Repair-flation? Apple Continues Cost Increases of Battery Replacements - Week in Repair
Apple is jacking up the cost of battery replacements. NBC calls right to repair a hot consumer trend in 2023. And: catch us at CES Worst in Show this Friday!
Apple hikes battery replacements, up to $90 for newer phones
The Verge reports that Apple will increase the price of new battery installations for iPhones, iPads, and Macs on March 1st.
For iPhones, it’s simple — Apple’s site says “the out-of-warranty battery service fee will be increased by $20 for all iPhone models prior to iPhone 14.”
For phones with a home button, that means the price will be going from $49 to $69, and for Face ID phones that means it’ll be going from $69 to $89.
Those prices, by the way, were put in place in 2019, after Apple ran a year-long promotion where you could get a new battery for $29, to make up for its battery throttling controversy.
This isn’t an insignificant cost. In 2021, 68% of U.S. families said they couldn’t afford an unexpected $400 expense. More recently, a survey of around 5,000 Americans found that half did not have even $500 in emergency savings. With prices on the rise and household budgets squeezed, people with less disposable income feel the bite of expensive repair the most.
The mask drops on Apple’s anti-repair strategy
The sudden price increase also illuminates the company’s larger strategy around repair, which is to nominally support Apple customers’ right to repair, but make it both costly and difficult for them to do so. By using software locks and other strategies to make it difficult or impossible for third party repair providers to service Apple devices, and then restricting or charging a premium for the “authorized” parts and service it offers, Apple is able to both choke out competition and make it far more likely that Apple device owners will upgrade rather than repair their equipment.
The company uses a number of strategies to achieve this goal. Aside from charging a premium for replacement parts and service, Apple limits the availability of repair information, serializes parts (such as “home buttons”) so that they are “paired” with specific devices and can’t readily be swapped between devices and implements software features that complicate replacements and degrade a device’s performance when “unauthorized” parts are used.
Genius (Bar) move: make repair hard…and expensive
Apple has worked to polish their image with a self-repair program and has received some positive press (thought not without critique) for marginal pro-repair design adjustments. However, when prices rise in market (like smart phones) that lacks meaningful competition (Apple controls 56% of the U.S. smart phone market, and Apple and Samsung together control more than 85% of the U.S. market), more people will turn to repair out of necessity.
Which is why complicating repair is a genius (bar) move: there is much more money to be made by incentivizing customers to replace their phone or buy into Apple’s AppleCare warranty program than to facilitate inexpensive owner- or independent repair. (No surprise: Apple said the price increases for replacement batteries do not apply to devices with AppleCare+ coverage).
These tactics are business as usual, and a rational choice for a thriving tech monopoly. There’s lots of financial up side in making independent repair more difficult through business practices and killing off pro-repair legislation through lobbying. Double digit percentage increases in the prices of battery replacements are just the latest chapter in that saga.
CES Worst In Show: Join Us This Friday
The annual orgy of electronic stuff is happening this week: the Consumer Electronics Show or CES. While the mainstream media is going gaga over 1 million inch flat screen TVs, Fight to Repair Editor (and SecuRepairs founder) Paul Roberts will take the (virtual) stage to talk about the worst of the show - the insecure, unrepairable, environmentally damaging stuff foisted on an unsuspecting public.
Check out the Livestream at 9:30 am PT Friday, January 6, 2023!
Other News
NBC calls right to repair: a hot consumer trend in 2023: Let it be known - as a Fight to Repair readers, you were into it before it was “cool.” The “it,” of course, is right to repair, which NBC identifies as a hot consumer trend in 2023, along with a rise in the purchase of secondhand goods. “As it stands now, consumers have very few options when it comes to repairing items like smartphones, TVs and other gadgets,” the article notes. “Manufacturers are guilty of using tactics like inaccessible product designs, unavailable replacement parts and non-existant repair information to limit customers’ ability to repair products. But recent pushback against this type of manufacturing has coalesced around the phrase “right to repair.”
Louis Rossmann talks butchered NY bill: A new video from Louis Rossmann unpacks his concerns with the recently passed Digital Fair Repair Act – mainly that manufacturers will now be able to use “safety” as an argument to withold parts from consumers.
Governor Hochul got it wrong on cybersecurity and repair: Louis wasn’t the only one complaining. The group SecuRepairs, which represents IT and cybersecurity professionals who support the right to repair, published a statement calling out New York Governor Hochul for siding with electronics industry lobbyists in demanding the removal of language requiring manufacturers to provide keys needed to release digital locks to carry out repairs. (Note: F2R editor Paul Roberts is the founder of SecuRepairs.org)
Consumerism is making products worse: Vox says our economy’s lurch toward mass-produced (and disposable) goods is only getting faster. Extending into every corner of our production, no industry or market is safe – but repair can help us buck this trend.
Repair can help deal with technician labor shortages: An opinion piece from No-Till Farmer argues not only that R2R will support farmers, but will also help the agricultural industry cope with labor shortages of technicians for tractors and other equipment.
India standardizes charging ports: Reports are surfacing that India could make USB-C ports mandatory for devices starting in 2025. The Bureau of Indian Standards has taken its first steps in beginning this process.
Repairability driven by tighter economy: The Guardian recently highlighted the growing adoption of repair, recyled, and reused materials – likely driven by a tightening economy with increasing prices globally.
R2R movement represents mosaic of activists: New York Magazine weighed in on the Digital Fair Repair Act – highlighting the struggle of the grassroots right to repair movement to make legislative gains in the face of big business.
The antirust Twilight Zone: Cory Doctorow writes on the gaping loopholes in the process from stopping the mergers of corporations, which should be the major backstop against monopolies. With such little oversight on the consolidation of markets, everyday people face the consequences of anti-consumer practices (like anti-repair tactics).
The dominant narrative is that “successful businesses” are more efficient, earning their dominance – but it actually comes from outsized market power and the ability to raise prices.
Tweet of the Week
Video of the Week
The following video shows the ripple effects our consumption and disposal of electronics has in a globalized economy.
Regardless of how you feel about Joe Rogan – his recent guest Siddarth Kara highlights the issues of the “green economy” beautifully. The reality is that an economy powered by current consumption levels but simply moving to battery technology will still fuel human rights abuses globally. That’s why addressing consumption and promoting re-use are so important. (Whether Mr. Rogan agrees or not!)
“There are more than 15,000 human beings crammed into that pit, digging by hand. And if you have sound you hear the mallets, you hear the shouting, you hear the grunts.”
“There’s no clean cobalt, it’s all marketing.”
“There isn’t a single company company on planet earth that makes a device that has a rechargeable battery in it that can reliably and justifiably claim that their cobalt isn’t coming from sources like that”