Apple replaced 11 million iPhone batteries under their $29 replacement program

“During Apple’s all-hands meeting January 3, Tim Cook said Apple replaced 11 million batteries under the $29 replacement program, and they’d have only anticipated about 1-2 million battery replacements normally,” John Gruber reports for Daring Fireball.
“The battery replacement program ran all year long, so even if it was more popular than Apple originally expected, why wasn’t it accounted for in guidance issued on November 1 — 10 months after the program started?” Gruber writes. “My guess: the effect of the battery replacement program on new iPhone sales wasn’t apparent until after the iPhone XR and XS models were available.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: 11 million is a lot of “old” iPhones made to feel “new” and certainly more than enough to negatively impact iPhone upgrades this year.
This 11 million number makes Apple look guilty of trying to hide the fact that a relatively inexpensive battery replacement would make an iPhone feel pretty much new again with the intention of selling relatively expensive new iPhones instead. You’ll remember that in 2017, Apple was accused of secretly throttling performance on iPhones with aged batteries (i.e. “Batterygate”). Apple claimed they did this to prolong the life of older iPhones, but it left many to assume that their iPhone’s processor and/or amount of RAM couldn’t keep up with new, more demanding versions of iOS. After Cook’s letter of investors, recent CNBC interview, and this newly-revealed iPhone battery replacement number, it’s likely that more people today think that Apple deliberately obfuscated this battery replacement issue in order to encourage new iPhone sales.
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Two things Tim Cook just did that make Apple look guilty today – January 3, 2019