Does Apple Purposefully Make Older iPhones Slower Ahead Of New Releases?

Ever noticed your iPhone slowing down, lagging or completely locking up from time to time? Perhaps it is time to delete those old photos that are clogging up your phone’s memory. A recent study undertaken by Laura Trucco from Harvard University seems to suggest the issue might be a bit more controversial.

The study undertaken backs up the theory that Apple purposefully releases software updates for older iPhones which causes them to not respond as swiftly. Hence encouraging users to purchase the latest iPhone to overcome these issues. Think back to the iPhone 4 running on iOS7 with the new look interface. Yes it looked pretty – but there were many complaints of its functionality at the time.

The study analysed worldwide searches for the term ‘iPhone slow’ and it was found that the term spiked around the time of each iPhone launch. Somewhat proving that Apple is purposefully sabotaging older models to drive sales.

The study also did a similar analysis on the term ‘Samsung Galaxy Slow’ which failed to show similar results. As shown below:

I guess it could be argued that Samsung would consider the same business ploy, if they had control of both the hardware and release of the operating system. The term ‘planned obsolescence’ has been brought up – which means manufacturers purposefully build in a certain lifetime into products they release and hence they suddenly stop working.