Apple contacting customers regarding iPhone 4S battery issues

Apple engineers have been contacting customers directly in an attempt to diagnose and resolve the battery issues that have been plaguing many new iPhone 4S owners. Apple Support Communities forum has a growing thread of users experiencing shorter battery life than expected on the iPhone 4S. The thread has now reached over 100,000 views and more than 1,300 replies all recounting similar experiences with the new Apple device.

Speaking with the Guardian, one user revealed that a senior engineer at Apple had contacted him directly and asked him to install a monitoring program to help diagnose the battery issue. The program monitors for a 24-hour period, after which he had to extract the data file for sending back to the engineer. "He was incredibly helpful and apologetic in the typical Apple way!," wrote the user, but he also noted that the rep admitted that the company is far from finding a fix.

There have been other users in the Apple Support Communities thread that have also recounted Apple contacting them directly to install the diagnostic software on their iPhone 4S. The list continues to grow as many are surprised by how rapidly the iPhone 4S battery seems to drain compared to the iPhone 4. The iPhone 4S sports the same A5 dual-core processor as the iPad 2, a larger battery than the iPhone 4, and is supposed to support a slightly increased 8 hours of talk time, but a 100-hour less standby time.