On March 1, Apple will start charging an extra $20 for battery replacements on out-of-warranty iPhones, according to an update on the AppleCare+ webpage.
The new price will be $99 for the iPhone 14, and while these models are currently under warranty, they won't be after the one-year anniversary of their release in September 2023.
At that point, the higher price point could encourage customers with broken batteries to simply buy a new phone rather than shell out nearly $100 for a replacement part.
Apple has adjusted prices multiple times in recent years, as supply chain issues have raised production costs. Just last month, labor unrest at an iPhone supplier in China led to a production shortfall. The company struggled with similar disruptions throughout the pandemic.
There is also a history of consumers pushing back against Apple's practices around batteries. The company in 2020 was forced to pay $113 million in fines to settle consumer fraud lawsuits around a controversy known as "batterygate," in which iPhone users discovered that Apple installed new software that made devices with older batteries operate slower.
In addition, CEO Tim Cook in 2019 wrote in a letter to investors that "some customers taking advantage of significantly reduced pricing for iPhone battery replacements" was partly behind a lower-than-expected iPhone sales.
A hefty tax benefit helped drive GameStop’s fiscal fourth-quarter profit sharply higher, but the video-game retailer’s sales declined despite a surge in its online business. The latest results fell short of Wall Street’s expectations.
Gregor Robertson, former mayor of Vancouver and executive vice president of strategy at Nexii Building Solutions spoke to Cheddar about raising a Starbucks location with a smaller carbon footprint while staying affordable and efficient.
Prince Harry has joined the corporate world as employee coaching and mental health firm BetterUp Inc.’s Chief Impact Officer.
While the secondary market for NFTs isn't likely to garner the same headlines as multi-million dollar deals, experts agree the future of the crypto art market depends on more than one-off, high-profile purchases.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey sold his first tweet for more than $2.9 million. The tweet from 2006, which says “just setting up my twttr,” was bought by Bridge Oracle CEO Sina Estavi.
David Kaval, president of the Oakland Athletics, talked to Cheddar about accepting bitcoin as payment for suites during baseball games at RingCentral Coliseum.
The Volkswagen ID.4 electric SUV is currently manufactured in Germany and China but will begin U.S. production in 2022.
Learn to master the principles of project management with these 10 courses.
Werner Vogels, Amazon’s chief technical officer, spoke to Cheddar about the 15 years of impact AWS has had on cloud computing and the world.
From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, these are the top stories that moved markets and had investors, business leaders, and entrepreneurs talking this week on Cheddar.
