Apple has apologised for slowing the performance of older iPhones and is offering cheaper replacements for batteries as a mea culpa.
Last week the company admitted that it deliberately reduces power demands on older iPhones after being outed by Primate Labs, a firm that measures the speed of an iPhone's chip.
Apple said it does so to "smooth out" power supply from batteries that are cold, old or low on charge, and to stop the devices from shutting down to prevent components getting fried.
The company issued a software update that implements this measure for the iPhone 6, iPhone 6s, iPhone SE, and iPhone 7 earlier this year.
However it is now facing lawsuits around the world - including a potential class action in Australia - from consumers who claims to have been misled into buying a new phone when a much cheaper battery replacement would have fixed the issue.
Today Apple apologised for its handling of the issue and said it would drop the price of battery replacements from $119 to $39 in Australia and worldwide until the end of 2018.
"We’ve been hearing feedback from our customers about the way we handle performance for iPhones with older batteries and how we have communicated that process. We know that some of you feel Apple has let you down," the company said in a statement.
"We apologise. There’s been a lot of misunderstanding about this issue, so we would like to clarify and let you know about some changes we’re making."
It claimed it "would never" intentionally shorten the life of an Apple product or degrade the user experience so as to encourage people to buy new products.
The company said it would issue an iOS software update early in 2018 that would provide users more visibility on the health of their battery so they can ascertain whether it is affecting the iPhone's performance.
