Apple Increasing the Price of Out-of Warranty iPhone, Mac, and iPad Battery Replacements Starting in March

[Reason077]

4 out of the top 5 countries that recycle the most are in the EU and the 5th, while not in the EU, is in Europe. All of those countries recycle over half of their produced waste.
Just because your experience of people you know in your country do not recycle does not mean it applies everywhere.

Does this measure recycling at the household/business level (how much stuff gets put into recycling bins), or in terms of how much actually gets "recycled" into new packaging etc?

Recycling is a bit of a sham in the sense that only a small portion of it actually gets recycled in the way we imagine it does. Much of the rest gets incinerated for energy, or shipped around the world to murky "lowest-cost bidder" destinations who are paid to deal with it... somehow.

Where I live currently (Tower Hamlets, in London), it doesn't even seem possible to recycle these days because the council never collects our recycling bins, despite many complaints to them. (And yes, our recycling is clean and not contaminated etc).

 

[Valkyre]

Aaahhh “inflation”… the go to excuse to just transfer whatever extra cost there is out there from the trillion dollar company to the average user. Yes please. We will pay for everything. And ofcourse the increased charge will cover “inflation” and an extra bonus for all the trouble apple went through emotionally to increase their prices.

They care so much about the environment, their customers, rainbows and lillies everywhere…

 

[mrochester]

Aaahhh “inflation”… the go to excuse to just transfer whatever extra cost there is out there from the trillion dollar company to the average user. Yes please. We will pay for everything. And ofcourse the increased charge will cover “inflation” and an extra bonus for all the trouble apple went through emotionally to increase their prices.

They care so much about the environment, their customers, rainbows and lillies everywhere…

Consumers always pay for everything.

The trick to getting that money back out again is to enact appropriate tax laws and discourage hoarding of wealth by the super rich.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Friendly reminder to those who have AppleCare+. Use your battery up. Get the whole device replaced if you
can. If they won't let you, consider "accidentally" dropping your device into a lake so you can. You're paying for AppleCare+, get your money's worth (and then some) because Apple would most certainly screw you if the roles were reversed.

So… drop the phone in a lake, and spend $99 for an AC+ replacement… in order to not have to “possibly” spend $79 on a battery at some indeterminate point in the future? I’m not sure that computes 🤔

 

[mrochester]

So… drop the phone in a lake, and spend $99 for an AC+ replacement… in order to not have to “possibly” spend $79 on a battery at some indeterminate point in the future? I’m not sure that computes 🤔

Yeah that sounds ass backwards!

I presume the OP is looking at it from the perspective of paying 99 to get a fully refurbished device as opposed to saving 20 and only getting a new battery.

But if being better for the environment is the OPs concern (an assumption given how concerned they appear to be with Apple’s green credentials) then they should be paying the 79 instead of deliberately breaking a working device so as to claim on an insurance policy.

I guess it highlights the hypocrisy in a lot of consumers behaviour; they are all for things being greener or environmentally friendly as long as it is better for their bank balance too, which is often the same behaviour they accuse Apple of exhibiting.

 

[FlyingDutch]

Are you saying you don’t notice a degraded iPhone battery until it goes below 80%?

Dude.

At 80% health batteries are unreliable at best.

 

[FlyingDutch]

So it basically makes no sense at all to replace your battery at this point if you have a lower end older device - you know, the ones that actually need battery replacements.

And that’s exactly the point. Apple just found another way to force customers to buy new phones instead of replacing batteries. They already tried years ago (see “battery gate”), and now they are trying another way. I like their products as much as I dislike the Company, and I’m a very very old apple’s supporter.

 

[mrochester]

And that’s exactly the point. Apple just found another way to force customers to buy new phones instead of replacing batteries. They already tried years ago (see “battery gate”), and now they are trying another way. I like their products as much as I dislike the Company, and I’m a very very old apple’s supporter.

How does this price increase stop consumers from replacing the battery?

 

[Solidbilly]

My question has always been, how do you leave a company like Apple without buying from an even more ethically bankrupt company like Google?

The only viable choice when leaving iOS is android, which is even worse.

While you could go back and forth about who is more ethically bankrupt between Apple and Google, Apple is the undisputed champion of sanctimony and price-gouging.

 

[Samplasion]

In the EU (I've checked Italy, France and Germany) the current price is 75€, they'll increase it by 24€.

$106 to get a battery replaced

That's outrageous, I replaced the battery in my old phone for a fifth of that
(edit: typo)

 

[mrochester]

While you could go back and forth about who is more ethically bankrupt between Apple and Google, Apple is the undisputed champion of sanctimony and price-gouging.

I might remind you that Google’s motto for a long time was ‘don’t be evil’ whilst engaging in an evil business model. They are also yet to share any of the profits they make from consumers with those consumers, keeping all the money for themselves.

 

[Abazigal]

While you could go back and forth about who is more ethically bankrupt between Apple and Google, Apple is the undisputed champion of sanctimony and price-gouging.

I personably don't think Apple products are overpriced. Expensive, yes, and that's Apple's target market - people that easily spend money. Looking at their financials which are unlike any other comparable company, you can only conclude that Apple buyers spend money - a lot of it.



This is what Apple excels at. They rarely beat competitors on the bullet list, but when it comes to 'look at your phone and all your stuff is unlocked', they're unbeatable. They play the system integration game better than anyone else, and if it costs a few bucks more, I'm happy to at least have the option of paying for a differentiated offering.

 

[FeliApple]

I sternly question (and probably will continue to question, as long as Apple’s current practices and policies remain in place) the usefulness of battery replacements.

If the device is on its original iOS version, battery health is completely irrelevant. I use an iPhone 6s on iOS 10 with 63% health and battery life is like-new. No discernible major decrease. It has 1400 cycles.

If the device is updated, battery replacements are useless, with a decent increase when compared to an updated device with a degraded battery, but - and this is the most important thing - battery life remains abhorrent, at which point the user is better off buying a new device. A new battery provides a negligible increase in battery life, which fails miserably at offsetting iOS updates’ increased energy consumption. An example: My iPhone 6s gets about 6 hours of full LTE and high brightness with moderate use on iOS 10 with 63% health. An updated iPhone 6s on iOS 15 with a 63% health battery gets… what? 30 minutes? 40? More or less. An updated iPhone 6s with a new battery gets 2.5 hours. Is that enough for 99% of users? No. Is it worth paying to replace a battery on that device? Also no, buy a used iPhone that’s a little newer and it will blow the 6s out of the water.

 

[jlc1978]

In Sweden, currently it costs around $81 to change iPhone 12PM battery. So, it's gonna cost at least $100 in the future. My battery went down to 91% in just one year of careful charging. After a year of careless charging, it is at 90% (around 800 cycles) now. My AC+ ends in about 2 weeks. So, within a couple of months, there's a chance that my battery health can go down below 80% and I may have to pay 100 bucks to change it.

In te US at least you can extend AppleCare beyond the initial period.

 

[kieguru]

I've been using my MBP14 for work, 90% of it's time it's plugged in with all the battery life extending options turned on. I even installed Aldente to stop the battery charging over 80% if it's constantly plugged in. I've had 71 battery cycles over the year (due to it being mainly connected to AC) and my max capacity is 85%. I thought this was a pretty sizeable reduction, even when Aldente wasn't running or readings from different charge states, so I took it into an Apple store. They basically said it's all operating fine and the battery replacement isn't even covered in my AppleCare+.

Honestly I'm pretty shocked at this, I'm really looking at just buying the battery from a 3rd party later on down the line and doing it myself. I'm not spending £250 for Apple to do a job that would cost me £70.

I know my use case isn't optimal for the battery, but hell, I'd didn't expect a 15% drop in a year. Surely Apple would have implemented a charge state limiter for devices that are connected to AC power most of the time? Apparently not!

 

[jlc1978]

To be fair: the Galaxy S5 had a replacable/swapable battery with full IP67 certification for water and dust resistance.

Fair enough, but it still requires prying off the back, not a latch or other simple swap some are proposing. While it would be easier than an iPhone with IP68 cert but not swappable in the sense you could carry a spare and pop it in like in the old days.

 

[FlyingDutch]

In Sweden, currently it costs around $81 to change iPhone 12PM battery. So, it's gonna cost at least $100 in the future. My battery went down to 91% in just one year of careful charging. After a year of careless charging, it is at 90% (around 800 cycles) now. My AC+ ends in about 2 weeks. So, within a couple of months, there's a chance that my battery health can go down below 80% and I may have to pay 100 bucks to change it.

Battery degradation isn’t linear. You could lose 9% in the first year and then hang around 88% in the next year.

 

[MausKriminel]

Will you throw your old battery in the general trash or will you promise to recycle it as well as Apple can?

How many people will genuinely try to recycle? Most people lazily throw everything in the same trash and then the trash becomes dangerous to handle because it is mixed with the batteries.

By that logic people shouldn't be allowed to change the batteries of their remotes either. What you are saying is beside the point.

 

[eltoslightfoot]

I stopped buying iPhones a long time ago

Good for you?

 

[FlyingDutch]

I just checked out iFixit's website to see what it would take to replace the battery in my 2020 SE2.
The kit with all the necessary tools is $30. The cost for just the battery is $25. The guide describing the procedure is just 66 simple steps, I mean, what could go wrong? Estimated time required: 30 minutes to 2 hours.
Here's the link: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iPhone+SE+2020+Battery+Replacement/133814
I'll pay Apple the extra $40, that way, if they ruin the phone, they'll have to replace it, not me.

These devices are not designed to be user serviceable… insisting on that is a nonsense.

 

[VaruLV]

Oh, so "sustainable", right, Apple?
Just jack those prices up some more and come up with another lame excuse why youre doing so.

 

[surfzen21]

It’s been hovering/“stuck” at 88% for some months now. I got it mid-November 2020.

Thanks.

That seems pretty good. Roughly in line with what my iPhone 11 is. I think im at about 85% after 3 years

 

[VaruLV]

Remember when Apple was all about great customer experience? It is more and more about "how can we milk our customers even more". Sad. I hope people start reacting with closed wallets soon. I did! Still rocking my "old" 12 Pro Max

This will just push people to those inauthentic "phone repair" stores again ...

Right?
I mean, I love how iCloud integrates with my iPhone(bought smallest usable smartphone available, which was 12 mini) and iPad Pro(bought powerful tablet to use with certain apps that are not available on other platforms/OS'es with touch interface), then came M1 spectacular battery life made and it made me want Macbook, which I didnt consider prior to M1.
Now, seeing how Apple just jacks prices up for literally every part of their product and service portfolio just seems to make no sense to me to over-spend on Tim's greed.

I might get myself 15" Air or, even better, M2 MBP 14/16" Pro or M1 Pro MBP if their prices drop when M2 series gets release, but if I manage to hold out with my Windows cheapie Thinkpad that has still plenty of power(tho with crappy display and poor battery life and is made by Chinese govt owned company), then I might as well just wait couple of years until Windows on ARM matures in all aspects and just get myself sanely priced and decently spec'd Windows laptop/tablet then, instead of paying through nose forever increasing Apple tax.

 

[webkit]

With the record breaking sales on apple devices Year after year shows people don’t have a problem paying for there products and services.

Apple hasn't always been having record breaking sales year after year e.g., global iPhone unit sales dropped in 2016 and didn't go above 2015 levels again until 2021.

 

[webkit]

Because at a certain point it’s a wiser investment to put that $100 towards a brand new phone with a brand new battery. Or even a used phone with a good battery.

Especially for people who are still using an iPhone 7 or iPhone 8. Battery replacement might have made sense before, but not with a giant price hike. It’s just a waste of money.

Yes but some people are quite happy with their older devices and would rather spend as little as $69 (for iPhone 7 or 8 battery replacement starting in March) than around 6 to 23 times more ($429 to $1,599) for a new iPhone.

If the phone is otherwise working well for them and they don't necessarily care about the latest updates, etc. there's nothing wrong with keeping a functioning phone going for relatively little money. Even with the price increase, it's still less than it was in the early years of the iPhone when the replacement cost in the U.S. was $85.95 ($79 plus $6.95 shipping). Adjusting for inflation, $85.95 in 2008 is equal to around $122 today.