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Comment by chrisseaton | Hacker News Reader

This conspiracy theory doesn't even make any sense. Guess who has to replace these batteries? Apple. Why would they make it harder for themselves without a good reason.

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Apple wants to perform the repairs so they can charge a premium. If batteries were easy to replace, consumers would do it themselves.

IIRC iOS even detects if a battery has been replaced regardless of whether it’s an authentic first-party battery and warns the user; Apple technicians use a tool to prevent these warnings for first-party repairs.

The idea is that due to the special repair it will be costly enough to the point where you will opt for buying a new laptop.

It's $200 for a 2015 MacBook Pro for Apple to replace the battery. An aftermarket battery costs around $50 but it's tricky to install.

> The idea is that due to the special repair it will be costly enough

But Apple has to replace the batteries and pay for it under their warranties, not you.

Warranty only goes for 1-3 years. Where the rate of failure for batteries is very low. After that, you're stuck with high repair costs or buying a new device that falls under warranty again. It's a racket and people keep falling for it.

Maybe it's different in some parts of the world, but at least in the US, the scenario described by the parent will not be covered by the warranty, and you will have to pay for it:

> It's $200 for a 2015 MacBook Pro for Apple to replace the battery.

>But Apple has to replace the batteries and pay for it under their warranties, not you.

Apple operate the 1 year MacBook warranty policy across the world with only specific countries that they abide by the law of 3 years warranty. However if you dont mention it, as in UK, they will still charge you for it.

Batteries won't wear out in a year, and battery wear from normal use is not always covered by warranty. You're going to be paying for it in 90% of cases.

What if I want to go to an independent repair shop to change my battery? Or even do it myself.

Apple will do it for you.

So this isn't an argument against repair - it may be an argument against repair by third parties if you want to suggest that? But then again why would Apple make a job that they have to do harder? Doesn't pass a common-sense test.

Because it gets harder for the opposition at a faster rate. The opposition is end user repair. But you know this, it is a common strategy, this is why you out skill your opponent.

There are widely reported cases of people taking their iPhones to the Genius Bar only to have someone swap their philips head screws for pentalobe screws.

Passes common sense.

Exactly, Apple is killing third party repairs, so they can demand for 10k USD from you as in the OP.

> so they can demand for 10k USD from you as in the OP

I think you and others in this thread are fundamentally confused - the OP has paid nothing - the cost is Apple’s.

Even if in this case Apple paid the costs, very often it's on the customer to pay for out of warranty repairs.

Apple choses which price to charge for a battery replacement. Their profit margin is whatever they choose unless other people are replacing it too.

But they also have to do the repairs. When they make it harder they increase their costs.

But they also dissuade people from doing it themselves. So a $50 battery becomes a $200 battery.

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