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.
Square is making a supportive gesture to business customers going through financial pain due to the effects of social distancing in the time of COVID-19.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Wednesday, March 18, 2020.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Tuesday, March 17, 2020.
The Small Business Grants Program, revealed in a blog post on Tuesday morning, was created to keep workers working, help with rent costs, connect with more customers, cover operational costs. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Lisa Callahan, the vice president of programs, told Cheddar about the Orion spacecraft set to aid the NASA Artemis project achieve its goals of returning to the moon and using it as a jumping-off point for a manned Mars mission.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Monday, March 16, 2020.
Bitcoin is currently trading at $5,364, about 40 percent up from a low of $3,858 late Thursday night – the lowest since May 2019.
Matt Desch, Iridium Communications' CEO, spoke to Cheddar from the Satellite 2020 conference in DC, a day before the event was cut short when the city declared a state of emergency.
The automakers and parts suppliers had already been reeling from the spread of coronavirus in China, the largest single market for cars and trucks, accounting for about 30 percent of global auto sales.
Quibi, short for "quick bites," is slated to launch on April 6. To compel people to believe in his vision, Jeffrey Katzenberg and his team have been shelling out cash to get star power to come on board. According to people with knowledge of the deals, projects are getting payouts of $8 million to $15 million each.
