Battery outrage: how much does the iPhone really cost?

Stan Beer
Sunday, 08 July 2007 18:21

Business IT - Technology

Question: aside from AT&T network charges, how much does an 8GB iPhone cost? If you answered US$599, you would be about US$115 short of the mark if we accept the fact that the iPhone's non-removable battery is only good for about one year.

The problem, which is being given voice by a growing chorus of outraged consumers, is that like other Lithium Polymer batteries in cellphones, the iPhone battery will last 300-400 charge cycles. If you charge your iPhone every night, that means you'll probably need a replacement about halfway through your AT&T contract.

With all other cellphones and smartphones, this would not be a problem. You would simply go down to your local phone shop or third party battery supplier, spend $20 or $30 and replace the battery yourself. If your phone is mission critical, you might even keep a spare battery on a charger.

With the iPhone, however, the battery is soldered into the unit and changing it requires major surgery that only Apple is allowed to do. If your battery fails after your one year warranty is up, you have to take your iPhone to an Apple dealer and pay US$79 plus US$6.95 for shipping. While you're waiting the 3 business days for your iPhone to be returned with a new battery inserted, you can rent a replacement iPhone for US$29. So your new battery just cost you US$115 - at least four times the going rate - plus some unnecessary extra hassle going to and from your Apple dealer.

However, is cost really the issue here? Anyone who knows Apple should have known from the outset that a replacement battery for iPhone was going to cost more than an ordinary cellphone replacement battery. How could it not if Apple totally controls the supply of the batteries and Apple labor is required to replace them.

The real issue is that the battery replacement process highlights the fact that consumers who choose to buy an iPhone are willingly submitting themselves to a lock-in relationship with one vendor that excludes third parties. As a result, unlike with Nokia, Motorola, Palm, Rim and all other mobile vendors, if your battery fails after one year, Apple makes money instead of the third party battery suppliers (except the ones who supply Apple). It makes money on the battery it supplies you; it makes money on the labor to replace the battery; and it makes money on the replacement iPhone you're forced to rent while you wait to get your own iPhone back.

However, it's not only the third party battery suppliers who are losing out with iPhone. Apple has locked out much of the the third party development community as well. There's no doubt third party developed ring tones will eventually be available but Apple will own the ring tone store. Games? Business applications? Instant messaging? VoIP? Apple will control what, when and how they are made available. Apple will choose which select group of developers can develop for its platform. It's a more tightly guarded walled garden than the Mac ever was.

For some folks all of the above is quite acceptable because at the end of the day the iPhone is a lovely multifunctional device. However, for the folks that have a spare battery sitting in a charger because their phone is their mobile office; for the young folks that have moved into an apartment and haven't bothered to connect the landline; and for the folks that want a phone first and the other stuff second, having a soldered in battery won't work.