Apple plans to give iPhone owners more control over their devices, particularly the battery and performance, says CEO Tim Cook. Speaking to ABCNews, Cook addressed the issue concerning older iPhone batteries.
The company admitted late last year that it slows down the performance of some devices in order to prevent them from shutting down. End users often complain that their devices feel slow after updating the software.
“At the heart of any decision we make is the user, and we felt it would be better to take something off of the performance to prevent [iPhones from restarting]. We deeply apologize for anybody who thinks we have some other kind of motivation,” said Cook.
Because the problem pertains to the battery, Apple reduced the cost of replacement batteries from $79 to $29. Putting a new battery in an old phone mitigates the issue. Apple plans to take things a step further. It will soon give people more insight into the health of their iPhone’s battery.
“We’ve listened to the feedback very carefully and in addition to giving everyone a very low price on a battery if they’d like to get a new battery, we’re also going to, in a developer release that happens next month, give people the visibility of the health of their battery. It’s very very transparent. This hasn’t been done before. We will tell someone we’re reducing your performance by some amount in order to not have an unexpected restart and, if you don’t want it, you can turn it off.”
Cook didn’t provide specifics as to how the battery tool will work. The company tests new features in developer betas ahead of releasing them to the general public.
Apple did not say when the feature might reach all iPhones.
