Apple confirms the one thing we always suspected about iPhones

The iPhone is now almost as ubiquitous as running water or shoes.

It's just everywhere. Rivals like Samsung are taking bigger and bigger bites out of Apple's market share, but the iPhone is a dominant force culturally, and that's harder to tackle. The company is not without its critics though - Apple comes under fire for a wide range of reasons, be it the working conditions in the factories that manufacture the handsets, or the removal of basic necessities like the headphone port. Not exactly equatable issues, but critics of Apple pick them up on both. One of the long-held suspicions - and criticisms - of Apple's iPhone has been confirmed by the company itself: that it slows down the performance of older iPhones as the battery wears out. Essentially, as your iPhone gets older, its performance is deliberately slowed down, but not to force you into buying a new device, Apple said: it's to stop your phone suddenly turning off if it tries to draw on more power than the battery can supply. This confirms rumours that replacing the battery in an iPhone can massively enhance its performance. Speaking to Business Insider, Apple released a statement confirming the rumour:

"Our goal is to deliver the best experience for customers, which includes overall performance and prolonging the life of their devices. Lithium-ion batteries become less capable of supplying peak current demands when in cold conditions, have a low battery charge or as they age over time, which can result in the device unexpectedly shutting down to protect its electronic components. "Last year we released a feature for iPhone 6, iPhone 6S and iPhone SE to smooth out the instantaneous peaks only when needed to prevent the device from unexpectedly shutting down during these conditions. We've now extended that feature to iPhone 7 with iOS 11.2, and plan to add support for other products in the future."

So it's not the company trying to force you into buying a new phone early, it's just to keep your phone operating at a level that the battery can handle. Or so they say, anyway. Apple will replace your iPhone battery for £79, which is a hell of a lot, but also a hell of a lot less than buying a whole new phone. Or you can go back to the Nokia 3310. That thing will last forever.