
 
Not surprising, Apple’s revelation has upset many consumers frustrated by the notion that their phones are not as fast as they could be.  One such customer who apparently has decided to turn his irritation into legal action is Stefan Bogdanovich of Los Angeles.  According to TMZ, he is suing Apple, claiming that the slowdown diminishes the phone’s value, as well as encourages users to needlessly abandon their older iPhones in favor of the latest models.  Others have filed similar complaints.

Bogdanovich’s lawsuit certainly doesn’t represent the first time a firm has been accused of planned obsolescence.  Indeed, some companies have resorted to the unethical approach, believing that the best way to build business was to impair their own products so customers would be more inclined to buy newer models, even though the ones they already owned were still very useable.
 
Besides being morally unacceptable, planned obsolescence is also a very risky business strategy.  Disappointing one’s own customers can easily drive them to competitors while causing serious self-inflicted damage to one’s own brand.  Why, then, would a market leader like Apple risk such a desperate scheme?
 
The most likely answer is it wouldn’t try planned obsolescence, which means something else probably explains Apple’s decision to slow its iPhone.  Brian X. Chen, the lead consumer technology writer for The New York Times, provides an excellent analysis of the company’s approach:
 
“What Apple is acknowledging is a power management technique in which the iPhone scales back processing power to keep the device running for longer when its battery health is low. Lithium ion batteries have a limited number of charge “cycles” before they can no longer be recharged properly. Apple’s website says the battery loses about 20 percent of its original capacity after 500 charge cycles.”
 
Chen summarizes: “if your iPhone is beginning to run out of battery capacity, these slowdowns might kick in to keep it running for longer or prevent it from shutting down unexpectedly.”  His expert opinion supports Apple’s assertion to TeckFire that slowdowns are ultimately in customers’ best interests: “Our goal is to deliver the best experience for customers, which includes overall performance and prolonging the life of their devices.”
 
If people have a choice between their smartphones running faster or slower, of course they’ll choose ‘faster.’  But, if the options are ‘going a little slower’ or ‘shutting down,’ most people will admit they can wait.  The trade-off is analogous to other experiences in life, like when driving.  While we almost always want to get to our destinations faster, most of us would rather slow down a little than have an accident.
 
So, it seems like the adage, “speed kills” also rings true for iPhones, which means Apple did its customers a favor by slowing their devices in order to avoid crashes.  Yes, in an ideal world battery life wouldn’t diminish over time and hardware would be completely stable, but even the world’s most valuable company must operate within current technology constraints.
 
Apple has since apologized for not informing consumers about its actions, and it has lowered the price of battery replacement on the affected iPhones from $79 to $29.  Perhaps more transparency sooner would have helped, but Apple really didn’t need to tell others what it was doing because its actions were in consumers’ best interests.  Although not an ideal example, Apple’s iPhone slowdown ultimately was “Mindful Marketing.”


Subscribe to Mindful Matters blog.
Learn more about the Mindful Matrix and Mindful Meter.
Check out Mindful Marketing Ads
 and Vote your Mind!
24 Comments
Matthew Ly
1/12/2018 04:50:47 pm

I think that Apple made the right decision when designing there phones. They purposely designed it so it would slow down the processing speed so that your phone could last longer. I think that people are so used to things being fast and up to date that they just forget about how over time things get slower but they still might work. New technology is coming out everyday and doing basically the same things but in a faster manner. Each time something new comes out you always want the newer and better thing on the market, so that makes you question yourself about your phone. Overall, I think that Apple made the right decision when doing this but also compensating by lowering the price of the battery replacement.

Reply
Michael Bowlin
1/13/2018 02:00:42 pm

I agree that is was Mindful Marketing because of the fact that our society always wants to have battery in our phones for constant use. If they slow down the software in order to have the actual phone continue to work, they are looking out for the population. However, they should have not waited to lower the battery replacement price. I feel that they simply got caught and were sitting on the price drop until this moment. They tried to get as much money as they could out of their customers, which is what a company strives to do, but this circumstance does not seem very moral to me.

Reply
Ruthie Horrocks
1/14/2018 01:33:56 pm

Apple is a booming company that appears to be continually revealing new iPhones to an insatiable public. Therefore, I feel it is unnecessary and especially rude for them to slow down the older iPhones. People are willing to spend obscene amounts of money to buy the new releases anyway so why slow the old ones down? I am an Apple user so I understand the excitement and anticipation of finding out what the new sleek devices can do, and I have seen people preordering or waiting in line to be one of the first people to buy the new iPhone. It seems to me that even though Apple has such loyal customers, they continue to take advantage of them which they have the power to do because it does not hurt their sales. It will be interesting to see that as Samsung becomes more of a player in the phone competition for customers whether Apple will change their techniques. Overall, I have to rate Apple's tactics as single minded.

Reply
Joseph King
1/16/2018 11:13:13 am

I think it was unethical from Apple to slow down their phones. If they truly cared about their customers, they would try to give them the best product at the best price. By slowing down the phones, they are trying to suck money out of their customers by either making it so they have to replace their battery, or buy an entire new phone. I still think that they charge too much for their phones and they should be lowering the price of that too and not just the batteries. This incident solidified in my head that Apple doesn't really care about their customers and just want to get as much money as possible out of them without putting the phones and devices at a fair price.

Reply
Abigail Poh
1/26/2018 11:03:02 pm

Initially, when I first heard the gist of the story behind Apple slowing down older iPhones, I was furious. I thought that for a company that was making so much profit, the least they could do would be to provide their customers with products that would last, instead of slowing them down in order to get them to buy the company's future launches. However, after reading this blog post and understanding the truth behind the matter, I think that it was wise of Apple to firstly, apologize for not explaining the battery matter to its consumers, but also to lower the price of a battery replacement. Hence, I am split on this matter. One side of me thinks that for a company such as Apple, they should have found advancement or ways in order for them to avoid this battery issue altogether, while the other side of me thinks that at least the company came to its senses and gave the customers some form of compensation and explanation.

Reply
Kiran K.
2/1/2018 01:13:34 am

I really learned a lot about the issue for your blog post so thank you. But I'm still not fully convinced that Apple was Mindfully Marketing to it's customers. Honesty is always the best policy and if Apple was honest right away I'm sure their customers would have agreed with decision to slow do the devices speed. However, Apple didn't and that makes me not want to trust them.

Reply
Kathan K.
2/1/2018 08:21:12 pm

I'm not really sure this was the best marketing move for Apple. Sure, it makes sense that they have to slow down the phone in order to prolong battery life, but they alienated a large portion of their customer base without being completely upfront about the issue. Customers expect honesty when investing in a company, and buying apple products is definitely an investment.

Reply
Caleb Weaver
2/1/2018 10:05:40 pm

I think it is quite interesting what Apple is trying to do here. Honestly, I think it is a great marketing tactic, it makes customers repeatedly have to buy a new iPhone every single time their phone starts slowing up. As for the consumers that are using the iPhones, they really aren't happy. I don't think it is really ethical to control the usage of the phones like that. If you're selling a product, you want to market it for the positives. Why would you want to sell a product that you know will make consumers unhappy? You'd want to create relationships with the customers and keep them coming back for the right reasons. Maybe Apple already thinks they have good standing with their customers, and are in the position to announce news like this to the public. Either way, I think it's a really interesting marketing technique, and I'm know for sure that I don't agree with it.

Reply
ZIZE
2/1/2018 11:32:06 pm

For Apple Company, they do the right thing when they are slow down the older Iphone, because Apple will make money to sale new model Iphone. When people feel the older iphone became slow, they will buy the new Iphone. Undeniable, that is very good marketing strategic for economy perspective. For Apple customer, Apple company is unethical. They lied to there customers and only want to make money for their customers. If you want to build the relationship with you customers, Apple company should immediately stop this behavior.

Reply
Francis Rouse
2/1/2018 11:44:38 pm

I personally do not feel that this was the best thing that Apple could have done. Apple has many loyal customers and I think it would have been better if they had been transparent with their customers about the details of their product. I do think however that they did a better job of remedying the situation by offering lower prices of the battery and apologizing. I do feel however that Apple may have lost many potential customers when things like this happen. I know many people who are put off by things like this and by the fact that iPhones were slowing down. I never had an iPhone until recently and I know many people complained that their phones were slow and that negative word of mouth why me and other people I know refused to buy the iPhone. I would hope that Apple will be more transparent with their huge customer base and it might even help them to get new customers.

Reply
Alfred
2/1/2018 11:59:41 pm

I thinking that apple not being transparent about the fact that they are purposely slowing down the Iphone is wrong. I can also understand that Apple being a company they need a continuous stream of revenue so that is why they came up with this marketing strategy.

Reply
Hailey Reyno
2/2/2018 12:21:02 am

Although I'm not too satisfied when my phone glitches or slows down, I think it is very smart of Apple to do so. This article recognizes how their "planned obsolescence is a risky business strategy," but the culture around owning an Apple product seems to outweigh that still. With slower down other phones, yes people are upset, but they'll get over it once there's a new Apple product to buy.

Reply
Zhiwei Lin link
2/2/2018 01:08:53 am

Personally, I think apple's PR is fine, Apple still has a lot of loyal fans. However, this event is most likely an important symbol of apple's decline. Since the iphone 6, Apple's high-end users have started to lose, and the loss of speed is bound to accelerate. Apple's label has always been two: one is beauty, the other is convenience. For the latter, it is the high income group who only care about the experience but not the price. Meanwhile, the image of the elite is shaped by this group of people. The inner logic is that the rich elites use apples. If this group were to find that apple was not convenience because of its speed, it would not be able to maintain its noble image.

Reply
Aini Song
2/2/2018 01:46:03 am

Initially, the reason why Apple slowing down the older iPhones is they are trying to make more profit on sale other new model iPhones. I think this is a very clever strategy for the company. Undeniable, making more money is the most primary and significant goal for each of companies. However, even if they do not slow down the older iPhone, there are still some people who are the super fans of Apple staring at the new iPhones and trying to get one. Additionally, Apple did not satisfy these people’s buying inclination, and they need more. It is reasonable for Apple to do so because they need to make people starting to think to change their iPhones when their feel the current one is slower than the new iPhones. That is one of the smart marketing strategies, and the other one is their no explaining apologize. They use a psychological warfare to explain to customers by cut down the price of the new battery. In this way, making people change their batteries, and use a cunning way to apologize for slowing down iPhones. Overall, even though Apple seems to like using an immoral way to get more profit, they got the final success in selling the new iPhones.

Reply
RJ Cordeiro
2/2/2018 02:00:43 am

I think its kind of shady for apple to be doing this. Although I understand the marketing strategy, it just seems unethical to do to their loyal customers and supporters who buy their products. Nonetheless, I'm sure they'll come up with something new and great and everyone will forgive them and this whole ordeal.

Reply
Jin Bai
2/2/2018 02:50:55 am

I think here Apple left its older-model customers two choices: either replace the battery or stick with the original battery until one day they could not bear how slow it is. For customer who is willing to replace the battery, Apple will get profit more or less. And for those who do not desire high performance of their iPhones, they do not want their phone to be lighting fast, they will just let their iPhone 6 run for another two or even three years. This remind me what happened to Samsung Note 7 last year. Clearly, Note 7 explosion is a more serious case. Here, Apple apologized for not making the public aware of it. However, 29 buck for a new battery is a fair deal. Plus, even though you choose not to replace the battery, your phone won't be a bomb.

Reply
Yvonne Chen
2/2/2018 02:53:56 am

In my opinion, it is unethical for Apple to slow down the phones because they wanted to make more money from it. We, the customers were already paying a really high price for the phone. I feel like I was betrayed as a loyal customer which owned several iPhones before because my phone was one of them that got slow down. If this ugly action was uncovered, is there other lies that we do not know? The only good thing is that Apple had admitted what they've done wrong and gave a solution to it. Am I able to continue to trust Apple?

Reply
Gabriela Gupta
2/3/2018 05:33:47 pm

As stated, “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.” This shows how they were not honest about slowing down the phone to make the battery life last longer. They need to think about how to sell their product in a truthful way so that they don't get attacked as they did later. They shouldn't be slowing down phones because ethically it is wrong due to just wanting more money from it. Their customers are paying for this phone to last at least more than 2 years but seeing that they have been lying to us this whole time makes it hard to trust the company the way we have before.

Reply
Cary Tai
2/5/2018 01:09:24 am

For Apple to purposely slow our iPhones and other technological devices down, they would have control over just about all sales since most people we know have an iPhone or an Apple device. By slowing them down, they are forcing us to buy the newest gadget. If the situation worsens, and we are unable to afford a new trinket such as a phone, we would have to downgrade or go phoneless for a period of time to save up for an iPhone unless one is willing to go to a different brand which is unlikely as well since Apple has gained people's loyalty due to the name of the brand and influence of society. In any case, I do believe this is a serious issue and will only exacerbate itself as time progresses and more people moving onto the iPhone.

Reply
Liu Yang
2/7/2018 06:58:37 pm

Apple intentionally slows iPhones. If you have an older iPhone, your iPhone would slow down when their battery gets too low. And apple admitted they slow iPhone. Apple explained they want to give customers the best experience, and Lithium-ion batteries become less capable of supplying peak demand when in cold conditions, have a low battery charge. I think this is a promotion strategy, and it is "Mindful strategy". They planned obsolescence older iPhones. If the older iPhone becomes slow, and have a battery issue, customers will buy a new phone instead of the old one. In addition, Apple said they already improve the battery issue, based on past wonderful experience, and unique IOS system, customers will choose to buy the new iPhones. However, this strategy has lots of risks. Apple may causes trust crisis.

Reply
Kyle Nunes
3/11/2018 07:35:51 pm

Well said! This blog makes me realize that with just a little more digging, we can figure out the truth behind built up situations within companies and our society as a whole. Many people, including myself, believed Apple was doing this in order to make customers buy the new models. However, they were actually trying to help our phones last longer and function at a more proficient level.

Reply
Kris Swodeck
3/12/2018 06:40:47 pm

This scandal reveals a lack of trust between consumers and Apple. Many may feel that Apple is being fake by "slowing down iPhones" and some surely will continue faithful to Apple practically no matter what. One aspect that is interesting to notice in this is the lack of freedom that Apple is giving their consumers. Instead of adding a feature that lets consumers turn slow mode on/off and power longevity mode on/off, Apple decided to choose for the consumer. Apple probably could have been more transparent about their choice to 'slow down iPhones' even though their reasoning does make sense in the end.

Reply
Cheston
3/13/2018 04:59:45 am

Although this article does explain why Apple is helping their customers, it reveals that there may be a hidden motive behind what they are doing. Why did Apple not use the best battery at the time for their devices? They already had one of the highest prices on their new models at release and with each new model, the price keeps on increasing. Their explanation for battery life does make sense, but changing the battery replacement fee from $79 to $29 makes it seem like Apple knew what they were doing with the battery scheme. If Apple only changed the pricing after this information was released, what else could Apple be hiding?

Reply
Alex
11/4/2018 10:38:02 pm

It will never cease to amaze me how people can get so upset about these things. What Apple did was truly in the consumers best interest and they were not trying to be underhanded about it. Being almost a year from when this was published, I can say that even now people are upset about it. We live in an age where people want what they want when they want it. They do not want to wait and instant gratification is no longer a bonus but a necessity. So when something they use daily decides to stop working exactly like it did when they bought it, they are confused and want to complain about it. This is definitely mindful marketing because Apple did not try to hide what they did and did it in the best interest of the consumer.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Subscribe to receive this blog by email

    Editor

    David Hagenbuch,
    founder of
    Mindful Marketing    & author of Honorable Influence

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014

    Categories

    All
    + Decency
    + Fairness
    Honesty7883a9b09e
    * Mindful
    Mindless33703c5669
    > Place
    Price5d70aa2269
    > Product
    Promotion37eb4ea826
    Respect170bbeec51
    Simple Minded
    Single Minded2c3169a786
    + Stewardship

    RSS Feed

    Share this blog:

    Subscribe to
    Mindful Matters
    blog by email


    Illuminating
    ​Marketing Ethics ​

    Encouraging
    ​Ethical Marketing  ​


    Copyright 2020
    David Hagenbuch

Proudly powered by Weebly