CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA — Data from a benchmarking firm confirmed long-held suspicions that Apple has been intentionally slowing down older iPhones.

The tech giant has confirmed as much, but claims it's not a conspiracy theory to get you to buy their newer models, and is instead a battery issue.

CNET reports that lithium-ion batteries degrade over time, and can only hold an 80% charge after 500 charge cycles. This, along with cold climate or a low charge, affects performance.

Older iPhone models tend to draw more power than their batteries can handle, which can cause the device to suddenly and unexpectedly shut down. To prevent this, Apple's new iOS update throttles CPU speeds on older models, in order to limit how much power is drawn from the battery.

A number of users have worked around the issue by replacing their batteries, which reportedly restored the phones to their normal speed.

Critics have slammed Apple for its lack of transparency, pointing out that users should have been informed of the issue and possible solutions. Most mistakenly believed they needed to upgrade to newer models, when really, a battery replacement would have sufficed.