Author: Jeff Sommer / Source: New York Times
Apple’s new offerings are so good that I’m not buying a new iPhone.
I expect to save hundreds of dollars this year and enjoy what I’ve already got, because, thanks to Apple, my old iPhone 6 is performing better than ever.
This is the result of two unusual moves by the trillion-dollar corporation.
One was Apple’s release this month of a new operating system that not only makes its new iPhones run well, but can also radically improve the performance of millions of old ones.The other action was Apple’s decision last winter to let iPhone owners replace deteriorating batteries at a sharp discount under a program that continues through the end of the year. In combination, the two measures have thoroughly rejuvenated my old phone, and have the potential to do so for many others.
I don’t attribute this to pure altruism on Apple management’s part. Making old products run well for a long time is truly “the right thing to do for our customers,” Tim Cook, the company’s chief executive, said about battery replacement program. But it is also a smart business practice that can help Apple investors prosper over the long term, even if its actions deter some consumers from buying new iPhones now.
Unless articles like this one spur millions of people to defer purchases, Apple may have found a business strategy that allows the company to have it both ways: Charge ever more money for fancy new phones, while enhancing its reputation by providing value-oriented consumers with reliable products that can last for years.
What’s the magic that has rejuvenated my iPhone and given it powers it didn’t possess when I first bought it, nearly four years ago?
The answer is mundane. My old iPhone started getting younger in February, when I took advantage of the Apple discount to replace the phone’s aging battery for $29, down from the usual $79 out-of-warranty fee.
Until last winter, I had never even thought of replacing an iPhone battery. I accepted that it would wear out every couple of years, and assumed that because of the way Apple had engineered the iPhone, the smart move was to replace the entire device with a new, improved model. My phone appeared to be on its last legs. It ran out of power in a few hours, and sometimes shut down inexplicably.
But then came Apple’s “batterygate.” A furor arose as multiple iPhone owners reported that their devices were malfunctioning. It turned out that Apple had issued a new operating system that deliberately throttled speed when decaying batteries couldn’t cope with the normal tasks involved in running the phones.
Could this have been a case of planned obsolescence of a nefarious sort, the deliberate ruination of a perfectly good product to spur sales of a new one? I am not convinced that it was, although suspicions have been…
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