23 ms·

It's much easier to do battery replacements on apple products then almost any of their competitors. Seriously - you can go in and just pay them to do it. It's

It's much easier to do battery replacements on apple products then almost any of their competitors. Seriously - you can go in and just pay them to do it. It's something like $99 for parts and labor all included for ipads. What other tablet provider even offers this as a service? I'm serious - can you provide some names and examples with this level of convience? I ask because my parents used an ipad for something like 7 years, and it got updates FAR longer than ANY competitor out there, and they got the battery updated. One of the reasons apple gets to charge a premium is BECAUSE their items hold value for so long relative to the competition. Look at used prices for tablets (or phones). Some android phones ship with a 2 year old OS and NEVER get an update. The value of these phones after 2 years is basically zero.

pbhjpbhj 6y ago
Well you can pretty much take products made by anyone else to any town repair shop (in UK) and have it replaced for far less than £80 (~$100). That Apple repair probably costs them a tenner, and they're presumably primarily bringing you in to market new products to you. Apple offer battery repair as part of their anti-competitive practices - they legally hassle other companies who offer repairs, because they want to make it hard and costly to drive the idea of disposability and sell more new products.
- donor20 6y ago
  Can you name a single one of these tablet makers that you can go into any town repair shop to get repaired?
  - pbhjpbhj 6y ago
    Apple and Samsung are both repaired at the "phone shop" I used to pass on my way to work (I don't work in town now). Can't imagine a MS Surface, or a LG/Huawei/whatever device is much different if they can get an aftermarket battery.
    - donor20 6y ago
      Fair point - checking the local repair places to me - they all actually lead with apple repairs in terms of being able to give a price / in stock etc. LG I guess they need to order LG Tab 10.1 - they were not actually stocking parts for at least that brand.
thomastjeffery 6y ago
> It's much easier to do battery replacements on apple products > just pay them...$99...to do it [for you]. That's not doing the replacement, that's paying a significant amount of money to have a specialist do it for you. Having the specialist available does not remove the original problem, it solves it with the side effect of cost and inconvenience. Just because the side effects don't bother you doesn't mean everyone should be subjected to them. Replacing a battery should not require a specialist in the first place. Most people consider $99 a very expensive repair. OS updates are orthogonal. We are talking about hardware.
- donor20 6y ago
  The more I hear other engineers discuss this type of thing on HN the more I realize how unique apple is. They look at their products as a whole. So in the apple model, hardware and software run together. Seeing this with my parents and when I resell stuff you see the payoff. The apple products are usable FAR longer then competitors and sell for more even after a year or two. You are not "subject" to buying an apple product. Apple has obviously chosen to optimize for a different user group than you are in. The market seems to appreciate that, their margins are nuts (they sell $100 worth of stuff for $200). I say this has someone who used to by batteries for my laptop and other devices online, who did the ifixit stuff. The problem, the quality is wildly variable when you order online - so I at least can see that for the VAST majority of folks, apple's approach results in a pretty reliable / high quality result. And they charge and get paid a remarkable premium for the trust users have in them as a result of this.
fomine3 6y ago
> you can go in and just pay them to do it. If Apple Store is located nearly.

pbhjpbhj 6y ago

Well you can pretty much take products made by anyone else to any town repair shop (in UK) and have it replaced for far less than £80 (~$100). That Apple repair probably costs them a tenner, and they're presumably primarily bringing you in to market new products to you. Apple offer battery repair as part of their anti-competitive practices - they legally hassle other companies who offer repairs, because they want to make it hard and costly to drive the idea of disposability and sell more new products.

donor20 6y ago
Can you name a single one of these tablet makers that you can go into any town repair shop to get repaired?
- pbhjpbhj 6y ago
  Apple and Samsung are both repaired at the "phone shop" I used to pass on my way to work (I don't work in town now). Can't imagine a MS Surface, or a LG/Huawei/whatever device is much different if they can get an aftermarket battery.
  - donor20 6y ago
    Fair point - checking the local repair places to me - they all actually lead with apple repairs in terms of being able to give a price / in stock etc. LG I guess they need to order LG Tab 10.1 - they were not actually stocking parts for at least that brand.

thomastjeffery 6y ago

> It's much easier to do battery replacements on apple products > just pay them...$99...to do it [for you]. That's not doing the replacement, that's paying a significant amount of money to have a specialist do it for you. Having the specialist available does not remove the original problem, it solves it with the side effect of cost and inconvenience. Just because the side effects don't bother you doesn't mean everyone should be subjected to them. Replacing a battery should not require a specialist in the first place. Most people consider $99 a very expensive repair. OS updates are orthogonal. We are talking about hardware.

donor20 6y ago
The more I hear other engineers discuss this type of thing on HN the more I realize how unique apple is. They look at their products as a whole. So in the apple model, hardware and software run together. Seeing this with my parents and when I resell stuff you see the payoff. The apple products are usable FAR longer then competitors and sell for more even after a year or two. You are not "subject" to buying an apple product. Apple has obviously chosen to optimize for a different user group than you are in. The market seems to appreciate that, their margins are nuts (they sell $100 worth of stuff for $200). I say this has someone who used to by batteries for my laptop and other devices online, who did the ifixit stuff. The problem, the quality is wildly variable when you order online - so I at least can see that for the VAST majority of folks, apple's approach results in a pretty reliable / high quality result. And they charge and get paid a remarkable premium for the trust users have in them as a result of this.

fomine3 6y ago

> you can go in and just pay them to do it. If Apple Store is located nearly.