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Apple Offers $29 Battery Replacements in Response to iPhone Slowdown Scandal
Apple posted a response to iPhone battery and performance concerns on Dec. 28. From the "Addressing customer concerns" section:
We've always wanted our customers to be able to use their iPhones as long as possible. We're proud that Apple products are known for their durability, and for holding their value longer than our competitors' devices.
To address our customers' concerns, to recognize their loyalty and to regain the trust of anyone who may have doubted Apple's intentions, we've decided to take the following steps:
- 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. Details will be provided soon on apple.com.
- Early in 2018, we will issue an iOS software update with new features that give users more visibility into the health of their iPhone's battery, so they can see for themselves if its condition is affecting performance.
- As always, our team is working on ways to make the user experience even better, including improving how we manage performance and avoid unexpected shutdowns as batteries age.
At Apple, our customers' trust means everything to us. We will never stop working to earn and maintain it. We are able to do the work we love only because of your faith and support — and we will never forget that or take it for granted.
Some have found the response annoying. Others have praised the "good vibes".
iFixit has in turn cut the price of its own battery replacement kits to $29 or less.
Previously: Eight Lawsuits Filed Against Apple Over iPhone Slowdowns
Apple apologizes for iPhone slowdown drama, offers $29 battery replacements
Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984
Apple just published a letter to customers apologizing for the "misunderstanding" around older iPhones being slowed down.[...] "We know that some of you feel Apple has let you down," says the company. "We apologize."
Source: Apple apologizes for iPhone slowdown drama, will offer $29 battery replacements for a year
(Score: 5, Interesting) by frojack on Friday December 29 2017, @08:58PM (7 children)
This is a software induced slow down.
The batteries are not the main complaint here. People expect reduced run time as phones age.
Further, 29 bucks and 3 weeks without your phone, (to say nothing about all your data and pictures in someone else's hands for that period), is a pretty tough pill to swallow.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by zocalo on Friday December 29 2017, @10:12PM (2 children)
Just another price of having a slightly thinner phone, I guess.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by mhajicek on Friday December 29 2017, @10:50PM (1 child)
This comes from having a design mandate that every phone be thinner than the last, to the point where some phones bend and brake if you sit down with them in your pants pocket. I'm happy with my CAT S60 which I could throw against a brick wall with only cosmetic damage. The built in infra red is nice too.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by Wootery on Saturday December 30 2017, @02:05PM
True, but they do that because it's what sells. Customers whine about poor battery life, but when it comes to actually buying a phone, they go with thin-and-sexy over chunky-with-energy-reserves.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Friday December 29 2017, @10:31PM
Of course they aren't backing out on the changes, and proffered a "solution" designed to motivate people to upgrade to the latest phone rather than be out of contact for weeks.
Planned obsolescence is obscene, as far as I'm concerned.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 30 2017, @12:42AM
No, no, it's not software induced.
Small-time internet pundits like you can't possibly hope to understand the elevated deliberations of Apple's rock star designers and genius developers.
The problem is, you're just holding it wrong.
(Score: 2) by Wootery on Saturday December 30 2017, @02:08PM
On top of that, it was already possible to do this unofficially, right?
(Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Saturday December 30 2017, @03:02PM
ironically(?), this is probably what Google *should* have done with their Nexus 6P.
It would reach 50% and then turn off - but it was clear that battery overcommit was the problem .e.g take a picture, shutdown...
Now android has a manual "battery saver mode", which is actually pretty decent. Seems to turn off the GPU and greatly limit background activity.
Thing is, if Google had done what Apple did, maybe there wouldn't be a slew of complains about the LG/Nexus battery?
Just some perspective...
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 29 2017, @09:51PM
So what do we have?
Shiny things that have a good brand, but increasingly shitty aspects. They're supposed to be desirable for the cognoscenti, but Microsoft has the smell of blood in the water, and is making a serious push for creatives - supposedly Apple's key audience.
Even Linux is increasingly viable for video, graphics, music and these days even gaming.
Apple have a record of playing rough in their walled garden, and publically annoying key people (remember the Taylor Swift debacle?) or large crowds of their fans (remember the U2 debacle?) or key elements of their key audience (remember the James Pinkstone debacle?) and now they're capping this bad behaviour by unilaterally deciding what their users want, and what their users desire as a fix.
In the customer service industry, we euphemistically refer to this sort of thing as "negative customer service experience". A more realistic description would be "tone-deaf willful blindness and customer hostile choices".
(Score: 4, Insightful) by looorg on Friday December 29 2017, @10:14PM
So they fuck with the battery and users should pay for the replacement. Isn't there some classaction lawsuit going on?
(Score: 5, Informative) by Gaaark on Friday December 29 2017, @11:44PM
"regain the trust of anyone who may have doubted Apple's intentions"
I don't think anyone doubts their intentions.... their intent was to force you to spend money in upgrading! What else was their intent?
If i used their 'products' and had spent money to upgrade to a new phone, i'd look at this 'price reduction' as a slap in the face.
"Sorry? I already upgraded... can you give me my old phone back with a new battery and patch the software? No???"
slap me!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---