Finally admitting a problem with iPhone 4S battery exists, a cure is coming within weeks, Apple insist. The company admitted a “small number” of iPhone 4 owners have complained of low battery life on their new smartphone, which has been blamed on bug within battery.
The issue was reported by SmartHouse at the weekend, with an Apple Store employee in Sydney admitting they had already received complaints about a potential flaw in location services system in new iOS 5 software which was blamed for rapid battery drain.
“A small number of customers have reported lower than expected battery life on iOS 5 devices,” Apple said in a statement to AllThingsD, yesterday.
“We have found a few bugs that are affecting battery life and we will release a software update to address those in a few weeks.”
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Users on Apple support forums complained of the issue as early as the weekend of its release, October 14th last.
RakeshPDX wrote on October 14: “Did somebody notice a major power drain issue after iOS5 upgrade on iPhone4? Last night at midnight, it was ~90% charged. In the morning, it was 37% charged. By noon, it was dead. I didn’t make even 1 call during this time. Connected to Wi-Fi at home and strong 3G signal. Bluetooth is off, location services are off, all that stuff. The same phone’s battery would last for 40 hours with my normal usage with IOS 4.3.5. Anybody knows if any specific feature of iOS5 is causing this battery drain?”
Another, HayriC, wrote on Oct 15: I have the same problem. In 4 hours the battery of my iPhone 4 has drained after having IOS 5 upgrade yesterday.
“I tried nearly everything including deleting the mail accounts, switching off the iCloud and notifications but it didn’t work.”
There were hundreds more similar posts, with CNN calling it “the new “death grip.”
However, it took Apple almost two weeks to admit to the problem, although the issue varies, depending on network and usage patterns, reports suggest, meaning a large number of iPhone 4S owners may not experience any woes.
iPhone 4S sold out in many Australian retailers including Telstra on its first weekend of sale, with thousands believed to have purchased the device.
In total it sold 4 million in its first weekend of sale in Australian, UK and the US and is being rolled out to 22 more countries since Friday last, including much of Europe.
Samsung are currently locked in a bitter legal dispute with Apple, trying to ban the device from sale in Australia.
iOS 5, which Apple flagged as “the world’s most advanced mobile operating system” with iCloud, notification centre and iMessage service, was rolled out for iPhone 4 and 3G users also.
