>Apple will not provide user replaceable batteries. It’s probably too expensive and complicated for them to do that and have waterproof devices.
I just want Apple to sell ME the battery. I dont want my battery to by crypto signed to my device.
>They instead offer replacements
Exactly, _replacement_. They wont just sell me a battery. You have to give them serial number, which in most cases means client PI. You also have to send old battery back for ~$40 credit to make the whole thing any financial sense.
>and third-party shops know how to replace batteries too
Apple store replaces battery in 2 hours, third party needs to explain to every single client why he needs to wait couple of days because you cant actually keep a stock of genuine batteries. Apple also wants to have access to third party service center books for 3 (or was that 5) years for "auditing :)))
> Why do people have to come in to the Apple Store to replace their batteries?
You don't. Thousands of people replace their own iPhone batteries every week. Even I've done it, and I'm not especially dexterous.
Just go to Amazon or Google and search for a $20 replacement kit. Or, if you're not a DIY person, where I live there are places on every other streetcorner that will replace your battery for you.
> but this time it's just because they went to a non-Apple store/non-Apple certified store. If the battery is defective, that becomes Apple's problem when it swells, starts smoking, or has 50% capacity within a year.
The user chose to go to a non-Apple certified store. After that, there is no warranty and Apple is no longer responsible.
> Why do people have to come in to the Apple Store to replace their batteries?
That’s how Apple tends to handle almost all warranty issues. Either that or you can mail it in.
iPhones are not exactly designed to be easily opened and messed with by normal people. It’s part of how they get them so thin (insert various other theories that may or may not apply here).
> Thus, Apple acted in good faith to maximize the battery life on these older devices. The reason is technical, so it's hard to communicate this in a way that all consumers can understand. Yes, they failed at this. Look at all the confusion.
Nothing in your longwinded explanation of battery basics says anything about why I can't go into an Apple store and pay full price for a replacement.
>If you read the article you'd see that Apple will not sell you a battery.
YET. The manual and the article itself acknowledge that this repair is only possible with a top case replacement and that battery-only parts will be available soon.
> The only other options are to replace the battery or the device.
And battery replacement has been made to be as inconvenient as possible. 15 years ago, swapping the battery was a 15-second task that required no tools. Pull off the backing, pull out the battery, push in a new battery. Before Apple's response to bad press, it was $80 to have a battery swapped. Aftermarket kits were $30, so that is $50 on labor and markup. $50 to do what used to take 15 seconds by an untrained user.
This is a problem of Apple's making, by their design decisions.
> It's much easier to do battery replacements on apple products
> just pay them...$99...to do it [for you].
That's not doing the replacement, that's paying a significant amount of money to have a specialist do it for you. Having the specialist available does not remove the original problem, it solves it with the side effect of cost and inconvenience.
Just because the side effects don't bother you doesn't mean everyone should be subjected to them. Replacing a battery should not require a specialist in the first place. Most people consider $99 a very expensive repair.
OS updates are orthogonal. We are talking about hardware.
> I'm not sure battery replacement falls under the category of repair, more like required maintenance.
Which would suggest that Apple's glued-in batteries are a bad idea? Whatever one chooses to call the process of changing a battery, this is unnecessarily difficult with Apple hardware.
Then you should have bought a PC with a battery you can take out, instead of Apple's garbage.
Apple makes their stuff specifically non-disassemblable by third parties. If you buy Apple hardware, you get a repair if Apple wants to give you one, and you pay the price Apple wants you to pay.
I'm proud to say I've never bought a piece of Apple hardware in my life. This is one of the many reasons behind that decision.
> If you want easily swappable batteries, get a different machine.
Apple doesn't make a different machine.
Obviously what you mean is to buy from a different vendor, which is what I expect to do when the time comes for a new laptop. But how is it good for Apple that they got my money last time and won't get it next time?
> It's not like battery replacement is very viable on modern Macs
Why? Apple still offers battery replacements for modern Macs, and some more adventurous types of people still do it themselves. They're glued to the chassis, not spot welded.
If Apple fucked up, why should there be a 'win' situation for them?
The obvious solution would be Apple replacing the batteries for free. Instead Apple won't even let you pay them to replace the battery if it's not in EOL mode — despite throttling starting well before then.
> The only reason the average consumer would want to open up an iPhone or a MacBook is to do something like swap out the battery.
I think that the average consumer is more likely to go buy a new one, or put up with the nuisance of a short battery life. Almost all the Apple replacement batteries that I see on Amazon come with the special screwdrivers anyhow. So if they're determined enough to actually order a battery, it's almost inevitable that they'll also get the tools to do whatever damage they can.
> Apple has a responsibility to remove the obvious easy ways for a customer to accidentally destroy their device.
I don't think that Apple has a responsibility to protect customers from their own conscious actions, but I think some of the minor roadblocks make sense from a business perspective; no manufacturer wants to deal with a customer that "repaired" their own device and expects the company to still honor the warranty.
Or you know, Apple could make it easy for the user to replace the battery by themselves. But they chose not to.
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