I've aways been an Apple advocate and still own three Apple computers. My wife and daughter also use Apple products. I've always loved and sold Apple products because of the simplicity of iOS and the reliability of Apple. There was a brief period when Sprint was first, not worst, with their 4G WiMAX network and I defected to the dark side to get an HTC EVO device. That device was pretty state-of-the art. The problem was the raqidly diminishing battery life, and the fact that Sprint's 4G WiMAX protocol was not adopted by the rest of the industry. I tried a Samsung S3 briefly but went back to Apple.
Several years ago, Apple decided to remove their industry standard 3.5mm headset jack and have their new proprietary "lightning" port do double duty. Apple includes a dongle to allow my 3.5mm JBL headset to work with this new lightning port. That meant that you could either charge your iPhone, or use it with headphones but not both simultaneously. These idiots must have felt that by including the dongle, users would be pacified. Not me! I enjoyed plugging my iPhone in to charge on airplanes and listening to my music. After all, who wants to get off the plane with a totally dead battery? Apple has some huge problems. They stayed with small screens with huge bezels for way too long. The rival Android camp all went to bezel-less Super AMOLED screens years ago. This is one of the reasons that they cannot give away the iPhone 8 and 8+. To make matters worse, the only model they do offer an AMOLED screen on is their new iPhone X, starting at over $1,000. Guess who makes Apple's screens for these devices? Yup, their biggest rival, Samsung. If that wasn't troubling enough, Apple has also relied on Qualcomm for their processors. Those two are now embroiled in a major lawsuit with each other. Apple has since reached out to Intel in an attempt to not have to rely so much on Qualcomm. Just when you think it cannot get worse, it does. A Reddit user noticed dome weeks back that replacing their battery also restored processor speeds. When Apple was confronted, they confessed to secretly doing the unthinkable... Intentionally slowing down the processor speeds of iPhone 6 series, 7 series and SE models secretly. They say it was in the guise of protecting the device from battery problems. Many industry analysts like myself think they did this to accelerate new iPhone sales. The carriers like users to consider upgrading every two years. Apple is not content with a 2 year cycle as they obviously want their users to buy a new iPhone which seem to come out twice a year. Many of my clients still use iPhone 5 series devices because they still work great, although the batteries diminish over time. The most logical solution for iPhone owners is to replace their batteries when needed. Here's the problem. It's bad enough Apple's batteries are expensive ($79). They are also not user replaceable and require an appointment with an Apple technician to get them installed. Finding out the these idiots have been intentionally slowing down phones and monkeying with my processor speeds and battery life was upsetting enough. Even though I dumped my iPhone, my wife has an iPhone 6 which barely stays on and became very slow. I know Apple offered to replace the batteries for $29 and tried to make an appointment with an Apple store. None of the local stores even had any appointments available. I contacted Apple via chat and argued for half an hour about getting the $29 battery. i was told that they would have to "diagnose" my wife's phone and any other problems she would be charges for. I explained that I'm an Apple dealer, and had diagnosed the device to only need a new battery. After threatening to blow this up on all my social media accounts, he agreed to swap the battery and would make an appointment for me at a local Apple Store. While there are at least two in my area, he told me that they had an opening in a week at a store in Los Cerritos which is no where even near me. What this tells me is there is such an onslaught of people with old iPhones waiting to get battery replacements, that Apple's service is totally compromised. It looks like my wife will be using her old iPhone 5s until Apple replaces her iPhone 6 battery or she follows my lead and gets an Android. Steve Jobs is probably rolling over in his grave over all of this managerial ineptness.
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March 2021
CategoriesAuthorJoel Saltzman has over twenty years of wireless industry experience. He is currently CEO and Chief Wireless Analyst for Dr Wireless. |