Industry Committee on March 1st, 2018

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

What we do know—and we have to say we know this only from Primate Labs, because Apple has not released any of the technicalities you're speaking to. We do know that the problem happens at 30% left on the battery. We also know from their work and studies that, and it's estimated, your slowdown might happen anywhere from 70% to 30%.

Why would you slow the phone down if there's 70% left on the battery if you know the problem is only going to happen when there's 30% left? Why would you degrade the user experience right at 70%?

[Jacqueline Famulak]

We're not attempting to degrade it. What we're trying to prevent is the unexpected shutdown.

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

But we know it's not going to happen, and we don't know this from Apple. We know this from a Canadian company that discovered this problem, and we know it's going to happen around 30% battery life.

Why would you slow the phone down if it had more than 30% battery life?

[Jacqueline Famulak]

If there are other factors in existence, such as the chemical age of the battery or the ambient room temperature being very cold.... The software is looking at all three things and deciding at what point.

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Is Apple ready to release the formula they use? Are you ready to put that out there to say this is why you use it in this way so that theory, what you're stating, can actually be tested?

[Jacqueline Famulak]

I would have to consult with the parent company in order to release that information.

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Why would you not release it? I understood that Apple made all these changes and made no statement to anybody about them. Is that a fair statement that when you made this change, you didn't inform anybody?

[Jacqueline Famulak]

We informed people that we had solved the problem of the unexpected shutdowns. That's what the iOS offer was designed to do.

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Didn't you feel it necessary to let them know that you were slowing down their phone?

[Jacqueline Famulak]

We felt it necessary to.... Yes. We felt it was very important to our customers, because what we were hearing from our customers was that the unexpected shutdown was a huge problem, and that a slower phone that can keep recording valuable information or keep watching a movie would be better.

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

I will come back to my question.

Maybe no one's complained to you, but I've heard it, and I have a phone that I complain about when it's slow. It may be news to Apple, but many people don't like a slow phone.

Having said that, if you did need to slow it down at a certain point, why would you slow it down before you needed to?

[Jacqueline Famulak]

When the other conditions are in existence.

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

That would mean you needed to, but you didn't.

[Jacqueline Famulak]

In order to preserve the components in the phone, the power will be managed.

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Let's try another one.

Can you tell us at what point the battery life starts to die? Is it at 30%, as we were told by Mr. Poole, or is that incorrect? Is it at different points, not just 30%? Could it be at 40% or 50%?

[Jacqueline Famulak]

It's at different points.

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

It could be at different points. What points would those be?

[Jacqueline Famulak]

I don't have that information.

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

At what point do you absolutely...? What would be the worst-case scenario? I have 70% left on my phone and I need to slow it down at that point. Is that fair to say?

[Jacqueline Famulak]

It's going to depend on the user and the other factors in existence.

If you have 70% on your phone and it's very cold, the power management might be diverted and you might experience differences in performance, but when the room temperature changes, that might change again. That's what that power management was designed to do.

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Why can't I know that? You've been found out. Why can't you just explain it? “This is the algorithm, and this is how it's going to work on your phone, Mr. Baylis.” Why can't I know that?

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

Very briefly, please.

[Jacqueline Famulak]

What we did do was provide the ReadMe document and the support pages on our website that explain how the power management works and what conditions it does work in.

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Thank you, Ms. Famulak.

[The Chair, Liberal, Dan Ruimy]

Thank you very much.

We're going to move to Mr. Lloyd.

You have five minutes.