Another year, another “gate.” It’s become an unexpected tech industry tradition to be accused of a major design flaw after the launch of a flagship device, and Apple has gotten the lion’s share of the attention: Antennagate. Bendgate. Flexgate. While these scandals received public backlash, they were quickly resolved and forgiven without much financial penalty to Apple. That was until Batterygate—the gate that slowed every iPhone owner in their tracks. Literally.
Batterygate was different. The slow-moving train wreck lasted an entire year—and the aftermath continues to haunt Apple today. In a letter to shareholders earlier this month, Tim Cook cited their $29 battery replacement program as one of the reasons for declining iPhone revenue year over year. And while it may seem obvious that maintaining your current phone instead of upgrading hurts their short-term bottom line, this was the first time Apple publicly acknowledged that repair hurts their profits. More importantly, it’s the first time that Apple admitted that the battery inside your iPhone is a consumable, and not the iPhone itself—an admission that has drastically changed the way consumers think about the life of their iPhones.
Before I started working at iFixit, I had no idea that I could change the battery in my iPhone myself. When my battery started to wear down, I suffered through life tethered to my charger and upgraded to a new device when I became too annoyed or had saved enough money to get a new one. I wasn’t alone in that way of thinking. When I do battery swaps for friends and family now, I regularly hear, “Whoa, I didn’t know I could replace my battery—I’m glad I don’t have to upgrade to a new phone yet.”
Batterygate flipped that long-standing belief on its head. Now, it’s mainstream knowledge that a new battery can extend your iPhone’s life. The avalanche of news broke the upgrade cycle.
Apple’s $29 battery replacement program ended earlier this month—but we’re keeping the price of our iPhone battery fix kits at $29.99 for the rest of the year.
John Gruber recently reported that Apple replaced eleven million batteries through their $29 replacement program. That’s more than 10 times Apple’s average repair rate, which hovers around one to two million iPhone battery replacements a year. But even 11 million battery replacements falls significantly short of Barclay’s estimated 519 million iPhones that were eligible for the program. So what happened to the rest? Some went to refurbishers, who installed aftermarket batteries. Some are languishing in drawers. And some people, who didn’t want to deal with Apple Store hell, are fixing it themselves.
When Apple announced their $29 battery replacement program in December 2017, we lowered the price of our iPhone battery fix kit to match. Apple’s battery replacement program ended on December 31, 2018, and they raised the price of their battery service from $29 to $49 (or $69, depending on your model). That blows. Because there are still hundreds of millions of affected iPhone owners who didn’t get a battery replacement—or didn’t know they needed one. So in a fit of righteous solidarity, our iPhone battery prices will remain at $29.99 for at least the rest of the year. Our kits include all the tools you need to open up and swap your own battery. We even have battery kits available for iPhone 4S, 5, 5s and 5c, which were excluded from Apple’s program.
The more barriers there are to keeping gadgets functional, the more likely people are to trash their broken stuff instead of trying to fix it. Thanks to Batterygate, we’ve knocked down one of the biggest barriers to repair—that batteries wear out in two years, not phones. But there are still millions of consumers and iPhone owners who haven’t received the message. That’s why we need to keep talking about it. And that’s why we’ll continue to provide OEM-grade batteries and free repair manuals to iPhone owners everywhere.
Hi there.
Do you ship to Canada 🇨🇦 and if so how much is the complete replacement battery kit for an iPhone 5.
Thank You
Bill.
My daughter, who lives in a city without an Apple store, hasn’t found that her eligible phone needs any new battery.
A couple of years old, it still holds enough charge to last all day. IIRC, it shows as holding 80% of new capacity.
The hassle of being without a phone for a couple of days means that even if the program were free, she wouldn’t bother. She may very likely decide to get a new phone before this battery goes.
I imagine there are hundreds of millions of similar users.
Surprised that you don’t even mention the option of making do with good enough. Maybe because it’s an approach that we OCD/anal types can’t imagine.
Do the batteries come together with the kits for $29 or are they billed separately – your blog says “all in one” but your shopping options seem to indicate otherwise ?!!
Thanks very much.
JC.
I’m looking for a replacement battery for my 5S and also a screen for my son’s SE. Do you ship to UK and at what cost? If not, could you recommend anyone in the UK who could help?
Hi, I have an iPhone 6 and was wondering if you ship to Canada a battery replacement kit? My phone will sometimes sit at work in my locker for 8 hours and drop 60% battery usage without being used, and I don’t want to replace the phone…
Are iPad batteries covered?
Apple store in Newcastle, Australia, need 2 hrs max to complete the swap. Back-up is recommended in case a problem results in a new phone.
How much in Oz? Thx.
Apple Store in Sarasota, Florida was great when I had my 6s battery change in November. Five minute wait for them to take my phone and 1 hour until the new battery was installed. I have changed batteries before in another phone but $29 was too good a deal to pass up.
Thank you for this analysis. It’s part of what makes iFixit a moral participant in a human community and not just an amoral participant in a market economy. We live in communities, not markets. And people who pretend that the market is the answer to everything are missing precisely this point.
Along with the observations about breaking the phone replacement cycle, your post also points out that Apple has, in the wake of the debacle, introduced more competitive battery replacement prices. Before last year, a battery replacement for an iPhone 6s was $79. Now it’s $49. That’s not as good as your $29 battery (thank’s for keeping the price, by the way), but still way better than a new phone. My iPhone 6s (with a new battery) is plenty fast and does everything I need it to do. I’d love to upgrade, but from a cost perspective battery replacement is far more attractive. And doing it myself with good tools and instructions adds to the satisfaction of keeping an older phone.
Here is a link to Apple’s current screen and battery replacement prices:
https://support.apple.com/iphone/repair/service/pricing
Did you Ship to Peru?
Luis Gonzalez
I’m one of many who didn’t move on having my battery replaced after being told by my techie son-in-law last year of the program. I’m glad I belong to this organization for its thorough and transparent reporting on issues that directly affect us, the consumers, and giving us options not provided by Apple. I too like my 6+ and don’t feel the need to spend a lot to purchase an upgraded replacement. I will enjoy replacing my own battery since it’s one of the main reasons I joined, to learn how to repair things i never dreamt I’d be doing and save $$ in he process. I may sound redundant but a thank you is in order for keeping the price at $29.99.
I did take Apple up on their offer and I was only without my phone for about 2 hours. However, I lost about 6 months of Contact additions and their ICloud app was unable to replace them. Its ll good to know that I’ll be able to replace the battery on my daughter’s Iphone when needed. I will not be buying another Iphone because they are now too big to hold in my hand. First we wanted tinier and tinier phones and now we (some) want to carry around tablets!