Apple normally doesn"t openly comment on issues concerning its products. But that was before a number of iPhone 4S users started complaining that the battery on their new smartphones was draining much too quickly than they expected. Earlier this week, Apple released 5.0.1, the first over-the-air update for the iOS 5 operating system. The update was supposed to fix these battery issues once and for all.
While some iPhone 4S users did in fact report that their battery times had noticeably improved, that is not the case for everyone. In fact, some people wrote on the Apple support forums that the battery life on their phones was actually worse than before the update was downloaded and installed.
In a rare public statement to AllThingsD.com, Apple said, "The recent iOS software update addressed many of the battery issues that some customers experienced on their iOS 5 devices." However, it did add, "We continue to investigate a few remaining issues."
Apple has not commented at all on what was causing the battery problems in the first place. Some have speculated it"s due to a bug in how the phone handles the various time zones via location sourcing while others believe it might be because of an excess in notifications. Whatever the problem is, hopefully it isn"t a hardware issue. If it turns out to be, Apple could have to deal with a repeat of the iPhone 4"s antenna issues.