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Apple Makes $29 Battery Replacements Available Immediately for iPhone 6 and Newer

Roller said:
What do you mean by "designed to last x years?" Does "last" mean that the device should function precisely as it did on day one? And how long should "x" reasonably be? To what standards are Samsung and other cell phone vendors held? (I'm not arguing against your point—I don't know the answers.)

Having read Apple's statements, most of the MacRumors threads, and multiple comments on tech websites, I'm left with the following:

1. Li-ion batteries have unavoidable limitations: their performance degrades over time, and the decline may be accelerated by how they're used.

2. At this point we don't know if Apple was aware that iPhone batteries' capacity was too low to expect reasonable performance and life span in typical use cases. Personally, I'm in favor of larger batteries, even at the expense of thicker iPhones.

3. Apple's decision to limit energy draw to prevent shutdowns without informing users was wrong. The question is how do do this. Apple's message to customers says "iOS dynamically manages the maximum performance of some system components when needed to prevent a shutdown." If this is happening moment-to-moment, how would iOS let the user know? By flashing or changing the color of the battery icon? Or could they warn the user periodically if their device's battery state is such that this feature may need to kick in and let the user decide?

4. As a longtime Apple customer and shareholder, I don't believe that they were purposely degrading performance to drive upgrades, but I understand why it appears that way. Apple has been a very secretive company for many years; while I don't fault their need to protect their IP, their lack of transparency has hurt them, in this case by showing the company to be reactive rather than proactive.
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I should have been clear, to comply with the countries consumer laws.

Though let's say 12 months. In those 12 months a device should not be throttled . That is my expectation , and I don't think that it is unfair .
 
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HallStevenson said:
Apple isn't telling you that you can't replace your battery if you choose to do so. They are saying they will determine if THEY will do it for $29 though. That's fully their right and 'we' have zero input in that. You can't go to an independent repair shop and force them to replace your battery for $19 or $39 when their published rate is $59.
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Correct. Too many entitled babies on here.
 
justperry said:
Would you change the batteries brand to a another manufacturer if you were the CEO of Apple, I wouldn't, reason, if people find out that Apple changed the battery to a different brand all hell will break loose, then we get people here saying "Look, Apple changed the battery brand so they (Apple) acknowledges there was a faulty battery in their iPhones".
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Perhaps they shouldn't have had a faulty Apple battery in the first place
 
catean said:
They should have offered for free then, if 29$€£ is nothing for them.
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I didn't say $29 is nothing for them.

That's likely around their cost to have the battery replaced. And, replacing batteries at their cost, they're not making any money off the replacement program - as someone suggested "Apple loving the cash." Indeed, with all of the negative press and upcoming lawsuits, they'll no doubt lose money.
 
citysnaps said:
But you previously asserted the batteries were proven to be faulty. Where was that proven?


"Nothing wrong here but we love the cash you just gave us."

Do you really believe Apple is loving the cash and making a killing collecting $29 replacing batteries and dealing with all of the adverse press, hassle, and damage control?
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Yes I do, that $29 is free money from their consumers.
 
Baymowe335 said:
So you should be happy they didn't drag their feet here? The truth is a lot more complicated than Apple is 100% wrong, case closed. I won't go into all the facts like battery chemistry, customer experience, tradeoffs, etc.

I think a $29 repair on a lot of 3+ year old device to get a it working factory new is pretty reasonable.

OF COURSE it's all about the money. Apple is in business to make money, no shame there.
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All those facts are not relevant . An iPhone should last at least 12 months at the stated performance. Designed to last

Though as a global product , you are looking at designing for 2 years minimum .
 
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DoYouLikePie? said:
Apple deliberately and specifically followed the course of action they took, intentionally misleading their customers.
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The feature that was added to prevent auto shutdowns was in response to customer complaints about auto shutdowns. How is that "misleading"?
 
gnipgnop said:
The feature that was added to prevent auto shutdowns was in response to customer complaints about auto shutdowns. How is that "misleading"?
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The fact that the series 6 is shutting down is due to a product design error. Puting the cost of that design error on the customer by trying to push the product out of warranty by tricky software, how is not that misleading ? This is worse than the VW scandal !
 
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MH01 said:
I should have been clear, to comply with the countries consumer laws.

Though let's say 12 months. In those 12 months a device should not be throttled . That is my expectation , and I don't think that it is unfair .
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And where’s your proof devices are being throttled within the first 12 months? You have some data to back that up?
 
citysnaps said:
Free money, that's great! Well, if it's free money, without any costs (think about that for a minute or two), maybe Apple should have more of these issues, right?

Who doesn't like free money!
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It's free in the sense that it's not any money factored it. Unless you believe they planned to take people for a ride all along.
 
WatchFromAfar said:
It's free in the sense that it's not any money factored it. Unless you believe they planned to take people for a ride all along.
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You may not understand that corporations do not exist to break even or lose money. Think about that for a bit. Replacing batteries for $29 Apple is, overall, losing (direct and indirect costs) money.

Why would any company want to do that?
 
this seems like whole big setup to make users spend more at apple... why apple is assuming that all batteries are performing badly... and also giving an software update to slow down the phones and come with a nice solution to make people spend more money... what a genius idea..... who cares if they reduced the price of the battery replacement... you still have to send... but if someones battery is fine why on earth would they want to replace it because apple messed up...

something to think about.....NICE BIG SETUP FROM THE BEGINNING
 
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MH01 said:
All those facts are not relevant . An iPhone should last at least 12 months at the stated performance. Designed to last

Though as a global product , you are looking at designing for 2 years minimum .
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You don’t have the figures of how long and how many lasted, failed, or were throttled. We are talking about a relatively small number, which Apple will fix.
 
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catean said:
The fact that the series 6 is shutting down is due to a product design error.
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You need to be more specific about what the "product design error" is. It's not that the voltage the battery can provide to the CPU goes down as the battery discharges. That's how lithium ion batteries work in phones. The lower the percentage of charge, the lower the max voltage the battery can provide. There's a pretty big plateau in the middle, but once you get to 20% or lower you're going to see a steep drop.
 
citysnaps said:
You may not understand that corporations do not exist to break even or lose money. Think about that for a bit. Replacing batteries for $29 Apple is, overall, losing (direct and indirect costs) money.

Why would any company want to do that?
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I doubt to believe that to be true.Apple did the calculations and came to the conclusion it was more profitable to take the "Who cares" route. All the iPhone 6s users; how many will really come in for a cheap upgrade as opposed to going "screw it I need a new iPhone".
 
gnipgnop said:
You need to be more specific about what the "product design error" is. It's not that the voltage the battery can provide to the CPU goes down as the battery discharges. That's how lithium ion batteries work in phones. The lower the percentage of charge, the lower the max voltage the battery can provide. There's a pretty big plateau in the middle, but once you get to 20% or lower you're going to see a steep drop.
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Following your logic, if a car is built with a supersonic engine but it shut itself down after 1 second due to a small fuel tank, it’s a product which is well designed?
 
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deferredAnon said:
Yes, Apple flat out said they were throttling one year old iPhone 7 with the latest iOS. I think the fact you need to replace the battery or have your phone slowed down after one year is completely ridiculous!

Also, Apple admitted to all this because of Geekbench, especially iPhone 7.
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Also remember that the iPhone 6s was only 1 year old when the throttling was introduced. It seems the batteries in the iPhones are so thin that this happens, doesn't happen with iPads.
 
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Phonephreak said:
Why do I think this hasn’t even really exploded yet. More to come. Apple is in full damage control now.
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Maybe because the holidays got in the way, be interesting to see how it goes with everyone back to work this week and out of the jolly spirit
 
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