After last month it was revealed that Apple had a practice of slowing down older iPhones, the company is now facing being questioned by a top Republican Senator.
John Thune, the Commerce Committee Chairman, is pressing Apple to answer the questions that were part of a letter that the South Dakota Senator sent on Tuesday to Apple CEO Tim Cook.
The Hill reports that Thune’s questions seek answers on whether Apple deliberately throttles iPhones that are older than the iPhone 6 and 6S as they age, whether the company has tracked consumer complaints about the slowed performance and whether Apple would offer rebates to those who already purchased new batteries before the company started offering discounted rates.
A lot of Apple customers got frustrated last month when the company admitted that it slows down the performance of its iPhone 6 and 6S to help the phones preserve the battery life as the phones age. This admission was not out of the blue, but it came just after a study in December showed that Apple had an algorithm that was slowing down the phone performance on purpose.
Long before that, it was speculated in the public that Apple was intentionally reducing the performance of older iPhones as part of a plot where they are trying to make customers buy new iPhones instead of continuing to use the old ones.
Although Apple says that the slowing down of the phones is to save battery life, this is not accepted by the consumers.
“Even if Apple’s actions were indeed only to avoid unexpected shutdowns in older phones, the large volume of consumer criticism leveled against the company in light of its admission suggests that there should have been better transparency with respect these practices,” Thune wrote, questioning Apple’s handling of the situation.
As an apology, Apple said that it would offer a 29 dollar battery replacement for iPhone6 instead of the normal price of 79 dollars.
“Apple’s proposed solutions have prompted additional criticism from some customers, particularly its decision not to provide free replacement batteries,” Thune additionally wrote on the matter.
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