There's always been this suspicion that Apple — and other gadget makers — purposefully slow down products over time so that you're forced to buy new ones. This week, with its new iPhone software, Apple showed users that it really isn't trying to force them to buy a new iPhone instead of hanging on to an older one.

Let me explain.

Apple caught serious flack late last year when people noticed that it was sometimes slowing down the processing speed of some old iPhones. It seemed to be the first evidence that Apple really did have some sort of planned obsolescence for its devices — that the company really did want customers to just buy new iPhones after a certain period of time.

Then Apple apologized and explained that it was looking out for users by preventing aging batteries from shutting their devices down unexpectedly, especially when you need them most. To make up for its lack of transparency, Apple eventually discounted the price of replacing batteries in older phones.

This week it gave consumers another reason to hang on to older iPhones.