A new study is backing up long held suspicions that Apple slows down older models of its iPhones to encourage users to buy a new release.
The U.S. study analysed worldwide searches for 'iPhone slow' and found that the search term spiked significantly around the time of new iPhone launch.
It then compared those results with similar searches for the term 'Samsung Galaxy slow', and discovered the term was unaffected by new releases from Samsung.
While some MailOnline readers haven't noticed a slow down, others claim that Apple is sabotaging older phones through software updates.
'This is common knowledge,' one reader wrote. 'If you want to keep your iPhone running at the same pace do not do the software upgrade that comes out within six months of a new iPhone release,'Last year, Catherine Rampell, also writing in the New York Times, raised concerns that Apple could be engineering the new operating system so it only works properly with the newest version of the product.She said her iPhone 4 became a lot slower when she downloaded iOS 7 - and that the only solution seemed to be to buy the iPhone 5.Ms Rampell accused Apple of having run out of ideas so was trying to ‘brainwash’ its customers into buying the new iPhone 5S and 5C because they look nice.Her claims fuelled conspiracy theorists who have long held that Apple engages in ‘planned obsolescence’, a term which has been around since the Great Depression in the 1930s.The theory states that manufacturers of everything from cars to microwaves build in a certain lifetime to a product and then it will simply stop working, forcing consumers to buy a new one.And Apple has faced allegations that it is guilty of planned obsolescence before.
The U.S. study analysed worldwide searches for 'iPhone slow' and found that the search term spiked significantly around the time of new iPhone launch.
It then compared those results with similar searches for the term 'Samsung Galaxy slow', and discovered the term was unaffected by new releases from Samsung.
While some MailOnline readers haven't noticed a slow down, others claim that Apple is sabotaging older phones through software updates.
'This is common knowledge,' one reader wrote. 'If you want to keep your iPhone running at the same pace do not do the software upgrade that comes out within six months of a new iPhone release,'Last year, Catherine Rampell, also writing in the New York Times, raised concerns that Apple could be engineering the new operating system so it only works properly with the newest version of the product.She said her iPhone 4 became a lot slower when she downloaded iOS 7 - and that the only solution seemed to be to buy the iPhone 5.Ms Rampell accused Apple of having run out of ideas so was trying to ‘brainwash’ its customers into buying the new iPhone 5S and 5C because they look nice.Her claims fuelled conspiracy theorists who have long held that Apple engages in ‘planned obsolescence’, a term which has been around since the Great Depression in the 1930s.The theory states that manufacturers of everything from cars to microwaves build in a certain lifetime to a product and then it will simply stop working, forcing consumers to buy a new one.And Apple has faced allegations that it is guilty of planned obsolescence before.
