Apple considering reimbursing customers who paid $79 for battery replacement [U]

UPDATE: Apple has responded to Reuters regarding the announcement of the iPhone throttling, which can be found at the end of the post.

Recode reports that Apple is looking into the possibility of reimbursing customers who have paid the full $79 for an iPhone battery replacement. Lawmaker Sen. John Thune asked Apple about the issue and the company says that it is exploring ways to do so.

The company responded:

Yes, we are exploring this and will update you accordingly.

While the statement is vague, it does show that Apple cares for its customers. Reuters similarly reports that Apple had began throttling performance of iPhones in January of 2017, but did not disclose that it was doing so until February of 2017.

The company says that it has seen “strong demand” for battery replacements, corroborating with previous reports that Apple is behind on batteries with certain iPhone models.

Apple began replacing iPhone batteries for $29 after public backlash for slowing down iPhone performance to extend battery life.

Here’s Apple’s statement regarding the delayed iPhone throttling announcement:

After gathering and analyzing data, we issued the iOS 10.2.1 software update in January 2017, for iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, and iPhone SE.

Then we looked at the diagnostic data made available by the update, and it indicated that the rate of unexpected shutdowns was greatly reduced for iPhone 6 and 6s owners. In February 2017, we updated our iOS 10.2.1 Read Me notes to let customers know the update “improves power management during peak workloads to avoid unexpected shutdowns.” We also provided a statement to several press outlets and said that we were seeing positive results from the software update.

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