“There’s a very good business reason as to why Apple priced iPhone battery replacements at $79, and it isn’t profit,” Matthew Humphries writes for PC Magazine. “By making a battery replacement relatively expensive, more existing iPhone owners with failing batteries are likely to decide to upgrade to a newer model instead, which is even more profitable for Apple. However, that situation is expected to change this year.”
“Analysts at Barclays are expecting iPhone sales to drop during 2018 thanks to Apple’s cheap battery replacement program which is already available,” Humphries writes. “The iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, 7, 7 Plus, and iPhone SE all qualify for the $29 battery replacement.”
“Those models currently make up 77 percent of the iPhone market,” Humphries writes, “meaning even a small percentage of owners opting for a new battery instead of a new iPhone will result in a significant fall in iPhone sales.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote yesterday:
If iPhone sales are negatively impacted, you can see why some think that Apple wanted to keep what they were doing a secret. If people knew that a $79 battery replacement would give them an iPhone that performed like it did on day one, a meaningful percentage would take that option versus buying a new iPhone. Now that it’s just $29 this year, that percentage will naturally increase.
Then again, as Hanlon’s razor states: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”
Apple’s made up of people. People are imperfect. We’ll take Apple’s word for it that they “always wanted… customers to be able to use their iPhones as long as possible” and that they “have never — and would never — do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades.”
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An Apple conspiracy theory blooms – January 2, 2018
Apple clarifies policy on $29 battery replacements: All iPhone 6 and later devices are eligible – January 2, 2018
Why Apple’s response to iPhone ‘batterygate’ is brilliant – December 30, 2017
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Rumor: Apple may extend iPhone 6s battery replacement program to iPhone 6 – January 17, 2017
A message from Apple about iPhone and unexpected shutdowns – December 2, 2016
Apple offers free battery replacement for ‘very small number’ of iPhone 6s units with unexpected shutdown issue – November 21, 2016
