Apple makes contact: 'iOS 5 bug causes iPhone 4S battery issue'

Apple finally speaks out over the battery issues some customers have suffered with iOS 5 powered devices: In short, there’s a fix, but not for a while.

Apple has made contact with the outside world to confirm that iOS 5, its latest mobile operating system, released only a fortnight ago, is causing battery issues with iPhones.

“A small number of customers have reported lower than expected battery life on iOS 5 devices”, the company told AllThingsD, adding: “We have found a few bugs that are affecting battery life and we will release a software update to address those in a few weeks.”

Apple did not comment beyond the statement.

The Cupertino-based giant is seeding a minor update to developers, iOS 5.0.1, which amongst other things will address the battery life issue.

Also in the update, multitasking gestures will be fixed for the first-generation iPad, resolve some issues with Documents in the Cloud, and improve Siri for Australian users of the iPhone 4S.

But many will be angered that the update “will take weeks”, as many struggle to gain any more than 12 hours out of their iPhones in a single day.

Apple has been deathly silent over the battery issues, which threatened to replicate the issues that the company had with the iPhone 4 in ‘Antennagate’. But the company’s response has been less than ideal, as it has not publicly acknowledged a problem until now — over two weeks since the problems began to emerge.

Within a few days of antenna-related issues reported in the press with the iPhone 4, the late Steve Jobs discussed with reporters at a special press event how the company would fix the problem — not only with the smartphone itself, but its reputation amongst its customers; something the company holds seemingly ahead of anything else.

Users instead were left to scramble for their own solutions, with many finding resolve in a location-based setting deep within the operating system. Thousands of users left comments of anger and frustration, along with tips and advice for fellow iOS 5 users in the Apple support forums since the problems were first reported.

Despite the problems with battery, and some other minor bugs along the way, the iPhone 4S has been the most popular selling smartphone the company has ever produced, selling millions in the first week alone. Sprint and AT&T reached record sale highs.