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Thanks for posting this. Apple released that update to make aging iPhones more stable (which probably makes them a lot less likely to be replaced) and they get accused of cheating the consumer. As if anyone would be ok with a phone that was a faster at peak use but crashed at the same time. So, Apple releases software to address the issue and then offers huge discounts on battery replacement and they just get torn to bits over both. It boggles the mind!

It was heavily throttling devices, without disclosing so, on devices still under warranty and with batteries that still showed as "Healthy" by Apple's techs.

Indefensible.
 
You mean worn out batteries.

Endless debate.

smart consumers = defective or at best engineered for obsolescence since no other product prematurely shuts down and throttles at as early as one year old

apologists = normal behavior
 
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Endless debate.

smart consumers = defective or at best engineered for obsolescence since no other product prematurely shuts down and throttles at as early as one year old

apologists = normal behavior
I know your posting history and style so I’m not going to get into it further than stating that you are glossing over the technical aspects of battery chemistry and external factors.
 
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...
The one benefit is you now get a good time to buy stock in a company that has hoards of cash and no debt - a rare thing on wall street.

AAPL has now been burdened by increasing debt, incurred by stock-buybacks
So, "Enough Said" feel free to follow your own conviction, but the acute ride downward will be difficult to reverse -- due to current leadership.

Here is the NASDAQ-published AAPL balance sheet:
https://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/aapl/financials?query=balance-sheet
 
It would be unfortunate if Apple's takeaway was that we bought fewer 2018 iPhones because of the battery replacement deal. In most cases, I'm guessing we replaced more older phone batteries because we were disappointed with the pricing of the 2018 iPhones. That was certainly true in my case.
 
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Apple replaced a total of 11 million iPhone batteries under the $29 battery replacement program that was introduced at the end of 2017 and ran through 2018 before ending on December 31, 2018.

The tidbit was shared by Tim Cook at a recent all-hands meeting with Apple employees and relayed by Daring Fireball's John Gruber, who heard the information from an unnamed source.

iphone-6s-battery.jpg

Apple replaced approximately 9 to 10 million more batteries than it would have during a normal year, said Cook. Apple normally replaces 1 to 2 million batteries each year.

Cook cited the battery replacement program as one of the reasons why Apple's Q1 2019 guidance was cut earlier this month after poorer than expected iPhone sales. Apple now expects revenue of $84 billion, down from a November estimate of $89 to $93 billion.

It's not entirely clear why Apple didn't know how the battery replacement program would impact sales earlier in the year given that it ran throughout 2018, but Gruber speculates that while Apple knew battery replacements were higher than normal, the true effect of the replacement program did not become known until the new iPhone XS and XR models were released and fewer people upgraded.

Apple initiated the $29 battery replacement program after outcry over an iOS 10 update introduced a power management feature that slowed the performance of some older iPhones with degrading batteries. The power management features were designed to prevent unexpected shutdowns and prolong the iPhone's life, but some customers saw it as proof of planned obsolescence.

Apple apologized for the misinformation and introduced the discounted battery replacement program to appease customers. In a device with a degraded battery that is experiencing slowdown issues because of performance management software, replacing the battery restores full functionality, which undoubtedly led some customers to stick with an older iPhone rather than upgrade.

In February 2018, Cook said that Apple had not considered how the battery replacement program would impact iPhone upgrade rates, but it's clear it ultimately had an impact on Apple's bottom line.

"We did it because we thought it was the right thing to do for our customers," said Cook at the time. "I don't know what effect it will have for our investors. It was not in our thought process of deciding to do what we've done."

Article Link: Apple Replaced 11 Million iPhone Batteries in 2018, Up From 1 to 2 Million
[doublepost=1547578555][/doublepost]For those who rip Apple, how many companies would do this for their customers? Ppl who had replaced battery should appreciate Apple more.

$30 to extend your iphone 6 for another 2 years at least.
 
My parents both have an iPhone 6 and their battery health was showing around 80%. So I organised battery replacements for them. In terms of performance, Dad said he now notices no difference and Mum says hers is worse. So I wonder if the replacement battery are of a lower quantity than the originals
 
My parents both have an iPhone 6 and their battery health was showing around 80%. So I organised battery replacements for them. In terms of performance, Dad said he now notices no difference and Mum says hers is worse. So I wonder if the replacement battery are of a lower quantity than the originals
I doubt it the batteries are of a lower quality. Maybe there is some placebo effect going on with your parents phones.
 
No Apple owned store where I live but a couple of authorized service providers. Cancelled, as in apple.com would accept the appointment but I got an email sent from the store saying they couldn't do it. They wouldn't tell me so in writing but talking to them they said Apple didn't send them any batteries.

Ahhh. Sorry for the misunderstanding.
mathews_embarrassed.gif
 
Apple almost didn't replace my wife's battery because it was showing 83% capacity. They would only replace it if it was lower than 80%. This is an iPhone 6S+.

I pushed for the replacement and they did it. Wife comes back telling me that her phone now sits at 75% after her work when before it would be at 20% and discharge when plugged into the charger. She says the phone feels like brand new in terms of speed.

I was also surprised that a 3 year old phone still had 83% capacity but was experiencing life of something with probably less than 50% capacity.
 
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It's more than just the 1-2 million increase in battery replacements. Because this was such a huge media story you can expect battery replacements to increase year over year which will continue to impact revenue.

Either they have to find a way to decrease the cost of new devices, or justify the cost with adding more cutting edge capabilities. Or a combination of both.
 
I took advantage of the $29 replacement for my iPhone 6. This allows me to keep the 6 and use it as an iPod/media device, (and a spare iPhone should I ever need one) and keep my new iPhone 8, ordered shortly after the 2018 phones were announced, as a phone/email/camera device.

Don't have to buy wireless headphones or extra dongles to use the 8 and charge it at the same time, also using the 6 as an iPod should help the 8's battery last longer. Less high-draw usage (streaming, etc) should help over time?

It's a win/win.

I also get an 8 with a Home button, so I don't have to relearn almost 10 years worth of muscle memory with the new non-home-button phones. At least for another 2-3 years or so.
 
The real issue here is not about slowing down phones with a software patch. The real issue is putting undersized/underperforming batteries in phones to begin with. You would not need to patch the phone if the battery would last at least as long as your AppleCare warranty.
 
Your battery was at 88% health, and they still replaced it for $29? You're only eligible if the battery is at 80% or lower. My 6S+ was at 79% and I too took advantage of the offer.

The iPhone battery replacement programme is available to anyone who is willing to pay $29, regardless of the health of the battery. You might be confusing it with the iPad battery replacement programme.
 
Can’t believe this comment got so many likes.

Apple’s only mistake was trying to apply a software fix to address a hardware issue, but sure, I guess framing it as an attempt to screw their users over to force upgrades is better for garnering views and clicks.

The iPhone battery replacement programme is available to anyone who is willing to pay $29, regardless of the health of the battery. You might be confusing it with the iPad battery replacement programme.
You forgot to mention, for the sole purpose of supporting your fiction, the small detail that Apple, before the class-action news, deliberately and unilaterally refused to replace batteries for users willing to pay the amount requested at that time.
 
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So you’ll not have seen the research on the impact of processor demand causing peak power demand on aged battery that results in current drop and immediate shutdown of computing devices. This is commonly known chemistry/physics. Also if 2/3rds of those 11 million people who took advantage of the battery replacement programme then did not upgrade to a new device this would have resulted in approx 7 million people x $700 = circa $5billion loss of revenue $89B - $84B = $5B . I’m sure that this is not the whole story, and Chinese market also had a significant impact but the numbers and explanations do add up. There are clear errors of judgement on Apple’s behalf, but no conspiracy theory.

So, you believe Cooks words about not caring how stock exchange investors will react and what happens if many of these customers do not buy a newer iPhone because of the settled replacement program?
To agree to Cook's statements is just belief and maybe a bit too naive IMO.

The aspects, mentioned by me, cannot be 100% accurate in every detail, but they seem to be nearer to realism than just believe and surely should not to feed conspiracy theories against Apple. Apple offers enough of strange decisions and a bad performance anyway, difficult to follow... :(

Of course everybody knows Cook's first story about this electronic shut off and Apple's big excuse to customers because of this iOS adaptation and this generous offer of battery replacement program... (keep in mind this shut off has nothing to do with older or newer batteries. This software shutoff took place the last about 5% to 10% to give shelter to electronic memory parts. That's simple - I had to deal with same electronic hardware called "supervisors" who did same as this software feature. So, there was no clear explanation, why the straight next step to renew batteries of customers was a must) ...
So, did or do I believe it?
No! from the beginning I was sure there are other facts to motivate or even to force Apple to this step.
The Qualcomm court case was not in a focused view at that time. At that time we just heard about the 2 LTE Chips built in the iPhone 7(+) and that the Qualcomm chip got a break not to compete the Intel chip. Right?

When you watch this Cook interview you realize his nervous, vivid gestures and quick jumps here and there aimed to distract attention and to focus the clear view away from the real topic(s). Simple tactics. To reveal that it needs no conspiracy ;)
 
Apple almost didn't replace my wife's battery because it was showing 83% capacity. They would only replace it if it was lower than 80%. This is an iPhone 6S+.

I pushed for the replacement and they did it. Wife comes back telling me that her phone now sits at 75% after her work when before it would be at 20% and discharge when plugged into the charger. She says the phone feels like brand new in terms of speed.

I was also surprised that a 3 year old phone still had 83% capacity but was experiencing life of something with probably less than 50% capacity.
In terms of battery health, it was at below 50% essentially (given that the batteries are basically rated to perform to acceptable levels when they are between 100% and 80%).
 
"We did it because we thought it was the right thing to do for our customers," said Cook at the time. "I don't know what effect it will have for our investors. It was not in our thought process of deciding to do what we've done."

"Nothing to be stirred by: we'll fix that soon by releasing upgrades every 6 months so you'll be forced to buy our new iToy anyway like a good little boy/girl or introduce some "unexpected behaviors" like some "unknown" error that can be healed only by upgrading to a newer iOS version [barely compatible with half of your iDevices]. We're quick learners".
 
People finally had another solution to their SLOW iPhones. Replace the battery!! Before, the only known solution was to upgrade to a new phone. Rotten Apple. Tim's a worm.
 
You mean worn out batteries.

I discovered a good deal of the batteries coming in for replacement with performance management applied were still above the 80%+ FCC threshold that Apple uses to determine whether a battery was worn out or not. Around 82-83%, however some were higher than that. Around 88% was the highest I saw.

Cycle counts were in the several hundred, around 300-500 was common, but not unexpected for a phone battery and still below Apple's threshold for a consumed battery.

I don't have much confidence in these batteries. They're nowhere near the worst, but certainly not the best. Spec wise they're adequate when new, but don't have much room for variances in those specs, such as when the battery wears in (but before it's considered worn out).
 
People finally had another solution to their SLOW iPhones. Replace the battery!! Before, the only known solution was to upgrade to a new phone. Rotten Apple. Tim's a worm.
In the alternative, what was the solution to a phone that would randomly shut off?
 
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