Apple has issued an unprecedented¹ apology over its handling of the admission it slows down older iPhones.

苹果公司人为减慢旗下手机iPhone旧系统的运行速度，为此发表道歉声明，这也是苹果首次为该行为道歉。

The firm said last week it 'throttles²' phones to extend their life and stop them from shutting down as batteries age and become less effective, triggering lawsuits³ across the world.

苹果公司说，上周公司“强迫”旗下手机寿命缩短，电池衰老无效时将无法关机，这在世界范围内引发了投诉。

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.

据报道，韩国通讯委员会（Communications Commission）要求苹果对此做出解释，法国消费者团体向法院提交了初步合法控告。

'We are hoping to get some answers on whether Apple intentionally⁴ restricted the performance of old iPhones and tried to hide this from customers,' the Korean Commission said.

韩国委员会说：“我们希望苹果能解释一下它有没有人为限制旧版iPhone的性能，有没有欺瞒消费者。”

Apple is already facing lawsuits in the United States over accusations⁵ of having defrauded⁶ iPhone users by slowing down devices without warning to compensate⁷ for poor battery performance.

在美国苹果也面临诸多控告：涉嫌降低设备运行速度，没有对电池的性能不佳做出赔偿，欺骗iPhone用户。

Under French law, companies risk fines of up to 5 percent of their annual sales for deliberately⁸ shortening the life of their products to spur demand to replace them.

法国法律规定，如果公司人为缩短产品寿命，只为增加产品更迭市场需求，那么罚款将达年销售额的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.

美国加利福尼亚州、纽约、伊利诺斯州的共同诉讼代表着美国数以百万计的iPhone用户。

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.

周四，旧金山的诉讼之一中写道：“电池”性能不佳导致程序运行速度减慢，软件也没有补丁，以此刺激产品需求上涨是有问题的。

'Rather than curing the battery defect by providing a free battery replacement⁹ for all affected¹⁰ iPhones, Apple sought to mask the battery defect,' according to the complaint.

“此前苹果没有给所有受影响的iPhone用户免费更换电池，而是试图掩盖问题。”

The problem now seen is that users over the last year could have blamed an aging computer processor for app crashes and sluggish¹¹ 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.

目前看来，问题在于去年一年用户由于各种软件崩溃、运行缓慢，不得不换新机，大家都认为是计算机处理器使用时间过长问题，其实只要花一点钱换电池就好。

'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.

波士顿大学消费者科技法教授罗瑞·瓦·卢（Rory Van Loo）说：“假如消费者知道了苹果升级的内幕，消费者只会换电池，而不是购买新的iPhone。这已经能够以失实陈述或欺诈起诉了。”

Today it published a letter saying 'We know that some of you feel Apple has let you down', and revealed it is slashing¹² the price of a replacement battery, and planning to show users exactly how much their battery has degraded.

今日苹果公司发表道歉信，说：“有些人觉得苹果让他们失望了”，但是苹果也将降价售出替换电池，告诉消费者电池是如何被分解的。

'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.'

“对不起。很多人误解了这件事，我们希望澄清一下，让大家知道其中的变化。”

'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，我们绝不会，也绝对没有人为缩短苹果产品的寿命，也没有为了让顾客升级产品而破坏用户体验。”

'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.'

“一切都是为了制造用户喜爱的产品，让iPhone的寿命尽可能长一些也是我们的目标之一。”

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.

苹果说过期的苹果电池替换装会降价50美元，原价79美元，现价29美元，有iPhone6及更新版本手机的用户如果需要换电池都可以购买，1月末到2018年12月都是这个价格，全球统一。

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，苹果还将升级iOS系统，附带可查看手机电池健康状况的新功能，这样用户就能自行检查手机状况有没有影响性能了。