Apple now faces lawsuits for deliberately slowing down older iPhones

Many lawsuits have been filed against Apple for intentionally slowing down old iPhones whose batteries have worn out.

Apple’s admission that it is slowing down older iPhones isn’t going down well with its users. (REUTERS)

Apple is now facing multiple lawsuits in the US after the company disclosed it was intentionally slowing down select iPhones with worn out batteries.

A California man has filed a lawsuit against the iPhone maker for allegedly breaching the contract "by purposefully slowing down older iPhone models when new models come out and by failing to properly disclose that at the time that the parties entered into an agreement," reported CBS.

The man claims to own iPhone 7 and an 'iPhone 7S'. The thing is, there's no iPhone model with the name of iPhone 7S. The company last year launched iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. It appears to be an oversight from the complainant.

Another lawsuit against Apple has been filed in Illinois by five people, reported The Chicago Sun Time. According to the lawsuit, Apple's iOS updates "were engineered to purposefully slow down or 'throttle down' the performance speeds" of select iPhone models.

While describing Apple's actions as "deceptive, immoral, and unethical", the plaintiffs claimed that the company "needlessly subjects consumers to purchasing newer and more expensive iPhones when a replacement battery could have allowed consumers to continue to use their older iPhones" - a popular conspiracy theory doing the rounds for a very long time.

Apple hasn't responded to the reports of these lawsuits so far.

Earlier, Apple said it was indeed slowing down some older phones as they age. The company was responding to an analysis by an engineer John Poole who confirmed the theory.

"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 said in a statement.

"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."