蘋果就手機變慢致歉並承諾更換電池

Apple has issued an unprecedented apology over its handling of the admission it slows down older iPhones.

蘋果公司人爲減慢旗下手機iPhone舊系統的運行速度，爲此發表道歉聲明，這也是蘋果首次爲該行爲道歉。

The firm said last week it 'throttles' phones to extend their life and stop them from shutting down as batteries age and become less effective, triggering lawsuits across the world.

蘋果公司說，上週公司“強迫”旗下手機壽命縮短，電池衰老無效時將無法關機，這在世界範圍內引發了投訴。

In addition a South Korea's Communications Commission has reportedly asked for an explanation of the issue from Apple, while in France a consumer group has filed preliminary, legal complaints in court.

據報道，韓國通訊委員會（Communications Commission）要求蘋果對此做出解釋，法國消費者團體向法院提交了初步合法控告。

'We are hoping to get some answers on whether Apple intentionally restricted the performance of old iPhones and tried to hide this from customers,' the Korean Commission said.

韓國委員會說：“我們希望蘋果能解釋一下它有沒有人爲限制舊版iPhone的性能，有沒有欺瞞消費者。”

Apple is already facing lawsuits in the United States over accusations of having defrauded iPhone users by slowing down devices without warning to compensate for poor battery performance.

在美國蘋果也面臨諸多控告：涉嫌降低設備運行速度，沒有對電池的性能不佳做出賠償，欺騙iPhone用戶。

Under French law, companies risk fines of up to 5 percent of their annual sales for deliberately shortening the life of their products to spur demand to replace them.

法國法律規定，如果公司人爲縮短產品壽命，只爲增加產品更迭市場需求，那麼罰款將達年銷售額的5%。

All the US lawsuits - filed in U.S. District Courts in California, New York and Illinois - seek class-action to represent potentially millions of iPhone owners nationwide.

美國加利福尼亞州、紐約、伊利諾斯州的共同訴訟代表着美國數以百萬計的iPhone用戶。

One of the lawsuits, filed Thursday in San Francisco, said that 'the batteries' inability to handle the demand created by processor speeds' without the software patch was a defect.

週四，舊金山的訴訟之一中寫道：“電池”性能不佳導致程序運行速度減慢，軟件也沒有補丁，以此刺激產品需求上漲是有問題的。

'Rather than curing the battery defect by providing a free battery replacement for all affected iPhones, Apple sought to mask the battery defect,' according to the complaint.

“此前蘋果沒有給所有受影響的iPhone用戶免費更換電池，而是試圖掩蓋問題。”

The problem now seen is that users over the last year could have blamed an aging computer processor for app crashes and sluggish performance - and chose to buy a new phone - when the true cause may have been a weak battery that could have been replaced for a fraction of the cost, some of the lawsuits state.

目前看來，問題在於去年一年用戶由於各種軟件崩潰、運行緩慢，不得不換新機，大家都認爲是計算機處理器使用時間過長問題，其實只要花一點錢換電池就好。

'If it turns out that consumers would have replaced their battery instead of buying new iPhones had they known the true nature of Apple's upgrades, you might start to have a better case for some sort of misrepresentation or fraud,' said Rory Van Loo, a Boston University professor specializing in consumer technology law.

波士頓大學消費者科技法教授羅瑞·瓦·盧（Rory Van Loo）說：“假如消費者知道了蘋果升級的內幕，消費者只會換電池，而不是購買新的iPhone。這已經能夠以失實陳述或欺詐起訴了。”

Today it published a letter saying 'We know that some of you feel Apple has let you down', and revealed it is slashing the price of a replacement battery, and planning to show users exactly how much their battery has degraded.

今日蘋果公司發表道歉信，說：“有些人覺得蘋果讓他們失望了”，但是蘋果也將降價售出替換電池，告訴消費者電池是如何被分解的。

'We apologize. 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.'

“對不起。很多人誤解了這件事，我們希望澄清一下，讓大家知道其中的變化。”

'First and foremost, we have never — and would never — do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades,' Apple said.

“首先，我們絕不會，也絕對沒有人爲縮短蘋果產品的壽命，也沒有爲了讓顧客升級產品而破壞用戶體驗。”

'Our goal has always been to create products that our customers love, and making iPhones last as long as possible is an important part of that.'

“一切都是爲了製造用戶喜愛的產品，讓iPhone的壽命儘可能長一些也是我們的目標之一。”

Apple said it is reducing the price of an out-of-warranty iPhone battery replacement by $50 — from $79 to $29 — for anyone with an iPhone 6 or later whose battery needs to be replaced, starting in late January and available worldwide through December 2018.

蘋果說過期的蘋果電池替換裝會降價50美元，原價79美元，現價29美元，有iPhone6及更新版本手機的用戶如果需要換電池都可以購買，1月末到2018年12月都是這個價格，全球統一。

Early in 2018, it will issue an iOS software update with new features that give users more visibility into the health of their iPhone’s battery, so they can see for themselves if its condition is affecting performance.

2018年初，蘋果還將升級iOS系統，附帶可查看手機電池健康狀況的新功能，這樣用戶就能自行檢查手機狀況有沒有影響性能了。