There Is No “Batterygate”, Just Poorly Educated Apple Users
Oh, how the pundits like to call everything a #SomethingGate to make an extra buck, or get an extra like. Look, I get it. Apple does make mistakes and when it does, it’s really embarrassing. #BendGate was definitely one to remember. I feel, though, that since the iPhone 6 started turning from iPhone to BananaPhone in people’s back pockets, everyone is downright looking with schadenfreudian hate for anything and everything it could call an #AppleGate, and the latest iteration of #BatteryGate is certainly one of them.
A single-paragraph history
In 2016 Apple made the pragmatic but somewhat uninspired decision of throttling through iOS their iPhones when the battery capacity was low. It was either that, or let the user deal with an unstable device randomly rebooting. The choice they made was the right one, not communicating that choice wasn’t — though it depends on who you ask. What followed was class-action lawsuits across the globe, payouts — happening as we speak — and updates to iOS to make battery-health easily inspectable. And that’s ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, aliens and superheroes, the one-paragraph story of #BatteryGate.
You’d think we’ve learnt from that
You guessed it. We didn’t and hence the article. People somewhat justifiably got up in arms against Apple for making that decision nearly a decade ago. My personal view was always that customers don’t need to know every decision a company makes as long as it doesn’t negatively impact them. I’d much rather have a slower phone that works all day long than one that reboots every few minutes. Wouldn’t you? Judging by the number of successful lawsuits, I guess not.
Eight years later, we still don’t understand how batteries work, and every time they behave exactly as advertised, we blame Apple.
By “we”, I mean many customers, but more importantly tech reviewers who are meant to know this stuff. Might want to reconsider who you’re…
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