Famed iFixit Claims that Apple is Locking iPhone Batteries to Discourage third-party Repairs
By activating a dormant software lock on their newest iPhones, Apple is effectively announcing a drastic new policy: only Apple batteries can go in iPhones, and only they can install them, according to famed iFixit.
The report goes on to note that "If you replace the battery in the newest iPhones, a message indicating you need to service your battery appears in Settings > Battery, next to Battery Health. The 'Service' message is normally an indication that the battery is degraded and needs to be replaced. The message still shows up when you put in a brand new battery, however. Here’s the bigger problem: our lab tests confirmed that even when you swap in a genuine Apple battery, the phone will still display the 'Service' message.
It’s not a bug; it’s a feature Apple wants. Unless an Apple Genius or an Apple Authorized Service Provider authenticates a battery to the phone, that phone will never show its battery health and always report a vague, ominous problem.
Put simply, Apple is locking batteries to their iPhones at the factory, so whenever you replace the battery yourself—even if you’re using a genuine Apple battery from another iPhone—it will still give you the “Service” message. The only way around this is—you guessed it—paying Apple money to replace your iPhone battery for you. Presumably, their secretive diagnostic software can flip the magic bit that resets this 'Service' indicator. But Apple refuses to make this software available to anyone but themselves and Apple Authorized Service Providers."
For more details of this discovery, read the iFixit report. The video below details the issue in-depth that many Apple geeks may find to be very interesting.
Obviously this is a "right to repair" issue and it should be noted that famed iFixit supports this movement and regularly reports on this issue such as their March 2019 report titled "California becomes the 20th State to Introduce Right to Repair this year."
Yesterday Axios published a report on this subject matter titled "Right to repair" advocates lobby over antitrust concerns." The report stated that "Advocates who say that companies like Apple lock users into costly repair arrangements are trying to influence a growing debate in Washington over whether giant tech firms have become monopolies.
Why does it matter? Because the issue has gotten less airtime than concerns about Apple's iOS App Store, but it's another possible point of scrutiny for regulators as they look at broader concerns over Big Tech's market power." For more on this read the full Axios report.
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