fbpx

Apple, Samsung fined for slowing down device performance

Apple and Samsung have been fined in Italy after an investigation concluded that major software updates had a negative impact on their smartphones’ performance.

In a report from The Guardian, Each company was fined 5 million Euros (roughly Php307 million) after Italy’s Antitrust arm found that “Apple and Samsung implemented dishonest commercial practices” and that operating system updates “caused serious malfunctions and significantly reduced performance, thus accelerating phones’ substitution”.

Their investigation followed accusations of these companies deliberately slowing down old devices in an attempt to encourage these users to buy new ones. Furthermore, the updates were vague in description and have not fully disclosed to its users any effects in installing such updates.

This comes as a few users owning a Galaxy Note 4 phone complained when Samsung seeded 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, iPhone 6 users who were seeded iOS 10, the mobile operating system of the iPhone 7, experienced significant slowdowns both in performance and battery life.

Apple has a well-documented history of battery life throttling issues with every new update and has since then taken steps to address it. Samsung, on the other hand, has not come under fire and it is the first time they have received such fine for performance throttling. Samsung intends to appeal the decision and is clearly disappointed with it: “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.”

It’s not only in Italy that these investigations are currently underway — there’s also one ongoing in France, where the country law states that one should not intentionally shorten the life of any product to promote sales.

Source: The Guardian

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 985 other subscribers
Avatar for Carl Lamiel

Get in touch with Carl at @lamielcarl on Twitter or visit his website for more updates!

3 Responses

  1. Avatar for evans_01 evans_01 says:

    I think it would be really better to stick to the preinstalled version of the OS upon buying the handset, if this is really the case of Samsung and Apple. Better wait for reviews and feedback if you really want to update. It’s kind of really disappointing that this 2 outstanding company are doing it :(

  2. Avatar for N N says:

    This is why I never updated my phones OS. I don’t trust any of them. Sick practices these big companies do. I can’t believe that until now they can’t comprehend that the best way to up their sales is to maintain Public/Customers Trust?

  3. Avatar for IX IX says:

    Nvidia is also doing this with their software updates, to slow down our graphic cards and make us buy their RTXs. Sick company.

Leave a Reply
JOIN OUR TELEGRAM DISCUSSION

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *