Earlier this year, when Apple halted the trade of its shares due to disappointing sales of its latest iPhones, CEO Tim Cook put part of the blame on the cheaper battery replacements the company had begun offering. Now, we may have a look at just how big of an impact it had on the company"s numbers for 2018.
John Gruber of Daring Fireball shared information from an all-hands Apple meeting that took place on January 3, where Tim Cook reportedly said that Apple replaced as many as 11 million iPhone batteries in 2018, a significant jump from the typical expectation of one to two million replacements. This could imply that a large portion of the company"s customer base decided not to jump to a newer device and opted to replace the battery on their current one instead.
Apple lowered the price of battery replacements from $79 to just $29 at the start of the year, after it was discovered that the Cupertino giant was slowing down older devices in order to protect the worn-out batteries. That"s quite the drop in price, and the scandal around the slower processing speeds may have prompted even more customers to get replacements after the price dropped.
Of course, other factors still likely played a role in the lower-than-expected results. The iPhone Xs and Xs Max offered only incremental improvements over last year"s X, which may have further hindered sales. It remains to be seen whether Apple can make enough improvements to the 2019 models in order to get customers to upgrade.
Source: Daring Fireball