Apple is currently in the midst of a lawsuit that involves a claim that the smartphone giant intentionally broke Facetime to prompt users to update from iOS 6.
According to Engadget, the complaint stems from emails received as evidence in a case Apple fought with a patent troll. Apparently, when Apple launched Facetime, it used third-party servers from Akamai to help handle video calls.
However, Akamai began hosting a more significant portion of the calls as time went on, which cost Apple millions of dollars a month in fees. iOS 7, on the other hand, reduced the load on Akamai’s servers, saving the company significant amounts of money.
Users of some older handsets avoided the update, which allegedly prompted Apple to let a security update lapse, and therefore effectively breaking Facetime for some users.
When the issue came up, the company said users could fix the bug by upgrading to the new version of iOS. Even after upgrading, however, some iPhone 4 and 4s users found the iOS 7 experience to be less than stellar.
At the time that Apple reportedly broke Facetime, approximately 87 percent of its users were already on iOS 7.
[source]Engadget[/source]
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