Roger Fingas
Looking to equal or beat Apple in the aftermath of its iPhone battery apology, iFixit has dropped the price of its do-it-yourself battery swap kits to $29 or less. More significantly this includes kits for the iPhone 4S, 5, 5s, and 5c, which are excluded from Apple's discounted battery replacements.
Each iFixit kit includes a battery with a one-year warranty, and all the necessary tools, such as a driver, steel bits, and tweezers. Prices range from $29 for the iPhone 7/7 Plus down to $16.99 for the iPhone 4S.
On Thursday, Apple issued an apology for its recently-revealed practice of throttling older iPhones with degraded batteries. From January hrough Dec. 2018 the company is dropping the price of out-of-warranty battery replacements from $79 to $29, but only for people with an iPhone 6 or later.
It's also planning an iOS update for early 2018, which should let people check whether the state of their battery is triggering low performance.
Apple is facing 15 lawsuits in the U.S. and abroad over its throttling practices, as well as a government probe in South Korea. A common claim in the lawsuits is that whether or not it was intentional on Apple's part, the slowdowns prompted people to buy newer iPhones.
The most serious legal case is being pursued in France, where planned obsolescence is not just unpopular but illegal. In theory some Apple executives could serve prison time, though penalty options also include fines.
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60 Comments
Apple should really make $29 the permanent price for replacing the batteries.
Had Apple designed the iPhone with a battery compartment where owners could swap batteries without special tools this could have been avoided. Of course, then millions would get off of the 2 year upgrade cycle. Finally, what about iPod Touch & iPads?
I concur with MustSeeUHDTV. The designs we all loved came at that one very annoying aspect...no DIY battery maintenance. The sad fact is now it has bitten Apple in the butt, and they have to do something to make the lifetime of their products survive post-warranty (AppleCare+ 2 year) periods. Or, for some countries even longer. Slowing down the device (and therefore the performance...noticeably or not to the consumer) so the battery is pampered has ignited in their face. Consumers (with troves of lawyers) jumped all over this within hours of Apple's announcement last week. Those lawsuits will continue building. This will put AntennaGate to shame in magnitude.
Why would I order a kit for $29 from iFixit (and then do the work myself and risk damaging my device) when I can have an Apple authorized technician do the repair for me for the same price?