Apple to Offer $29 iPhone Battery Replacements, More Battery Health Info in iOS

[WhiteSoxMan]

So I just got a new battery a month ago, are they issuing refunds like they do other programs???

 

[albebaubles]

Uhhh. German cars are all limited to 155mph. And you have to PAY them to increase your car’s top speed.

Let me know how THAT works out.

known up front though, right?

 

[kstotlani]

Huh? There are tons of places that will change your iPhone battery for you. You can even DIY if you're fairly handy - the kits online contain all you need and directions. Did on my wife's last 2 iPhones.

I don’t change batteries at non Authorized stores now. Destroyed my 3GS because of it. I don’t understand your comment - I should risk my phone because a company cannot stand behind its products? You just took part of my comment which makes it out of context.

 

[albebaubles]

I'm so tired of these type of responses. The software was preventing the devices from crashing. How is that being "held hostage"? With so many cellular plans now, people can upgrade to new phones without having to shell out a ton of cash. I don't understand the manufactured outrage over this. Is Apple now supposed to keep the original iPhone running like a brand new model? Should iOS never progress so that old iPhones will always function? Lithium-ion batteries have a fairly limited useful life. Most of us have known that from the start. But it's currently the best technology for mobile devices. Having Apple offer a solution to extend the battery's life a bit more isn't an act for which they should be punished.

Have you rerad the full thread? Denying battery replacements on phones that are throttled because of battery health. How hard is this to understand?

 

[itguy06]

If a consumer gets a service battery warning and no CPU slowdown they will be more likely to replace the battery than upgrade to a new iOS device.

If a consumers device is throttled and running slower on a new version of iOS they will be more likely to consider upgrading to the new faster "best iOS device yet".

$79 dollars vs $500+ dollars

Is it really a shock that this "feature" was unannounced?

This.

I had a random shutting down iPhone 6+ last fall and winter. Then it stopped but I noticed that performance sucked. Not sure what to do, I was a little miffed that my phone didn't make it to 2 years. Never thought about the battery as the cause of the slowdown. So I went out and bought a cheap Android. It's exceeded my expectations.

I'd rather the phone continued to shutdown - I'd have replaced the battery and probably still be an iPhone user.

A Phone that randomly shuts off makes you think there is something wrong and needs to be fixed. A phone that gets slow makes you think it's time to upgrade.....

Apple still has not explained why throttling existed on power when the phone gets the power from the wall and battery.

 

[alphaod]

People made this a bigger issue than it was.

 

[cmaier]

with your what, one phone? As someone who manages hundreds of iOS devices I call safvely say you are uninformed.

You have no idea what that guy’s phone is like. I also love how “IT guys” think they know something about technology. Get a Ph.D in science or engineering, design a few CPUs and write an operating system or two and then your opinion will be illuminating.

 

[albebaubles]

You really don’t have much of a clue what the issue is do you? I guess it is good that they limit old phone performance if the battery can’t. Keep up anymore. Problem is the customer had no idea what was going on with the sluggish performance of their phone, and thought that they had to upgrade their phone when they a battery replacement would have done just far......It is beyond me how can some people defend Apple for doing this.

I agree completely. $100 batttery replacement vice $700+ for a new phone with new feautres 90% of us care nothing about. GREED.
[doublepost=1514525520][/doublepost]

People made this a bigger issue than it was.

Which people? The ones who dont like being lied to?

 

[firewood]

known up front though, right?

Only to customers who read the specs. Just like the iOS customers who read the T&Cs and update change notes.

 

[itguy06]

I don’t change batteries at non Authorized stores now. Destroyed my 3GS because of it. I don’t understand your comment - I should risk my phone because a company cannot stand behind its products? You just took part of my comment which makes it out of context.

If the phone was damaged by the vendor they should pay for repairs and or replacement. If not, lawsuit time (and I'm not the litigious type). That being said the process on the iPhone 4 and up is quite simple. I've done 2 of them for the wife and the kits she got (top rated) had all the tools and instructions.

 

[PeaceMonger]

So can you confirm that you are long on AAPL?

Ad Hominem attacks ?

Attacking me is not discussing my ideas, pro or con. What do you think about the idea that the people doing this should be held personally accountable?

Apologists for terrible behavior are worse than the offender. They have allegiance to the corruption despite the fact they are a victim and do not profit. You should carefully consider the nature of the executives you defend.

Are you like them? Would you do that to us? To yourself?

Think.

 

[organic bond]

Apple screws its customers.
Customers react with class actions.
Lawyers tell Apple to make this move to avoid further damage.
Apple fanboys say Apple is great.

Wrong, Apple is God. Never makes mistakes. Don't even dare to think Apple makes mistakes. It's forbidden!!!

 

[albebaubles]

You have no idea what that guy’s phone is like. I also love how “IT guys” think they know something about technology. Get a Ph.D in science or engineering, design a few CPUs and write an operating system or two and then your opinion will be illuminating.

Wow, really? I'll put my 35 years of computer science experience uyp against you burger flipping experience any day. you thinking one phone is indicative of an entire product model version...reeks of insolence.
[doublepost=1514525802][/doublepost]

Only to customers who read the specs. Just like the iOS customers who read the T&Cs and update change notes.

ok, ill give you that -- its crappy, but youre right. I dont reads them - ever - and I run IT for a multinational firm .

 

[twistedpixel8]

Apple's current policy is that a battery needs to be below 80% usable capacity for it to be replaced under AppleCare and I believe they won't do a paid replacement until the battery is below that, as well. The throttling mode also does not engage until the battery capacity is below 80%.

That is simply not true. My battery’s potential capacity is at 80% exactly and the phone has been exhibiting the throttling behavior for at least 6 months, meaning it was doing it well before 80%.

 

[oldmacs]

Wrong comparison. The equivalent analogy would be the car shop capping your car speed because it could suddenly stop when you’re driving, which I’m sure you’d be okay with that.

I woukdn't be ok with them doing that without telling me and thus buying a new car because the old one got frustrating.

 

[albebaubles]

I’ve met countless people who see degraded battery life as a reason to upgrade their phone. And today’s argument is that the phone starts throttling when the battery starts degrading to a point where consumers are likely to realise that their batteries aren’t as lasting as day one.

Assuming Apple didn’t throttle, and the phone didn’t shut down unexpectedly, these people would still have upgraded their phone sooner or later anyway.

Then there’s another group that simply don’t care and keep on using. Even when their phone only holds half a day of charge. These people probably don’t even notice the throttling, but yet it’s helping them out by preventing their phones from shutting down unexpectedly and at the wrong moments.

It's important to note many many people (probably not us on MacRumors) cannot afford to buy a $1k phone every freaking year.

 

[firewood]

You could absolutely put in a higher capacity battery that would be able to produce higher currents over the duration of its lifetime, and it can be designed in tandem with the CPU so that it doesn't starve it out so that Apple throttles it back.

They do. It’s called an iPad Pro. Because that’s the power level (and battery size) that Apple’s newest arm64 processor cores are designed up to. Probably even higher than that (laptop battery for an ARM MacBook???). Everything else smaller requires significant downclocking and/or power management.

And those higher capacity batteries degrade just like the thinner ones, so no gain there.

 

[eyeseeyou]

“iPhone users have long complained their devices seem to slow down when new models are released. Some have said they believe it to be a purposeful effort by Apple (and other tech companies) to hamper the performance in order to get users to buy new models. Apple has long denied this assertion.“—CNET

Based on this article Apple denied purposely slowing down iPhones to encourage customers to buy the new iPhone. They didn’t actually deny purposely slowing down iPhones...based on the content of that article.

And even then they don’t set a timer or hit some magical slowdown switch whenever a new iPhone comes out lol.

 

[albebaubles]

I’m surrounded by people who are still using 6 and 6s with various levels of degraded battery and throttling. None of them noticed it. Why? Because their usage isn’t performance intensive. My dad is one of them. He wouldn’t have known his phone was being throttled if he didn’t see all these articles.

I’m not condoning Apple for being dishonest and not disclosing these informations. But I’m saying the general public who are less tech savvy simply didn’t know and couldn’t give a flying f

But....this is immaterial. It's ok to screw people as long as they do not realize it?

 

[B4U]

That totally explained why my launch day 6s battery issue where the phone shut down when having more than 30% battery left and under no load.
AND claiming that getting iOS 10 would fix the problem. Very very shady...

 

[PeaceMonger]

Needles to say my iPhone 6s+ performance after the battery replacement was back to normal. I WILL NEVER UPGRADE TO ANY FUTURE iOS RELEASES IN THE FUTURE!

It won't help you. The code to slow the phone will already be there when you buy it. They have clearly said they intend to continue doing this.

 

[1rottenapple]

Sounds like a great response to the situation

Ya for one year only. Lame.

 

[rootee]

Part of the Apple response reads:

“Apple is reducing the price of an out-of-warranty iPhone battery replacement by $50 — from $79 to $29 — for anyone with an iPhone 6 or later whose battery needs to be replaced...”

I wonder how they’ll determine the “needs to be replaced” part? I had an Apple store reject my 2-year-old iPhone 6 battery replacement, because it passed their battery diagnostic. I had to complain like heck to a manager at a 2nd store, and tell them over and over that my phone keeps shutting down. Hopefully they will just replace the battery without a test now, for the 6/6s.

 

[Vasilioskn]

The bottom line is if you’re going to pay almost $1000 for a premium phone it should NOT be almost unusable within a year an a half - two years.

 

[MH01]

I’m thinking even if Apple decided to be transparent to it’s customers and informed them about performance throttlling, some customers would still complain. There would still be lawsuits because it’s Apple. Best thing they can do is increase the battery capacity or work on a different battery technology.

There will always be people that complain . Though they did this all wrong and got caught . This PR move proves they are in damage control.