Apple and Samsung fined for deliberately slowing down phones

[Abdullah719]

Apple and Samsung are being fined €10m and €5m respectively in Italy for the “planned obsolescence” of their smartphones.

An investigation launched in January by the nation’s competition authority found that certain smartphone software updates had a negative effect on the performance of the devices.

Believed to be the first ruling of its kind against smartphone manufacturers, the investigation followed accusations operating system updates for older phones slowed them down, thereby encouraging the purchase of new phones.

In a statement the antitrust watchdog said “Apple and Samsung implemented dishonest commercial practices” and that operating system updates “caused serious malfunctions and significantly reduced performance, thus accelerating phones’ substitution”.

It added the two firms had not provided clients adequate information about the impact of the new software “or any means of restoring the original functionality of the products”.

Samsung told owners of its Galaxy Note 4 phone to install a new version of Google’s Android operating system intended for the more recent Galaxy Note 7, but which users claimed rendered the old model sluggish.

Likewise, Apple told iPhone 6 owners to install an operating system designed for the iPhone 7, leading to problems for owners of the older model.

Both firms were issued the maximum fine of €5m each and ordered to display a notice on their Italian websites informing customers of the watchdog’s decision.

Apple was fined an additional €5m for failing to give customers clear information about “essential” characteristics of lithium batteries, including their average life expectancy, how to maintain them or eventually replace them in the firm’s iPhones.

Apple acknowledged in December that it had intentionally slowed iPhones with degraded batteries through software updates to avoid sudden shutdown problems, but denied it had ever done anything to intentionally shorten the life of a product.

The company later apologised for its actions and reduced the cost of battery replacements. It also added battery health information to iOS and allowed users to turn off the slowing down of the iPhone’s processor.

The Italian antitrust authority opened its investigation following customer complaints around the same time as a similar probe in France, which has yet to conclude.

It is a crime under French law to intentionally shorten the life of any product in order to promote sales. The French consumer protection agency has the power to fine up to 5% of annual turnover or impose a jail term.

Apple also faced questions from the US senate in January over the slowing of iPhones, and a barrage of class-action lawsuits from around the country. More than 60 separate US lawsuits were ordered to be consolidated into a single suit in the Northern District of California, which is still ongoing.

Samsung’s software updates for its phones have not previously been questioned.

A Samsung spokesperson said the company was disappointed by the decision and intends to appeal the fine: “Samsung did not issue any software update that reduced the Galaxy Note 4’s performance. In contrast, Samsung has always released software updates enabling our customers to have the best experience possible.”

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/oct/24/apple-samsung-fined-for-slowing-down-phones

 

[sensible-indian-fan]

Corporate greed at its best.

 

[Suleiman]

Time to head to that Apple store and demand a new phone or file a lawsuit.

Dumber lawsuits have been filed and won in the US.

 

[Itachi]

I don't blame them. When majority of customers have no clue about what specs their phone have, and are proudly ignorant about this, I believe they deserve it. And the giants milking them.

I have an older lady at my office who owns a redmi 5. I was buying redmi 6 pro and she asked me,"what's the processor? Snapdragon or mtk? Isn't the battery 4000?"

I was surprised. But that's what xiaomi does. The buzz is on he hardware so everyone knows what to expect from their phone.

 

[sensible-indian-fan]

Time to head to that Apple store and demand a new phone or file a lawsuit.

Dumber lawsuits have been filed and won in the US.

They deserve to be sued.

Nothing dumb about it.

 

[Bhaag Viru Bhaag]

I don't blame them. When majority of customers have no clue about what specs their phone have, and are proudly ignorant about this, I believe they deserve it. And the giants milking them.

I have an older lady at my office who owns a redmi 5. I was buying redmi 6 pro and she asked me,"what's the processor? Snapdragon or mtk? Isn't the battery 4000?"

I was surprised. But that's what xiaomi does. The buzz is on he hardware so everyone knows what to expect from their phone.

No customers don't deserve it. They are actually fooled into believing that an update from the manufacturer is going to improve the performance of their phones and fix bugs. But these companies are deliberately slowing it down through updates. Customers don't ask for updates but if a pop up appears and asks them to update their OS or an app, customers will do that. These companies should be sued.

 

[DeadBall]

No customers don't deserve it. They are actually fooled into believing that an update from the manufacturer is going to improve the performance of their phones and fix bugs. But these companies are deliberately slowing it down through updates. Customers don't ask for updates but if a pop up appears and asks them to update their OS or an app, customers will do that. These companies should be sued.

And you can't even swipe it away either unlike the other notifications. It's like that hairy mole on one of your aunts faces, which you cannot just simply ignore and have to come to terms with sometime in the future.

 

[Tera Gawaandi]

I have an older lady at my office who owns a redmi 5. I was buying redmi 6 pro and she asked me,"what's the processor? Snapdragon or mtk? Isn't the battery 4000?"

I was surprised. But that's what xiaomi does. The buzz is on he hardware so everyone knows what to expect from their phone.

I have used Xiaomi when I was in India, worst skin ever, hate MIUI. Specs are not everything. Micromax was my first android phone and surprisingly it had least bloatware and almost stock android, even though it had Microtek chipset and Jellybean, it is one of most fluid phone I ever used. Same with Panasonic P85, stock Kitkat android with Microtek chipset. So smooth and hassle free to use. Then I bought a Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 with Snapdragon 650 with 3GB RAM and heavily skinned Lollipop Android. Worst phone ever!!!!

I like Samsung flagships for features and user experience, had S4, minor lags and stutter only at end of its life cycle but camera and whole feature set compensated for that. Apple for longevity and ease of use, likes of iPhone 6 are still usable today.

 

[Sidilicious]

This whole phone thing is getting very expensive. I remember getting my first iPhone (iPhone 4 I think) and paid about £400 for it.

Now, its nearly a grand!!! On top of it, nonsense like this. Samsung too has phones for £900. Whats the point of paying nearly £1000 for a goddamn phone??

 

[gazza619]

€5 million fine?
I reckon they earn that in one hour.
Should have been €5 billion

 

[Itachi]

I have used Xiaomi when I was in India, worst skin ever, hate MIUI. Specs are not everything. Micromax was my first android phone and surprisingly it had least bloatware and almost stock android, even though it had Microtek chipset and Jellybean, it is one of most fluid phone I ever used. Same with Panasonic P85, stock Kitkat android with Microtek chipset. So smooth and hassle free to use. Then I bought a Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 with Snapdragon 650 with 3GB RAM and heavily skinned Lollipop Android. Worst phone ever!!!!

I like Samsung flagships for features and user experience, had S4, minor lags and stutter only at end of its life cycle but camera and whole feature set compensated for that. Apple for longevity and ease of use, likes of iPhone 6 are still usable today.

Hardware matters when you come out of the miui. Install AOSP ROM with no bloatware. And then use kernel where you can control the phone even on lower levels. Except nexus and pixel, Xiaomi is the brand where the developer community is mostly active. I had android pie for my Redmi 4x where as the stock ROM was still on nougat.

If you are just a user, miui is horrible experience. But if you go a bit towards AOSP way, all your past phones would have had never disappoint you.

 

[CricketDon]

It’s down too the batteries slowing down over time and then no longer holding as much charge. This causes the battery to drain even faster. To counter this the best solution is too slow down the phone. I do computer science and literally studied this.

However the way both companies went about it was poor and should have been open and honest.

 

[Itachi]

It’s down too the batteries slowing down over time and then no longer holding as much charge. This causes the battery to drain even faster. To counter this the best solution is too slow down the phone. I do computer science and literally studied this.

However the way both companies went about it was poor and should have been open and honest.

Every battery has a limited life cycle. An average Mobile user knows it. Just to boast about longevity factor, no one should go through the process of slowing down. At least give an option to choose performance vs longevity while updating. People are not stupid.

The current way of dealing will only discourage people to update their ROM and make them open to bugs in previous versions as they will be unwilling to go ahead with the update.

 

[Harshu814]

I have used Xiaomi when I was in India, worst skin ever, hate MIUI. Specs are not everything. Micromax was my first android phone and surprisingly it had least bloatware and almost stock android, even though it had Microtek chipset and Jellybean, it is one of most fluid phone I ever used. Same with Panasonic P85, stock Kitkat android with Microtek chipset. So smooth and hassle free to use. Then I bought a Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 with Snapdragon 650 with 3GB RAM and heavily skinned Lollipop Android. Worst phone ever!!!!

I like Samsung flagships for features and user experience, had S4, minor lags and stutter only at end of its life cycle but camera and whole feature set compensated for that. Apple for longevity and ease of use, likes of iPhone 6 are still usable today.

Dude what the hack!!! Ur one of those guys who never like any other phone than what what he is used to,

Redme note 3 pro is and was the best gem xiaomi ever came up with , using it for 3 years now and still it out performs recent phones like redmi note 5 pro or real me 2 pro or asus zenfone m1 pro ,to be honest almsot anything below 17k inr ,

Yes skin is bit heavy ,no skin can be compared to stock android and in what world s4 is better ? I had s4 cant even use that slow piece of rubbish after using rn3pro , and its snapdragon rom development for sd650 was hot among developees that we got all the stable roms AOSP roms for nougat,oreo and beta for pie roms as well and runs like butter , i can still play pung with 45+ FPS after usign gfx tool coz snapdragon 650 was superior to current market 636 in terms of perfomance but really bad in terms of battery.

Talking about iphone is completly different when u pay 30-50 k for phone and try to use it for 3-5 years and praise it for what it is
Or u can use better phones at 15-17k every 2 years and u still spend less money for that term , only problem maybe reselling value