Apple’s sneaky iPhone ploy exposed

APPLE updates slow down ageing iPhones by cutting performance power to save the batteries, researchers have claimed.

Scientists at tech firm Primate Labs analysed performance data from thousands of the devices and discovered speeding up a slow iPhone could be as simple as getting a new battery - if you're willing to give Apple $A119 for the privilege.

Primate Labs founder John Poole said deliberately slowing the processors can have the effect of hiding a dying battery, while also encouraging users to upgrade, reports The Sun.

"Users may believe that the slow down is due to CPU performance, instead of battery performance,," he told Geekbench.

"[This will cause] users to think, 'my phone is slow so I should replace it' not, 'my phone is slow so I should replace its battery'."

The huge analysis revealed that iPhone 6S performance took four massive nosedives after each update that followed iOS 10.2.1.

"The distribution of iPhone 6S scores for iOS 10.2.0 appears unimodal with a peak around the average score," he said.

"However, the distribution of iPhone 6S scores for iOS 10.2.1 appears multimodal, with one large peak around the average and several smaller peaks around lower scores. Under iOS 11.2.0 the effect is even more pronounced."

Researchers believe the device is designed to encourage iPhone processors to slow down if they detect battery degradation, meaning customers would need to upgrade or pay Apple for a new battery to get their device back to standard.

Batteries naturally degrade over time, with the iPhone designed to last for just 500 charge cycles.

Apple is yet to release a statement on the issue.

This story first appeared on The Sun and has been republished with permission.