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

[Abazigal]

You are trying too hard to defend Apple.

Just being the voice of reason in this maelstrom of hate and chaos.

 

[Kmart9419]

Just being the voice of reason in this maelstrom of hate and chaos.

You are contributing to the chaos. That last reply was quite unreasonable.

 

[Abazigal]

Done arguing with you. You are obviously an Apple defender and their is no point. Apple lied to thier consumer, it's now time they pay a price for that.

I agree a price should be paid.

Where we disagree (rightfully), is just how onerous that price ought to be. And I feel that a number of the penalties being suggested here are simply untenable and unrealistic. At what point does it stop being about justice for the consumer and full out revenge just to assuage your wounded egos?

 

[Mark Booth]

No there won't be - as Apple will give everyone a new battery who wants one as they are for sure still making a profit from them at 29 a pop and will get an even better PR impact - these guys aren't stupid!! I hope the courts realise that this should cost them a big chunk of their 250 billion (or what ever it is) honey pot.

I've bookmarked your message so I can come back to it at the end of January when Apple starts denying battery upgrades to people with iPhone batteries that haven't degraded enough.

Apple currently REFUSES to replace batteries in iPhones that haven't fallen below 80% capacity and Apple is currently selling those battery replacement for $79. Way more profit in $79 vs. $29 and, yet, Apple still tells people to pound sand if their current battery is holding 80% or more of its original capacity.

But you can believe whatever you want to believe.

Mark

 

[Hanson Eigilson]

Well, if I could be scammed and somehow ended up in a better position than before I was scammed, is it really a scam?

Yes it is.

 

[617660]

Just being the voice of reason in this maelstrom of hate and chaos.

You just fail completely. Apple says A, you follow A. If they say B, you will follow B.

"They say jump, you say how high." Yeah...

 

[Mark Booth]

I replaced the battery in my 3+ year-old iPhone 6 back in June. I did it myself using the iFixIt battery kit. Piece of cake. It cost me $35 (delivery price to my home). Here's that battery's status as of yesterday:

A friend of mine has an iPhone 6 that is a little over 2.5 years old. He's never replaced his battery. The is his iPhone 6's battery status:

His iPhone 6's battery has 744 full charge cycles on it yet its capacity is still 86.3% of the original capacity. APPLE WILL NOT REPLACE HIS BATTERY. It's not degraded enough yet.

Mark

 

[doctor-don]

£29 for only 1 year? and then back to £79?

Unless the supply of replacement batteries is like the shortage of Takata airbags. Replace as soon as the lower price goes into effect.
Approximately 34 million vehicles are currently under recall for approximately 46 million defective Takata air bags that can explode when the air bag deploys, causing serious injury or even death. Additional air bags are scheduled to be recalled by December 2019, bringing the total number of affected air bags to around 65-70 million.-NHTSA

 

[sbailey4]

They would not have upgraded if Apple had not throttled their phone. Apples solution is to appease the public, hoping the slew of lawsuits will go away. Apple ripped people off, and made them update phones that didn't need to be.

Let me ask this. Would they have upgraded if their device kept randomly shutting down in the middle of phone calls or sending email or using maps for directions? I suspect anyone who is so bent out of shape because a 2 or 3 yr old phone slowed down a few milliseconds would most certainly upgrade if it kept shutting down completely yes?

 

[617660]

I agree a price should be paid.

Where we disagree (rightfully), is just how onerous that price ought to be. And I feel that a number of the penalties being suggested here are simply untenable and unrealistic. At what point does it stop being about justice for the consumer and full out revenge just to assuage your wounded egos?

Let's see...
in the past few years I've done two upgrades due to slowdown. I spent about $1,600 for these upgrades, so personally I think Apple forced me to spend this much money.

In general, Apple sells about 200M iPhones a year. Let's conservatively estimate 5% of purchases were due to slowdown.

That means 200M *.05 * $750 (average selling price) = $7.5 billions. This is a reasonably conservative estimation.

Voice of reason. As you insisted.

 

[Mark Booth]

READ what Apple wrote! READ IT! I quote:

"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, starting in late January and available worldwide through December 2018."

"Whose battery needs to be replaced"! Not "whoever wants a new battery"! The battery must NEED replacement.

And if your iPhone's battery (regardless of age) hasn't fallen below 80% of its original capacity it does not NEED replacement. That's APPLE'S guideline! Do some research, people!

As I said already, there will be lots of angry people at the end of January.

Mark

 

[sbailey4]

Let's see...
in the past few years I've done two upgrades due to slowdown. I spent about $1,600 for these upgrades, so personally I think Apple forced me to spend this much money.

In general, Apple sells about 200M iPhones a year. Let's conservatively estimate 5% of purchases were due to slowdown.

That means 200M *.05 * $750 (average selling price) = $7.5 billions. This is a reasonably conservative estimation.

Voice of reason. As you insisted.

The "slow down" didn't happen until January 2017 with iOS 10.2.1. Just FYI.

 

[Abazigal]

Let's see...
in the past few years I've done two upgrades due to slowdown. I spent about $1,600 for these upgrades, so personally I think Apple forced me to spend this much money.

In general, Apple sells about 200M iPhones a year. Let's conservatively estimate 5% of purchases were due to slowdown.

That means 200M *.05 * $750 (average selling price) = $7.5 billions. This is a reasonably conservative estimation.

Voice of reason. As you insisted.

And are you saying you have not benefited from the newer features of the phones you upgraded to at all? None?

Not to mention the slowdown only began at the end of last year / start of this year with ios 10.2.1. So any slowdowns you experienced prior to this would not have been because of this issue.

 

[617660]

I replaced the battery in my 3+ year-old iPhone 6 back in June. I did it myself using the iFixIt battery kit. Piece of cake. It cost me $35 (delivery price to my home). Here's that battery's status as of yesterday:

A friend of mine has an iPhone 6 that is a little over 2.5 years old. He's never replaced his battery. The is his iPhone 6's battery status:

His iPhone 6's battery has 744 full charge cycles on it yet its capacity is still 86.3% of the original capacity. APPLE WILL NOT REPLACE HIS BATTERY. It's not degraded enough yet.

Mark

I just found out that the wear level is different depending on the outside temperature. My phone shows more severe wear level when it's cold.

 

[actcyclist]

The people who upgraded their phone now have a better model, with all the benefits of a newer phone. I think it’s hard to say that they got screwed when they now have a newer phone that is not only faster, but also has more features and functionality.

I find it easy to say I was screwed over. I actually liked the old iPhone I had more and would prefer to have kept it except it was slow. I checked out what to do, and there was absolutely no information that told me I could pay a small amount to replace my battery and fix the slowness.

Cost to me as a user, about $AU600 (cost of new iPhone - $ I got from selling old one) vs about $30 that Apple says it would cost if I were the exact same user complaining about the same problem now.

Screwed over royally.

 

[617660]

The "slow down" didn't happen until January 2017 with iOS 10.2.1. Just FYI.

That's according to Apple.

For many of us, it happened since the birth of iPhone.
[doublepost=1514600248][/doublepost]

And are you saying you have not benefited from the newer features of the phones you upgraded to at all? None?

Not to mention the slowdown only began at the end of last year / start of this year with ios 10.2.1. So any slowdowns you experienced prior to this would not have been because of this issue.

Well, Apple controls the hardware and software. If there is an unreasonable slowdown due to whatever reason, I am pointing finger at them.

And no. Knowing my spending habit, I wouldn't have upgraded if I didn't have to.

 

[jav6454]

I wonder how much time we will buy replacing the battery anyways

Still don’t think the battery alone is the root of the problem

If speeding up your phone is a function of battery, which is $30 now... I can see it happening at least 2 battery changes per iPhone.

 

[timborama]

That's Apple problem. If someone shows that they had 6/6s and purchased a new phone, then they should be compensated.

That's according to Apple.

For many of us, it happened since the birth of iPhone.
[doublepost=1514600248][/doublepost]

Well, Apple controls the hardware and software. If there is an unreasonable slowdown due to whatever reason, I am pointing finger at them.

And no. Knowing my spending habit, I wouldn't have upgraded if I didn't have to.

I agree with you. My 6+ started slowing way before 10.2.1. I don't take Apple at its word regarding their throttling start date. I believe the slowdowns have been systematically engineered into updates going on 3-4 years now. I have a comparison video of my 6+ (iOS 8 or 9) struggling to load webpages that my 5 (iOS 7) easily loads in a couple seconds.

I too was coerced into buying a new phone a couple months ago because my ailing 6+ was no longer usable.

 

[jerry333]

The problem is it is not on “old” phones. Old phones are considered how old?

Yeah, this is the issue. I had an original iPhone which lasted until iPhone 4 and the battery was still fine (I could go all day with no problems) but it didn't run the latest Apps well. The iPhone 4 was replaced with an iPhone 6 but still no battery issues--just too slow. I had to replace the six because it had to be plugged in almost all the time if used and twice a day if not. I knew it was the battery, but three years is really too short a battery life for a device priced like an iPhone.

Now i think the X I have is a great phone, but I wouldn't have upgraded till next year if the run time hadn't been so poor. The 6 did everything I needed. The run time started going down around iOS 10. I never noticed any particular slowdown or change with iOS 11, run time just continued to degrade. My wife's 6+ is still fine.

And yes, I'm unhappy with the way Tim Cook is steering Apple. He's totally forgotten that technology flows down hill, so what professionals do today, consumers will do tomorrow, but that's another rant.

 

[loby]

agreed.....I also suspect this sane thing is happening with the iPads as well.

I have an iPad Air that was almost unusable on IOS 11....but rolled it back to 10.33 and it is now back to normal.
I suspect....after hearing all of this about the iPhone if Apple isn't doing the same thing to iPads.

Hopefully they will make it an option in future version releases instead of mandatory as the class action lawsuits might decide...

 

[AgentAnonymous]

Amazing news and uncalled for. I imagine all the trolls will have to find something else to whine about. Apple has stepped up and addressed something that was not a big deal.
[doublepost=1514498245][/doublepost]

Android "Oh crap. Hope they don't find out how we make incompatible OS, Apps and everything else crappy"

What does Android (and everything you said about Android is false) have to do with Apple's dishonesty and failure? Nice deflection!

 

[MrGuder]

I just checked my battery using Coconut Battery
6s, Manufac 8-17-15, 415 Cycle Counts
It shows 74.5% Design Capacity, will Apple change my battery?

 

[linkboy]

I just checked my battery using Coconut Battery
6s, Manufac 8-17-15, 415 Cycle Counts
It shows 74.5% Design Capacity, will Apple change my battery?

If it shows up under 80% on their diagnostic software (which is the only test that matters), they should.

 

[GuruZac]

The problem is it is not on “old” phones. Old phones are considered how old? This is happening on a phone that is less than one year to a year. After one year it is considered “old” after paying $800+ ? So you pay $800+ each year if you upgrade every year for the new one. If on contract the phone is expected to last for at least two to three years as you pay for it...? It is about choice, but if they intentionally slow it down, then it tricks people to upgrade and that is the question that is in the class action suit.

If the battery just died, then people would replace it. It would show Apple uses cheaper batteries and would not be good for image. After a year, it should not just die for the prices that people are paying. Apple is using cheaper batteries that degrade quickly and wrote code to compensate for it. Ok, if this is a cheap product, but this is considered a premium product. Replacing the battery is cheaper than buying a new phone.

They are getting hit with trying to save manufacturing costs on cheaper batteries to maximize profits and got caught. Or...in the worst case planned obsolescence which they have been accused of for some time.

This could end up being the straw that broke the camel’s back. Apple’s quick response (not normal) is also something that brings question because they understand this could get out-of-hand due to courts looking to bring down the strong man mentality. This could grow to be a major problem for Apple....

I absolutely hope this brings Apple back down to reality. They’re out of control and out of touch.

 

[Abazigal]

I absolutely hope this brings Apple back down to reality. They’re out of control and out of touch.

Yeah, because tons of people continue to support and buy products from a completely out-of-touch company out of charity, right? Rather than because they are genuinely making products which appeal to, and which resonates with their users?