Italian antitrust authority recently announced 10 million Euros (INR 83.64 Crore) worth fine for Apple over slowing down iPhones through software updates and not solving battery issues on the old generation models. The functions remain intact in most iPhones but the speed that was earlier available goes down with every update on the old generation models. The authority believes that updates are designed in such a way that the buyers are forced to buy new models. The replacement of phones is accelerated through these methods. Not just Apple, Samsung was also fined 5 million Euros for the slowdown allegation.
The authority clears that Apple failed to clear the impact of updated firmware and not just that, gave them no option to restore the device to the better version for ease of long-term use. Apple has itself agreed that iOS slowed some phones with battery problems last year but they never agreed that the move was intentional. The price reduction in battery cost was a result of this move. The brand said they took this decision based on the customer reports as those with issues were given reduced performance for better battery backup. On the other hand, the results were completely different.
In the case of Samsung, the problem was more about getting the new version of Android ready for the optimized user interface and letting the device support all the setup. Apple, on the other side, has its own operating system and can think about both the flagship and three generation old phone at the same time. Apple has clearly denied any wrongdoing in this case. The current generation flagship devices support notch display and thus, updates will be planned by keeping them in mind before the straight display phones. The range of iPhones officially starts from INR 39,900 for the iPhone 7 in India.
