Apple offers battery replacement discounts in China and Hong Kong after admitting to slowing down older iPhones
Discounts come as company looks to gain back trust from customers outraged to learn the US tech giant intentionally reduced performance of older iPhones
Users of older iPhones in mainland China and Hong Kong will be able to replace their phone batteries at a heavy discount after Apple admitted to slowing down older devices to “dynamically manage maximum performance”.
From the end of January 2018 through to December, customers with an iPhone 6 or later model can replace the battery at a 60 per cent discount, Apple said in a statement on Thursday.
In mainland China, the company’s third-largest market by sales, users can make the switch for just 218 yuan (US$33.4) instead of the usual 608 yuan.
Similarly, Hong Kong users will only pay HK$228 (US$29.2) instead of the original HK$635 for the replacement.
The move comes after Apple said it had introduced a power management feature for iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone SE users last year to ensure that the power from ageing batteries could match the devices’ processing power, preventing sudden shutdowns that usually occurred in such situations.
The discounts come as the company looks to gain back trust from its customers, some of whom were outraged to learn the US tech giant intentionally reduced performance of older iPhones.