A New Phone Comes Out. Yours Slows Down. A Conspiracy(kənˈspirəsē)? No.

A New Phone Comes Out. Yours Slows Down. A Conspiracy(kənˈspirəsē)? No.

By Brian X. Chen

It happens every year: Apple releases(riˈlēs) new iPhones, and then hordes(hôrd) of people groan(grōn) about their older iPhones slowing to a crawl(krôl).

Just look at the recent data. Between September and early November — when Apple made the iPhone 8 available, followed by the iPhone X — Google searches for the keywords “iPhone slow” jumped about 50 percent(pərˈsent).

The phenomenon(-nən,fəˈnäməˌnän) of perceived(pərˈsēv) slowdowns is so widespread(ˈwīdˈspred) that many believe tech(tek) companies intentionally(inˈtenCHənlē) cripple(ˈkripəl) smartphones and computers to ensure that people buy new ones every few years. Conspiracy theorists(ˈTHi(ə)r-,ˈTHēərist) call it planned obsolescence(ˌäbsəˈlesəns).

That’s a myth(miTH). While slowdowns happen, they take place(plās) for a far less nefarious(niˈfe(ə)rēəs) reason. That reason is a software upgrade.

“There’s no incentive(inˈsentiv) for operating system companies to create planned obsolescence,” said Greg Raiz, a former program manager(ˈmanijər) for Microsoft who worked on Windows XP. “It’s software, and software has various degrees of production bugs and unintended(ˌəninˈtendid) things that happen.”

Here’s what happens: When tech giants(ˈjīənt) like Apple, Microsoft and Google introduce new hardware, they often release upgrades for their operating systems. For example, a few days before the iPhone 8 shipped in September, Apple released iOS 11 as a free software update for iPhones, including the four-year-old iPhone 5S.

The technical(ˈteknikəl) process of upgrading from an old operating system to a new one — migrating(ˈmīˌgrāt) your files, apps and settings along the way — is extremely(ikˈstrēmlē) complicated(ˈkämpləˌkātid). So when you install(inˈstôl) a brand-new operating system on an older device(diˈvīs), problems may occur(əˈkər) that make everything from opening the camera(ˈkam(ə)rə) to browsing(brouz) the web feel sluggish(ˈsləgiSH).

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https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/15/technology/personaltech/new-iphones-slow-tech-myth.html