Apple: People Bought Fewer New iPhones Because They Repaired Their Old Ones
January 3rd, 2019In case you had any doubts about why Apple viciously attacks those who repair iPhones…
Via: Vice:
Wednesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook wrote a letter to investors alerting them that the company would miss its revenue targets in part because Apple didn’t sell as many iPhones as it expected. The lengthy letter cites, specifically, that people are buying fewer iPhones because they are repairing their old ones.
Apple has long fought efforts that would make iPhones easier to repair: It has lobbied against right to repair efforts in several states, doesn’t sell iPhone replacement parts, sued an independent repair professional in Norway, worked with Amazon to get iPhone and MacBook refurbishers kicked off Amazon Marketplace, and has deals with electronics recyclers that require them to shred iPhones and MacBooks (as opposed to allowing them to be refurbished.) The Department of Homeland Security, meanwhile, has seized iPhone replacement parts from prominent right to repair activists in the United States.
At the announcement event for the iPhone XS, Apple said that keeping your old iPhone “is the best thing for the planet,” but the fact remains that selling new iPhones is best for Apple’s bottom line. That’s why many people suspected that “throttle gate,” in which Apple was caught slowing down iPhones with old batteries, was a ploy to sell more iPhones (the phones were slowing down to prevent them from shutting off, but Apple never disclosed this to the user.) Though there’s no evidence that Apple has a business model based on planned obsolescence, the company attempted to downplay the fact that it was slowing down people’s old phones without telling them, which had the side effect of helping the company to sell more phones.
After widespread public outrage, Apple eventually offered to replace people’s old iPhone batteries for $29, which would end throttling and make older phones run faster. That program ended on December 31.
