Apple’s $29 Battery Replacement Program Could Diminish iPhone Sales by 16M

Apple program of replacing aging-iPhone batteries at $29 cost instead of its original price ($79) following the uncovering of implementing power management feature that has been affecting the processing speed of degraded old iPhone batteries, this action could drop iPhone sales in 2018, according to Barclays analyst Mark Moskowitz (via CNBC).

iPhone users preferring for a battery replacement instead of upgrading to a new version could be “mild headwind” for iPhone sales, that could decline the number by millions of iPhone purchases through this year, 77 percent of iPhone owners are eligible to change their batteries according to Moskowitz.

In our base case scenario, 10% of those 519M users take the $29 offer, and around 30% of them decide not to buy a new iPhone this year. This means around 16M iPhone sales could be at risk, creating ~4% downside to our current revenue estimate for C2018.

We don't know how the battery replacement program will impact purchases in practice despite analyst predictions if we take other considerations that might push users to upgrade like new features and iPhone appearance.

Reduced-cost battery replacements program following backlash after having been uncovered and Apple admission of reducing older iPhones speed with degraded batteries to prevent them from shutting down unexpectedly.

Missing transparency initially from Apple lead many users to blame it and encourage others to accuse the company of trying to drive them to upgrade, these interpret were denied by Apple, also accompanied with these reduced-cost battery replacements which will continue throughout the year, and other measurements like more visuality about battery health comes in upcoming iOS updates and support pages trying to disclose the issue and its aspects more clearly.

The power management feature impact the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone SE, iPhone 7, and iPhone 7 Plus, it interferes just where iPhone's battery health declined and fails to provide some peak power usage that will lead to immediate shutdown, to avoid this situation and also to prolong iPhone life and its battery. Apple sacrificed the processing speed.

First and foremost, we 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. Our goal has always been to create products that our customers love, and making iPhones last as long as possible is an important part of that.

users who want to avoid power management feature interfering or desiring to restore their iPhones to its original condition reduced-cost battery replacements will be a good opportunity, knowing that a battery has a life-span and losses its capacity during charging cycles.

Apple is currently facing several action lawsuits from customers who claim they upgraded after experiencing slower speed on their older iPhones.


Data source: CNBC via MacRumors