iPhone sales could suffer from Apple's $29 battery replacement program, here are the estimated numbers
Apple's decision to lower the price of iPhone battery replacements to $29 (from $79; 63% discount) could cut into its 2018 smartphone sales. These observations were made by Barclays analysts, but anyone following the Battery Gate scandal would have guessed as much.
However, Barclays also has estimates on what the potential damage could be. According to company analyst Mark Moskowitz, a whopping 77% or 519 million iPhone users are eligible to replace their battery via the program. Here are his calculations:
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.
As you've probably heard, these developments are a direct result of Apple's admission of slowing down iPhones with older batteries in certain situations in order to prevent more serious issues.
In January 2017, Cupertino released an iOS update which introduced power management functionalities that addressed a problem with unexpected iPhone shut-downs after many user reports and complaints.
At the time, no one asked about Apple's approach to fixing the issue and the company hushed it up until a recent user investigation on Reddit and a subsequent confirmation from benchmark results provoked an official response. Apple's statement resulted in a huge community backlash and several lawsuits, so Tim Cook & Co. issued a letter of apology and commenced its $29 battery replacement program in an attempt to regain the trust of users.
The power management functionalities are currently present on the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone SE, iPhone 7, and iPhone 7 Plus, but performance will be affected only in cases where the battery has deteriorated. If you're an owner of one of the devices listed above and would like to get a battery replacement, feel free to follow this guide.
FCC OKs Cingular\'s purchase of AT&T Wireless
Things that are NOT allowed: