Samsung And LG Take A Swing At Apple's Slowdown Woes

For the moment, one of the biggest stories in the tech world concerns Apple and the realization that it's slowing down some older phones to better support aging lithium ion batteries. The thinking behind this is that implementing some form of power profile management in phones with older batteries will help prevent sudden shut downs, but regardless of Apple's justification, it has users upset.

It isn't much of a surprise, then, that we're seeing other manufacturers take advantage of this opportunity to let users know that they don't make a habit of slowing down older phones. Yesterday, it was HTC and Motorola reassuring users, and today, it's Samsung and LG. That means most major Android manufacturers have now come out and said that they won't slow down your phone to compensate for an old battery.

PhoneArena received statements from both LG and Samsung today. While LG's was short and to the point – "Never have, never will! We care what our customers think" – is certainly succeeds in taking a little jab at Apple. Samsung's statement, on the other hand, is a little more lengthy. Have a look:

Product quality has been and will always be Samsung Mobile's top priority. We ensure extended battery life of Samsung mobile devices through multi-layer safety measures, which include software algorithms that govern the battery charging current and charging duration. We do not reduce CPU performance through software updates over the lifecycles of the phone.

Apple, for its part, has apologized to users for this particular grievance. The company has announced that all out-of-warranty battery replacements will be discounted by $50 through December 2018, giving users of older phones like the iPhone SE and iPhone 6 a chance to get their batteries replaced and speed up their phones again.

Still, despite $29 battery replacements and Apple's best attempts at justifying this power management, the damage may be done. Users still aren't very happy about the fact that Apple wasn't straightforward with them from the beginning, and the company is also facing a lawsuit over planned obsolescence in France. It'll be interesting to see if this slight results in lower iPhone sales moving forward, especially with so many Android manufacturers coming out of the woodwork to talk up their brands.