Notes: UK AppleCare margin increases, do-it-yourself parts, more

UK AppleCare margin increases

In an effort to promote sales of AppleCare protection plans in the United Kingdom, Apple Computer this week informed its channel partners that it has increased profit margins on sales of the service.

Effective as of mid-September, the company said it has raised the Apple list price to dealer cost discount from 20% to 25%. The price reduction will be met by contractual price protection for dealers with existing stock of AppleCare plans.

In an e-mail to UK resellers, Apple said, "We expect to see an immediate increase in AppleCare Connect Rates as you will now find selling this range of products even more compelling!"

Do-it-yourself repairs and Parts

Hinting that it may place additional stock in the ability to produce Macs that are easily serviced by the user, Apple has renamed its Customer Installable Parts (CIP) program to the "Do-It-Yourself" process.

"The Do-It-Yourself (DIY) parts process is the new way of referring to Apple's process for providing customer-installable service parts to customers," the company told resellers in the US, Canada and Europe.

Shortly after introducing its iMac G5 last month, Apple quietly announced that that computer was the first Mac to be near fully user-serviceable. The company said the iMac G5 was designed to make it easy for users to install replacement parts if they need to. A list of parts that can be install by the user includes: the LCD display, power supply, optical drive, hard drive, memory, AirPort Extreme card, modem card, logic-board, G5 processor and fans.

Apple backlogged on laptop repairs

Due to a temporary supply issue, Apple this week said that it is experiencing a backlog of laptop repairs at its AppleCare repair depot which will last approximately two months.

In an e-mail to authorized service providers, the company requested that providers with on-site technicians perform repairs in-house rather than shipping the computers to Apple.

The recent backlog is rumored to have stemmed from a stockpile of PowerBooks and iBooks that are eligible for out-of-warrenty repairs under the company's 15-inch PowerBook G4 Display Repair Extension and Expanded iBook Logic Board Repair Extension programs.