Before the start of the new year, Apple found itself in some hot water as it was discovered, and ultimately confirmed by the company, that older iPhones are slowed on purpose in an effort to relieve some of the stress from aging batteries.

Unfortunately for the company, it didn’t do a very good job of articulating that particular “feature” to its customers. By the time it was well known what was happening, it leveled itself with a variety of different conspiracy theories that have run rampant for years, which didn’t paint the company in a very good light at all.

Now, weeks later, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook, while conducting a quick on-the-scene interview with ABC News in Reno, Nevada, commented on the controversy that has cropped up since then. Apple right now faces dozens of different lawsuits against the company at this stage, and a variety of different agencies and government bodies all across the world are trying to get more information out of Apple regarding this situation.

Interestingly enough, Cook says that its initial effort to stop random shutdowns of older iPhones did the job it was meant to, but it was not clear at the time (the feature was launched last year) that it would make some older iPhones slow down. Cook says that he is deeply apologetic for the situation that has come from this, and that the company probably could have been clearer about what was going on.

Cook also says that the company did announce the feature when it released it last year, but that he doesn’t “think a lot of people were paying attention.” Which, if you watched the fallout over this situation, seems at odds with how a lot of people who follow and report on Apple every day remember it.

You can check out the full video:

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Still, what matters now is that Apple fixes the problem at hand, which it is certainly working on with the $29 battery replacement program. It will be interesting to see what happens next.

Source: iPhone hacks