Apple is that one company that has always been on the top of tech innovation for many years. Interestingly Apple has also always been on the top for its controversial actions that almost never fail to go unnoticed. The one controversy that cost Apple millions of dollars was the battery gate scam.
Battery gate is often used to describe the deliberate slowdown of the processor on Apple's phones to prevent handsets with degraded batteries from shutting down when they are under high load.
This controversy first emerged at the end of the year 2016. People reported that due to a recent ios update, some iPhone models had started experiencing unexpected shutdowns out of nowhere when their battery capacity reached a threshold of 30 percent, which was caused by drops on the battery's terminal voltage below the level required for the operation of the phone.
Let’s have a look at the timeline:
In early 2016 older iPhones began to face reliability issues such as sudden shutdowns.
At the end of 2016, Apple gave the statement that this issue was affecting only a small amount of phones devices when in reality it was much more widespread.
At the start of 2017, Apple released ios update 10.2.1 which made changes to power delivery on all devices newer than the iPhone 6.
By the end of this year, Apple ended up issuing a public statement that it had allegedly throttled the CPU for ageing batteries which led to a massive public outcry and many people filing lawsuits.
As a way to save their company from falling grace, Apple offered discounted battery replacements for their iPhone 6 and newer models for the year 2018.
Then Apple released IOS update 11.3, which provided some much-needed transparency around battery health. As damage control and to save the matter from going bad to worse, customers who paid for an out-of-warranty battery replacement for an iPhone 6 or older devices in the year 2017, ended up receiving a $ 50 reimbursement from Apple.
After this, Apple pleaded with the federal judges to dismiss the lawsuit against them regarding this case as technically they had already “paid the price.”
So what were the repercussions?
Apple reached a $ 500 million settlement with a class-action lawsuit brought on behalf of iPhone users. The latest $ 113 million settlement will not benefit consumers since the payment will go to respective state governments.
Under the previous terms of the earlier $ 500 million class action settlement, any current or former owner of an iPhone 6 or 7 can receive a payment of about $ 25 from apple, while some named class members can receive $ 1500 or $ 3500.
While the settlement amounts remain manageable as of now for apple. However, the much bigger cost for the company is a big dent in its reputation. The current and future impact on sales remains difficult to forecast.
This is an example of planned obsolescence, unfortunately, which did not work in favor of apple. Although Apple has not admitted to deliberate wrongdoing it has agreed to be more transparent over the next three years about iPhone power management.
The whole debate over appearing to keep quiet about something that essentially appeared to take away the key thing that customers had spent so much money on and on top of that having to apparently spend more money on Apple to fix it.
And the all so obvious not hard to miss, the financial gain made by Apple appears to have been a trust-breaking blot on Apple’s trust sheet. It is no surprise then, that Apple is reaching financial settlements and, no doubt, the trillion-dollar company will be hoping to move on quickly.
A company like Apple can never escape the eye of the public. The battery scam was one of the worst and most expensive sandals any company has ever been through.
The lesson we all can learn from the ‘battery gate’ scandal is to never put one's goal of money-making over consumers’ needs. This scam resulted in Apple not only losing goodwill but also millions of dollars by way of compensation and fine in more than one country.
Written By: Varima Tandon
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