Why Apple Will Allow Users to Throttle the iPhone’s CPU
Apple offers a very unApple solution…
A couple years ago, Apple had a problem where their phones would shutdown after iPhone batteries aged, and CPU usage was high. The fix was to throttle the CPU so as not to cause a shutdown. This seemed like a reasonable solution. Apple released the fix and didn’t tell anyone.
Fast-forward a couple years and someone discovered that replacing an old iPhone battery improved performance. The media ran with the story as Apple’s “planned obsolescence”, which in turn caused a public outcry. What should Apple do now? Well, the playbook for this problem is the Intel FDIV Pentium bug.
In the 1990’s Intel had an obscure Pentium bug. They offered to replace the CPU of anyone who could prove the bug caused a problem. The news media ran the story and the public outcry grew to a point where Intel was forced to offer to replace everyone’s CPU. Intel took a $475 million pre-tax charge against earnings, and almost no one replaced their defective CPU’s. After all, it was a rare bug.
The conclusion was that it would have been a lot cheaper to immediately offer to replace all affected CPU’s, and avoid all the bad publicity.
Telling consumers that a small problem is not a problem will cost you more than simply offering a solution which most will never need or use.
Most [Apple] users simply want their devices to “Just Work.” Allowing users to change “Throttling” in your Settings is not very Apple-like, and most people won’t bother. However, the lesson learned from Intel two decades ago is still being felt today.
Further Reading
The NY Times Intel FDIV story from November 24, 1994.