Replacing an iPod battery
It's fairly well known know that iPod batteries lose a lot of their life after about two years (it is well known thanks to campaigns like this one - though this problem is not unique to iPods, all rechargeable batteries have this issue). My wife's iPod was starting to have this issue, and it was becoming very unpredictable to tell how long a charge would last.
So I went to the apple store, and was given 3 options:
- If I had "apple care" it would be under warranty or something. I don't have apple care.
- I could pay $70 for them to replace the battery.
- I could have them recycle the iPod in exchange for 10% off a new iPod (which starts at $149).
None of these options seemed ideal to me. So instead I went online to ipodbattery.com and paid $16 for a new battery that I could install myself. It arrived in the mail today, and I installed it in about 5 minutes. It's charging now, and we'll find out later this week whether it works out or not.
The main problem is that Apple designed the iPod to be pretty much disposable - there's no easy way to open the iPod up to replace the battery or other parts. In fact, one of the pieces you have to remove is held together by glue, so I'm guessing that when they replace batteries at the apple store they might actually have to reglue it back on (though it's sticky enough to put the part back on again without glue). Taking the iPod apart scratches it up a lot, so I don't recommend doing it if you will be upset by a few dings on your iPod. And of course it voids your warranty. But my warranty was void anyway, and $16 seemed a lot better than $70...
Anyway, I'm confused as to why Apple made iPod so hard to take apart. I guess they just want people to buy new iPods every 2 years...
Hopefully this battery lasts for awhile.
posted by Jim @ 10:31 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
I guess it can be like Apple wants you to make a 1 time lease payment & at the end of 2 years or what have you, lease is up & it's time to get a new lease. They're selling staplers & they need a way to make money from selling staples hence the Apple Care thing. And the sales types at Circuit City or whatever try to convince you that you need to have Apple Care or you'll die. So the naive or newbies to iPod are easily duped into thinking they must have Apple Care.
Glue, we don't need no stinking glue because there's duct tape.
No company makes long-term money selling razors. Blades are where the money is. Planned obsolescence is another source of income. Apple must have purposely made battery replacement difficult and expensive. Or it was cheaper to manufacture (and sell) without a replaceable mechanism.
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