“A Los Angeles-based consumer watchdog group that filed a lawsuit against Apple Inc. in 2006 has called on the company to spell out the iPhone’s battery-replacement policy to prospective buyers,” Gregg Keizer reports for Computerworld in an article headline and subtitled, “Consumer group questions iPhone battery replacement, iPhones must be mailed to Apple for battery swap; all data disappears.”
“In a letter sent Friday (PDF) to Apple CEO Steve Jobs and AT&T Inc. CEO Randall Stephenson, the Foundation for Taxpayers and Consumer Rights (FTCR) asked that iPhone battery issues be disclosed in all advertising, before retail sales close and during activation using iTunes ‘to ensure that no customers are misled concerning the performance and effective cost of the unit.’ The letter also urged Apple to provide replacement batteries free of charge throughout the life of the iPhone.”
“Under the iPhone’s standard one-year warranty, Apple will replace the battery free of charge if it drops below 50% of original capacity. This month, Apple will begin selling an $69 extended warranty that stretches the hardware repair coverage, battery included, for an additional year,” Keizer reports.
“To replace the iPhone battery, owners must pay $85.95, then ship the device to Apple,” Keizer reports. “The normal repair time, Apple said in a brief FAQ on iPhone battery replacement, will be three business days. Users, however, will receive a data-free iPhone in return. ‘The repair process will clear all data from your iPhone,’ Apple’s FAQ stated. ‘It is important to sync your iPhone with iTunes to back up your contacts, photos, e-mail account settings, text messages and more. Apple is not responsible for the loss of information while servicing your iPhone and does not offer any data transfer service.’ The program is similar to the one offered to iPod owners, which charges $65.95 to replace a battery and returns the unit sans music and video about a week after Apple receives the device.”
Full article here.
We’re going to issue a letter (we’ll even post it online in PDF format and send out press releases to places like Computerworld, to make it official) that calls on Apple to provide us with free Macs, iPhones, and whatever else we request for life. Somewhere in it, we’ll pretend we’re technologically-illiterate, too, and make a big stink about “all the data disappearing” and ignoring basic concepts like synced data between devices and lithium-based battery maintenance.
Man, oh, man, we hope it works!
Now, that said, we do hope that Apple works on the turnaround time. Three business days on average is long enough to go without an iPod, but it’s just way too long to be without your phone! Apple needs to figure out a way to do it faster (at all Apple and AT&T stores, on the spot, would be best) or get a loaner into users’ hands while they wait.
More info about Apple iPhone batteries: http://www.apple.com/batteries/iphone.html
I want a free wife for life. And she’s gotta be rich, look like Nicole Kidman and be able to discuss technology, cars, Star Trek and satisfy my every base need.
And she has to be able to paint the house.
***MDN Magic Word*** Free
I think they’re more interested in free publicity than free batteries.
MDN: While you’re at it, please insist that all cell phone makers provide free lifetime battery replacement (all cell phone batteries die eventuall if you keep the phone long enough). In fact, all battery-operated devices should come with free lifetime battery replacement. Actually, the devices themselves should be free.
Fuck free batteries. I want a pony!
You’ve got to admit that it’s pretty ridiculous that the data is formatted. I mean, there’s no way to back up playlists from your iPod in their exact form, so that’s inexcusable.
@Chrissy One
We know from the tear downs that the iPhone battery is right under the back cover. I am quite confident Apple could have made an attractive cover over the battery compartment that could have opened. It would have taken a tiny bit more space but very little. All other phones have replaceable batteries and the batteries don’t fall out all the time. The point isn’t to make it easy to replace the battery when it fails, that’s a rare occurrence, but to make it easy to carry a spare battery so you won’t have a dead phone half way through a long day. An iPhone isn’t like an iPod. It has to work ALL the time.
To Chrissy One
We know from the tear downs that the iPhone battery is right under the back cover. I am quite confident Apple could have made an attractive cover over the battery compartment that could have opened. It would have taken a tiny bit more space but very little. All other phones have replaceable batteries and the batteries don’t fall out all the time. The point isn’t to make it easy to replace the battery when it fails, that’s a rare occurrence, but to make it easy to carry a spare battery so you won’t have a dead phone half way through a long day. An iPhone isn’t like an iPod. It has to work ALL the time.
Re ChrissyOne
We know from the tear downs that the iPhone battery is right under the back cover. I am quite confident Apple could have made an attractive cover over the battery compartment that could have opened. It would have taken a tiny bit more space but very little. All other phones have replaceable batteries and the batteries don’t fall out all the time. The point isn’t to make it easy to replace the battery when it fails, that’s a rare occurrence, but to make it easy to carry a spare battery so you won’t have a dead phone half way through a long day. An iPhone isn’t like an iPod. It has to work ALL the time.
I need free money for life. Mine keeps running out. And after all it’s my money. GWB told me so.
Apple will be offering a Loaner (actually a rental) for $25 at the GB for the 3 day repair time….
Peace
You’re all stupid.
No, not the ones who wrote the article.
You. The ones who wrote about the article. Moronic.
“A cynic would think they didn’t do this in order to extort a bit more money out of their consumers, a year after purchase. Surely not?”
More likely it saves weight and makes the device sleeker compared to one which has an externally accessible battery and SIM slot.
And Apple customers are sheep how don’t mind being unable to pop in a spare charged battery and swap their sim to another phone. They also don’t mind giving Apple $85 and being without their phone 3 days a year plus shipping time.
@ MacDoc
There are a number of external dock-connector batteries alredy on the market for the iPod. Wouldn’t that be just as good a solution? I haven’t used one but I hear they work well. If I made acessories, I’d create a docking battery case that stacked on the back. Think of the hard drives for staking with Mac Minis. I bet LaCie makes one before long.
-c
@Tom
Apple always includes shipping in it’s repair estimate time frame.
That’s not to say that they guarantee that all repairs can be made in that time, but the vast majority are.
“I want a free wife for life. And she’s gotta be rich, look like Nicole Kidman and be able to discuss technology, cars, Star Trek and satisfy my every base need.
And she has to be able to paint the house.”
And come with a Ferrari.
IMHO that request for lifetime batteries is ridiculous. All batteries wear out even the ones in cell phones with a door. I had a Motorola T720 4 years ago had a door I went through the original and an extra capacity battery. My RAZR same deal and every time I dropped it the battery door would pop off. Personally I am glad Apple decided to not only not provide a battery door but to solder the sucker to the main PCB. They obviously learned something from producing 6 generations of Ipods. In the past I’ve always traded in my Ipods before they needed new batteries. So all you cry babies back up your F%^%*ing data so that when you need a new battery you can just send it to Apple to swap it out.
Why is it that these twits never seem to go after other companies that actually create garbage? Why haven’t they filed a class action suit against MS on behalf of every Zune user?
Oh..wait, never mind.
A preemptive strike? That should be illegal!
Never mind….
“Oh for fuck’s sake. Every other mobile phone manufacturer manages to make the battery user-replaceable. You’d think Apple could manage it with their “revolutionary” new device. A cynic would think they didn’t do this in order to extort a bit more money out of their consumers, a year after purchase. Surely not?’
Umm, yeah, instead of hitting them up IMMEDIATELY to buy a second shitty battery – so both of them will crap out in a year- so they can buy two more! You’d rather pay the sixty bucks up front? Cause that’s what most replaceable batteries cost.
Personally, I don’t WANT to carry around a second crappy battery, because the first crappy battery holds such a poor charge… kinda defeats the purpose of the sleek phone. I’d much rather have the well-engineered phone with the well-engineered, long lasting battery.
schmluss
Can they send a letter to Microsoft and Motorola to have them replace my “Q” with one that doesn’t turn off on it’s own, nor stop responding to button presses, and that can hold a charge for more than 3 hours of talk-time?
Makes one wonder. Like the ridiculous drop and smash tests that Apple products are subjected to, there is a class of dimwit that holds Apple not only to higher standards than other competitors, but to standards than no competitor has ever achieved.
And I firmly believe that these invented standards are purely to power FUD campaigns when an Apple product fails to achieve unrealistic expectations even when it has clearly bested all other products on the market.
There are analysts and nobodies who have predicted the death of Apple every year for 25 years. Do they give up after being forever wrong? Apparently not. They just look for new and imaginative ways to criticize everything Apple does.
Are there any other cell phone manufacturers who offer a free new battery if your capacity falls to less than 50% in the first year???
I DON’T THINK SO!!!
You mean there are cellphones that let me change the battery myself?
Lol… chill out, don’t take it all to heart, the next verison will hopefully be better and even let us change the battery ourselves. For now it seems fine to be able to backup the data and go for a few days without a phone… but bummer it won’t back up everything… maybe iTunes will be updated???
Apple’s battery replacement is really expensive and it should be a little more clearly disclosed when you buy the iphone. I don’t see free batteries coming though.
There is another option though, I found a site called ipodjuice.com that offer a longer life iPhone battery and a service to replace it that will cost you less and get your phone back to you faster than Apple.
– Laura