Apple iPhones are among the most expensive smartphone devices on the market, and considering the price that people pay, they expect the devices to work properly. Unfortunately, it seems that many of the problems with these iPhones are intentionally a part of the company’s design.

For example, back in 2017, Apple admitted that they intentionally slowed down older iPhones. The excuse was that it was a measure to protect the batteries of older phones from diminishing, however, customers were suspicious that Apple was doing this as a way of subtly forcing people to buy the newer model iPhones.

The backlash was so heavy after the news broke, that Apple was forced to backtrack on the policy. Eventually, the company issued a software update that allegedly fixed the problem, and they promised to never do anything that would intentionally shorten the life of any of their products, “ever again.”

Still, despite this promise, some customers are suspicious that something similar is happening with their aging iPhone models.

it’s just a little strange that my iphone xs max completely stopped working for 2 hours today, the day after the new iphones were announced — ryan ferreira (@ryanferreira) September 12, 2019

Numerous iPhone users have recently taken to Twitter to air their grievances about how their Apple devices began having problems as soon as Apple announced the iPhone 11. Although, this time, instead of the batteries dying, the devices are just malfunctioning.

Apple has blamed these problems on old batteries, implying that their previous policy of draining batteries intentionally could have been preventing things like this from happening. However, not many customers are convinced.

iphone 11 was announced YESTERDAY and my phone is already acting up — jenna noel darosa (@jdarosa115) September 12, 2019

Many believe that Apple is engaged in a shady corporate practice called “planned obsolescence,” which ensures that products will break after a certain time so customers will be forced to come back and buy a replacement. It is said that this is the reason why nothing is “build to last” anymore, because some manufacturers want to ensure that they will have a steady flow of customers.

This causes some problems when your house is filled with a variety of products that should have been built to last, but break after a period of time by design, because it puts people in a position where they are constantly forced to spend money on things that they would not need otherwise. It is hard to imagine how much extra spending money that people would have if things were truly built to last.

I find it awfully convenient that the camera on my iPhone stopped working the day Apple announced new iPhones with fancier cameras — Evan (@evanbumgardner) September 11, 2019

As far as Apple is concerned, they have not taken any responsibility for the current problems with ageing iPhones, however, they did openly admit that older iPhones will become insecure after its latest update, because the aging devices do not have software that is compatible with the update.

Swear I just said my phone has been acting up ever since they started talking about the iPhone 11 release . My 10 was working perfectly fine and then bam 🤣😩😩 — Desireé Meowington (@DesireeMeoww) September 12, 2019

In these times, knowing that your phone may be vulnerable to hackers because it is old is also enough to force someone to get a new phone. Apple insists that there are no ways for them to avoid these types of measures and that this is just a consequence of how technology develops. However, many of us find the timing of these issues oddly convenient, especially when they are being experienced by so many people.