Samsung has been the in the headlines lately, and it’s not for all the good reasons. According to a report by SamMobile, Samsung has been fined a total of €5 Million Euros (USD $5.7M) for slowing down their phones as they get older. The report added that once Apple made headlines for slowing down iPhones, an Italian Competition Authority decided to investigate both, Samsung and Apple.
When Samsung came under the same limelight, Samsung claimed that they do not follow Apple’s practices and have no interest in throttling down the performance of their Galaxy lineup through OTA updates. Following the criticism, Samsung promised to work with the Italian firm to clarify and dig out any issues they would have pulled out of the rabbit hole. After failing to work with the Italian Competition Authority, the firm has concluded that Samsung had indeed been slowing down a number of older devices. The conclusion of the Italian Competition Authority read…
“{…..}caused serious dysfunctions and reduced performance significantly, thereby accelerating the process of replacing them.”
Apple, under intense pressure, admitted to slowing down iPhones claiming that they had done it simply to allow their iPhone batteries to last longer over time. After admitting the issue and their deeds, Apple went ahead and allowed users to opt out of the program through an update launched soon after the case went viral.
As the company prepares to get through the case, Huawei interestingly made a comment in a similar manner suggesting that the Galaxy Note 9 would be up to 28% after 18 months of usage, to which Samsung replied that they were “confident” in the performance of the Galaxy Note 9 after 18 months of usage.
Both companies have definitely failed to keep their users aware of the fact that their phones were being degraded. While Samsung may have had a point, what’s respectable is that Apple did allow users to opt out of the program following an update released for older iPhones finally allowing older iPhones to thrive again.
The move is definitely a welcome addition to the collection of lawsuits filed against both companies. As Samsung prepares to clear up its name before the launch of the all-mighty Galaxy S10, there’s a ton that Samsung is expected show off at the Galaxy S10 launch. Rumors so far have suggested a number of points regarding the Galaxy S10 that include the variants, models and names, triple camera setup, an under-display fingerprint sensor and a high-chance of possibly injecting some 5G capabilities with the Galaxy S10 following the launch of the Mi MiX 3.
