iPhone battery fix coming 'in a few weeks'

By Doug Gross, CNN November 3, 2011 -- Updated 1519 GMT (2319 HKT) | Filed under: Mobile

Apple has admitted a problem with battery life on the iPhone 4S, saying a software fix is coming.

(CNN) -- Apple has acknowledged a problem with battery life on the iPhone 4S and other devices running its new operating system. The company says a software update coming "in a few weeks" will address the problem.

The company previously had not publicly acknowledged complaints about battery life on the phone, which surfaced soon after it was released October 14 and continued to grow in the weeks since.

"A small number of customers have reported lower than expected battery life on iOS 5 devices," Apple said in a statement to AllThingsD, a part of the Wall Street Journal network. "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."

Comments on a thread started October 15 in Apple's support forums to complain about battery life had grown to 217 pages by Thursday morning.

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Apple has declined to comment beyond its basic statement. Messages from CNN requesting information about the complaints were not returned.

The poorer-than-expected battery life has largely been attributed to location-based apps and other power-draining features of the iOS 5 system. Some users have reported improvements when they disable time-zone and GPS features, while others have said the improvements were minimal.

The apparent glitch is the second time in a row that a popular iPhone has experienced a highly publicized problem in its early days. And the responses, so far, have been similar.

The iPhone 4 suffered from what some called the death grip, causing users who held the phone in a certain way to lose phone calls. Apple denied that there was a problem before eventually saying that it did, in fact, affect a small number of customers.

The company eventually offered free cases, which improved the phone's reception.

Neither time has the problem affected sales in a major way. The iPhone 4 is the most popular smartphone in the world, and the 4S is on track to perform just as well, starting with a reported 4 million sales in its first three days on the market.