Does Apple slow down its old iPhones?

File photo: The analysis by Harvard University professor Sendhil Mullainathan showed the number of searches increased by up to three times immediately following a new launch from Apple.

File photo: The analysis by Harvard University professor Sendhil Mullainathan showed the number of searches increased by up to three times immediately following a new launch from Apple.

Published Jul 31, 2014

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London - There is a suspicion among some users that old iPhones slow down the moment a new model is released.

Now a study has given extra credibility to the idea – by revealing spikes in the number of people searching the term “iPhone slow” on Google.

The analysis by Harvard University professor Sendhil Mullainathan showed the number of searches increased by up to three times immediately following a new launch from Apple.

By comparison, searches for “Samsung Galaxy slow” were unaffected by a new Samsung release. And unlike Apple, Samsung does not also make the software used by its phones.

Professor Mullainathan said the results were “striking”.

Writing on The Upshot blog, he said that if it was simply down to people thinking their phones were out of date, it should happen gradually – but with the iPhone, numbers jump suddenly after a new release.

However he made clear that search terms alone do not determine if the gadgets are actually running slower. Apple declined to comment. - Daily Mail

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