After multiple reports highlighting the practice, Apple confirmed a few weeks ago that it intentionally slows down old iPhones with naturally degraded batteries. While some spun conspiracy theories that Apple does this to get customers to upgrade, the company offered an entirely different explanation. Nevertheless, it took a lot of flak for this and apologized. It’s only fair to assume that perhaps it does the same with old iPads as well. Turns out, it doesn’t.
A naturally degraded battery is not able to provide power as quickly as the system might need it. So if there’s a spike in power usage when the processor comes under heavy load, the battery may not be able to cooperate and that would result in an unexpected shutdown of the device.
Apple addressed this issue by enabling iOS to dynamically manage performance peaks on older devices. This meant that the processor was throttled to prevent a spike which would result in a shutdown because of the battery’s inability to keep up.
The company did this without really clarifying to users that the move would basically reduce the performance of their old iPhones. So it apologized for the entire episode and also promised to replace the batteries of out-of-warranty iPhones for $29 instead of $79.
iPad users need not worry, though. The company has confirmed in a recent support document titled “iPhone Battery and Performance” and “This power management feature is specific to iPhone and does not apply to any other Apple products.”
What this means is that iPads or any other battery-powered Apple devices for that matter haven’t been slowed down to prevent accidental shutdowns.