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      Apple Q2 earnings are down, as everything but iPhones is harder to sell

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Thursday, 4 May, 2023 - 21:27

    Tim Cook posing for selfie at an Apple Store opening in New Delhi, India.

    Enlarge / Tim Cook posing for selfie at an Apple Store opening in New Delhi, India. Cook is optimistic about "switcher and first-time buyer metrics" in that country. (credit: Bloomberg/Getty)

    Apple reported its earnings for Q2 2023 today, beating both Wall Street's and its own dour revenue estimates just a bit but continuing to show marked declines in new hardware sales.

    Overall sales revenue was $94.8 billion for Apple's financial quarter ending April 1 (PDF), down 3 percent year over year, short of the 5 percent Apple's data had suggested in January. CEO Tim Cook emphasized Apple's "all-time record in Services" and a record iPhone month in March, despite a "challenging macroeconomic environment, in a press release . Services, which includes the App Store, AppleCare, iCloud, and Apple's subscription products, increased to $20.9 billion in Q2, up about 5.5 percent.

    iPhone sales increased 1.5 percent to $51.03 billion. Cook told CNBC's Steve Kovach that "It was quite a good quarter from an iPhone point of view, particularly relative to the market when you look at the market stats."

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      Apple no longer replacing entire iPad mini 6 just to swap the battery

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Tuesday, 27 September, 2022 - 20:26 · 1 minute

    Apple is willing to actually replace the battery on its newest, smallest iPad, with potentially more to follow, according to a MacRumors report.

    Enlarge / Apple is willing to actually replace the battery on its newest, smallest iPad, with potentially more to follow, according to a MacRumors report. (credit: Andrew Cunningham )

    Replacing a battery can be fraught with peril, at least for the iPad. Repair shops and experienced DIY-ers know this, and Apple seems to acknowledge it, usually giving customers seeking battery swaps a new iPad instead. Starting soon, with at least one model, Apple and its repair techs could start actually replacing an iPad's battery instead of sending it into the refurbishment ether.

    A report at MacRumors claims that Apple is issuing a new policy for the iPad mini 6 (i.e., the 2021 iPad mini ), allowing repair centers (where devices are shipped for more in-depth service) to replace just the battery, rather than provide a Whole Unit Replacement (WUR) from existing or refurbished stock. MacRumors states that "other iPads may follow in the coming weeks and months," without specifics.

    Replacing the battery on an iPad requires removing the screen, and that's tricky on almost all of them. Apple's proprietary repair tools, sized to each device, may be easier to use than using hand tools at home . But there's an unavoidable physics issue of having to apply strong suction or prying force to a long, wide, and thin display. The sixth-generation mini iPad, being the smallest of them, likely represents a device with the highest success rate of screen removal.

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      Apple raises iPhone 14 battery costs above pre-Batterygate levels

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Monday, 12 September, 2022 - 17:11

    While the iPhone 14 battery will seemingly be much the same as the iPhone 13 (pictured), the cost to replace it goes up 43 percent.

    Enlarge / While the iPhone 14 battery will seemingly be much the same as the iPhone 13 (pictured), the cost to replace it goes up 43 percent. (credit: iFixit )

    While the iPhone 14 hardware lineup costs largely the same as the previous generation, the cost of replacing the battery has gone up considerably, surpassing the prices Apple was charging before its 2016/2017 "Batterygate" reckoning.

    Replacing the battery in any of the iPhone 14 models will cost $99, up from the $69 Apple charges for the 13, 12, 11, and X lines. The newest iPhone SE and iPhones in the 8 and older series cost $49. Those prices are for out-of-warranty and non-AppleCare+ replacements at an Apple Store, while prices at authorized Apple repair stores may vary.

    Apple typically only replaces a battery within AppleCare+ service if the device's battery health is at 80 percent or lower. Apple states that its batteries are rated to last 500 cycles before hitting 80 percent, though factors like temperature, leaving the battery at low charge, and others can decrease battery lifespan quickly.

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