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iFixit: Apple 'Locking' iPhone Batteries to Discourage Third-Party Replacements [Updated]
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I have a feeling Apple will make a slight change here.
New OEM batteries will have a blank serial number. When you boot your iPhone it checks the battery for a serial number. If it’s blank it writes the iPhone serial number to the battery (a one-time write/burn) and displays a message like:
“Your iPhone has detected a new battery was installed and has successfully paired it to your iPhone.”
If there’s already a serial number in the battery your iPhone knows it’s a used battery from another device and will display a message like:
“This iPhone has a used battery that was removed from another iPhone. Health monitoring is disabled.”
If your iPhone can’t communicate with the battery (a generic battery missing the micro controller) then it will display a message like:
“This iPhone has had its battery replaced with a non-OEM battery. Health monitoring is not possible.”
I have a feeling that nothing like that will happen at all. Where does this idea that Apple is doing this to protect people in the secondary market come from? There is no evidence to support that theory at all. It is invented by fanboys as a way to justify Apple's actions, which clearly have an anti-competitive motive.
And Apple has fancy terms for daily store staff meetings as well: upload (staff member send feedback to Apple store manager team) and download (Apple tells store staff what “is supposed to” happen today and what can do to provide better service). I think, at this point, I can comfortably say Apple is a great marketing company and will continue to be so, but nothing much else.
Apple's main business is selling hardware and services, so it would be in apples best interest to make it so you can only buy battery replacement from apple. You can't trust apple when they say it is for safety reasons. There is a conflict of interest.
You’ve absolutely no idea what you’re talking about, and Apple love you for it.
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MacBook Air and Pro batteries that have had swollen cell issues don’t show “Service battery” in battery health, nor do iPhones where the screen has popped out of the chassis due to the battery. Battery health only looks at the charge/design capacity and the cycle count. I have yet to see a swollen battery show itself as needing serviced in 15 years of servicing Apple products in Apple stores and independent repair centres.
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And if Apple screws it up, what happens? You get a new phone, so why does the competence level of the genius even matter here? You're completely insulated from risk.
But if you screw it up, you get screwed. And if the guy making $9/hr at the mall kiosk who would rather be anywhere else screws it up, you're just as screwed.
China. Battery itself doesn’t cost much. Most of cost for battery replace is labor and profit.
Take a look of this video. This guy is pure awesome
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Another excellent reason to not buy from Apple. My 7 is my last. Next one will be Samsung, Pixel or something else.
No more computers from Apple either.
No more computers from Apple either.
Seriously, how many people have gone to a kiosk to have someone replace the battery in an iPhone?
This probably would be of interest to those who can open their own phones and replace their own batteries.
This probably would be of interest to those who can open their own phones and replace their own batteries.
Sure lets go along with the car analogy, at present there is no third-party offering for an electronic vehicle replacement. Considering electronic vehicles have a battery replacement warranty for 8 years and most initial or early adopters leased those vehicles with a traditional lease term of 5 years, there is no way of knowing if those who did finance have required the battery to be replaced. Considering I have read the fine print on some electric vehicles where it states that after the warranty period usually 8 years, if the battery has no manufacturers defect and the owner who financed the vehicles does not want to trade the vehicle in can purchase a genuine battery from the manufacturer directly who can either have it installed by any dealership or opt to do it themselves. As the vehicle is over the 8 year warranty period purchasing a replacement battery and doing the install yourself would not void any warranty. The new replacement battery does carry the usually manufacturer warranty.
The present problem is that to replace a battery on previous generation electric vehicles were a PITA, it has gotten better as Tesla has the slide-in, slide-out battery option, I believe on the Model S 2017 and onward models. This was to address recharge and extend mileage options.
By contrast an iPhone after 2-3 years will require the battery to be replaced and very few if any would still be using an iPhone 8 years later with the original battery.
Manufacturers provide a warranty of 8 years on electric vehicles, while Apple only provides a 1 year warranty, with the exception of certain EU countries or if Apple gets sued and goes into damage control.
Do Electric car manufacturers offer genuine replacement car batteries after the 8 year warranty period is up, yes. Does Tesla, I am not sure maybe they do maybe they don't. I would find it hard to believe that after the warranty period they do not. Are there third-party manufacturers that offer a battery system to replace what electric car manufacturers offer, I don't believe so. The reason being is that it is still a relatively new market with low sales volume and most manufacturers offer a 8 year warranty on those batteries. Unless this becomes a lucrative third party market all depends on when electric vehicles outnumber ICE vehicles and those vehicles are past the 8 year warranty period.
In contrast smartphones have been sold for over a decade, there are many users with many generations still in use plus iPhones usually last for more than 3 years which has a lucrative resale market, however the biggest concern is battery life, as the warranty period is only a year and that is the component that deteriotates the fastest.
If Apple or other smartphone companies offered a 2-3 year standard warranty sans Apple Care where people have to pay extra things maybe comparable to electric vehicle battery warranty options. Apple and other smartphone manufacturers know that the battery is the first component to be replaced with regular usage and this is the reason why there is no financial incentive to improve its life past a certain recharge cycles, as it means they can sell you on additional warranty products, after the year if out of warranty they can charge you more or get you to upgrade to a new device.
It is all financial driven. Imagine purchasing a Tesla with a 1 year warranty on all components and the battery and spending that kind of money with the option to buy an additional warranty for 7 years for a total of 8. Would you purchase that vehicle? All warranties are built into the initial price of a product this is standard practise. This is what Apple does too, however by designing the battery to last only a year for warranty purposes they can charge you more as previously mentioned. One would not accept this type of practise from an electric car manufacturer.
Plus Apple does not sell components to customers directly, why is that. When batteries were not built into the device the user had the option to purchase more batteries and swap them, there was no concern of an Authorized Repair Shop. This problem is created by Apple to be self-serving. There was a period in Apple's history where this occurred in the 90's where Apple Computers did not use industrial standard components, that did not serve it well, it seems Apple is up to and reverting to its old methods.
Like you there were people who supported Apple and they poor decisions, who gladly paid a premium for the same if not worse performance at a higher cost. These same people convenience themselves and tried to insult others that they did not know any better, however Apple had to change to adopt industrial standards and those same people had to eat their own words, some still believed that Apple was making a big mistake. Without adopting industrial standards Apple would not be here today. However that mindset seems to have resurfaced which is rather concerning.
If Apple wants to argue better design with built-in batteries, that is fine however offer users the option to purchase genuine parts to conduct their own repairs. If Apple is concerned about the standard 1 year warranty, they can always provide the consumer the option to purchase the item after the warranty period has ended or void the warranty if the repair goes south. Most manufacturers know that the chance of any device to have a manufacturers defect in a year or less is remote to none, the problems start after that warranty period is up. I am sure if problems surfaced after 2 years we would see standard 2 year warranties.
If Apple offered genuine components for sale to all customers at a reasonable and competitive price the third-party market would cease to be lucrative. If I can purchase an Apple battery for $30 and have it work well with my iPhone versus spending $20 on a third-party option that may cause problems, I will go with the $30 option. However what the battery replacement program has made transparent is that Apple overcharges an absurd amount for the battery and repair.
Rather than question third-party providers, one must ask why is Apple charging so much within their own warranty program, even with the "discount" Apple was not taking a loss on the hardware or repair, it was taking a cut on the gluttonous profit margin. You maybe okay giving your hard-earned income to a wealthy corporation for a repair, however the existence of many third-party repair outfits says the majority prefer to spend their hard-earned income on other things. If throwing away your income is of no concern to you, I have a 360 degree ocean view property on an iceberg for sale.
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I wonder what other software tricks Apple is using, i.e. reporting a faster degraded battery when it actuality it is not. Would be an interesting test for iFixIt or anyone else with the right equipment.
I bring this up as I have a 2014 MBP retina that I use everyday and recharge everyday and the battery health is at 85%, it is almost bordering to be replaced when it hits the 80-85% mark. If we consider recharge cycles, the size of the battery, etc an iPhone should really start to show signs to be replaced after 4-5 years. I am genuinely curious to see the results.
I believe that's the point. Apple doesn't want you to resell. They want you to recycle and buy a new one $$$$.
Several senior members in the Apple CEO team should have enough courage to suggest Tim Cook to allow coconut battery develop their own app with similar capability on Mac.
I know this ain’t gonna happen.
Yeah, “just tell patients they are all ok after leaving surgical room”.They make this safer by hiding health information....
Imagine if real doctors did that
I know this is not comparable but yeah. I have crazy mind.
Yes, you've hit this one squarely on the head.
Their own batteries clearly have a chip which allows them to send data to the OS which third party batteries don't.
Everything else reported follows logically so it isn't a lock of any kind in fact.
There is an underground passage on my way to work and some guy has a phone repair shop there. You would be surprised how many iPhones I see him repair. I don't know if he is good or not, but you can imagine if he uses low quality parts what can happen and people will blame Apple if battery explodes not him.
If you pay a bit closer attention, you will notice iFixit swaps a battery from one iPhone to another iPhone, and the message still pops up. Unless that battery is swapped before and is a 3rd party battery, Apple is clearly planning to further narrow what third party repairer can do.
I hope so, cause their move can also be interpreted other way.
Given how most iPhone (for now) is produced in China, it is not that difficult for them to somehow source necessary brand new chips to build brand new battery with all parts from Apple and claim “Apple battery”, and third party repairers ordering them from China would not be able to truly validate whether those batteries are from Apple or not.
And yes, at this point, Apple is not locking anything. But what Apple is doing here shows a sign that Apple is considering doing something a bit more to lockdown third party battery, a bit like previous “disabled Touch ID” thing. I believe people here pointing middle finger at Apple argues that.
Also, iFixit swaps battery from one iPhone to another iPhone, and message still shows up.
The durability of iphone batteries has dropped dramatically since the 6s. Only the iPhone X seems to have a well designed battery capable of undergoing many charge cycles before they degrade.
The battery in my 3 month old XS is complete rubbish quality. Lost 3% capcity in less than 40 cycles.
Apple is constantly finding ways to milk their fan base.
Its about time we Apple Fanboys show this company that we've had enough of their extortion for making record profits and NOT UPGRADE ANY OF OUR DEVICES THIS YEAR.
That or Apple reduce the price of batteries to $29 as per the replacement policy in 2018 on most models
F%}^^%^^*k Apple
The battery in my 3 month old XS is complete rubbish quality. Lost 3% capcity in less than 40 cycles.
Apple is constantly finding ways to milk their fan base.
Its about time we Apple Fanboys show this company that we've had enough of their extortion for making record profits and NOT UPGRADE ANY OF OUR DEVICES THIS YEAR.
That or Apple reduce the price of batteries to $29 as per the replacement policy in 2018 on most models
F%}^^%^^*k Apple
Expecting general public to coordinate and take one collective action is, at best, a daydream.
I'm not sure what your point in all this is.
- Apple should offer a longer warranty? Sure, maybe, but Apple isn't by far the only one to only offer a one-year warranty for electronic products. Things like digital cameras or Bluetooth headphones also often only come with a one-year or sometimes two-year warranty. And almost no warranty covers consumables like batteries (batteries in electric cars are an exception because (a) they represent such a big chunk of the price of the car and (b) it is a relatively new technology where people don't have any experience how long it might last). And if anything, a shorter warranty means that if installing a third-party battery breaks the warranty that isn't really of any concern since the warranty is already over anyway.
- Cars (even pre-electric) have a longer warranty than phones (but even that often was only three years until newer entrants used a longer warranty as a marketing tool and to reassure buyers that their investment wouldn't loose value too fast) but then they also last longer than phones. Unless there is a major accident, almost all cars are still in use after 10 years and many make it to the 15 or 20 year mark. Phones will be lucky to make to half of that. And iPhones certainly get longer OS support than Android phones.
- And Apple is intentionally not using batteries with a larger cycle count? Well, I don't know of anybody else that is. So this is either an industry-wide conspiracy or maybe those batteries don't exist, at least not with similar performance characteristics (energy per mass/volume, charging speed). And I still remember Apple announcing something like 5+ years ago that they've 'developed' better batteries with a much larger cycle count (1000 vs 300, I think).
- Apple charges insane prices for battery exchanges to drive people to get a new phone? To some degree that is true but even after that special battery exchange program ended, Apple's prices have stayed lower ($69 for any 'X' phones, $49 for 6, 7, 8 phones). Compare that to the price of a new iPhone and you get a ratio of between 5 and 11% depending on model. Sure, that might nudge some into buying a new iPhone but I hardly call a 5 to 11% ratio exorbitant (RAM and SSD prices would qualify more easily).
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Exactly! Could not have stated it any better! Thank you
Aren’t we already accelerating our way towards that future already? I mean, soon we will rent grocery and water, even our lives.