Apple is Locking iPhone Batteries to Discourage Independent Repair

Electronics
#41

They will never be forced out of the high end niche. They made >50% of the phone markets revenue in the past year. But global phone sales are going down as prices go up and people already have phones. And with that pattern, their even higher margin services business will have a cap.
Also, Apple, unlike Dell, would be able to control both the Intel and Windows part of cheap phones. They could use their older chips and contract TSMCs old fabs for a much cheaper price. They could develop their own OS based on iOS but maybe more like Android so most of the apps would be similar but it would still have an inferior experience.
Also, they would be able to target the European and Americans users who currently buy cheaper Android phones. They have the money to buy services, but not to spend over a grand on a phone. That itself is hundreds of millions of people.

I just hope the only major American phone manufacturer doesnt become irrelevent on a global scale.

#42

The simpler solution is probably for Apple to keep making their older model phones - either in name or something like the 5C / SE that reskins the old phone so as not to dilute the used market that so many of their early-adopters rely on to subsidize their ~yearly new purchases. Of course that attracts a different kind of customer than their flagships, likely worth markedly less with their reduced propensity to consume services.

#43

Thats what they are doing. But the Apple brand doesnt have the same value if they also sell new phones for less than many Android devices.

#44

Ha. Chrysler got bailed out by the government in 1979 and again in 2008. If not for that, they’d have been toast, twice.

NOBODY, save a few west-coast politicians watching jobs flee their state, would agree to bail out Apple if it came down to that.

#45

Don’t be so sure… There’s about a “Chrysler’s worth” of jobs in Apple and its suppliers/subsidiaries in the US. Un-Creating that many jobs would give the “other side” some great political ammunition.

#46

Louis Rossman runs an independent Apple repair shop in Brooklyn and has been documenting Apple’s shady practices for years. He also has a lot of instructional videos on how to troubleshoot and do component level board repairs since the Genius Bar won’t actually help you and just tells you to buy a newer model. He lobbies for right to repair legislation and has been involved in litigation with Apple several times now.

He’s worth checking out if you’re into these things.