Apple Blames Reduced Battery Replacement Costs for Poor iPhone Sales

Apple recently released the latest series of iPhones last year. This series consists of the iPhone XS, XS Max, and the iPhone XR. iPhone XS series is the successor to iPhone X released by Apple in 2017. iPhone Xs Max is same as iPhone Xs, but it comes with a bigger 6.5-inch display.

As for the iPhone XR, it is an affordable iPhone XS alternative from Apple. However, everything is not right in terms of iPhone sales for the company. There have been reports saying that Apple has cut down production of iPhone XS and XR series to nearly half. But there was no official confirmation from Apple regarding the same until yesterday. Apple has just told its investors that the company will miss their revenue estimates this year.

Apple blames its customers for not upgrading to the latest iPhones

Apple’s release for its investors says that the company will miss their revenue estimates for the iPhone sales. This goes in line with reports that are already out which say that Apple’s iPhone sales year-on-year are declining. As far as missing the revenue estimates is concerned, Apple says that they will miss the estimates by $9 Billion. Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, has also given few reasons for missing revenue estimates by such a big margin.

Tim Cook blames weak demand in Asia, especially China for lower iPhone sales. According to the letter from Apple to its investors, Greater China is facing slow-down in their economy and there is increasing competition from the likes of Huawei as well. Apple says that the holiday sales for iPhones have been “lower than expected”. A surprising thing Apple told its investors is that reduced iPhone battery replacement costs are also to blame for lower iPhone sales.

Apple announced last year that they are reducing battery replacement costs of out-of-warranty iPhones from $79 to $29. The reduction in battery replacements was due to customers blaming Apple for slowing down their iPhones with the latest updates.

This, according to Apple, has been a big factor in customers not upgrading to the latest iPhones. Apart from that, Apple says that customers have changed their upgrade cycles and the upgrade cycles are getting longer. Apple also claims that the carrier subsidies and trade-in programs are not helping much in getting customers to upgrade to the latest iPhones. However, the company has not mentioned anything regarding the increase in pricing of the latest iPhone models which could have affected their sales.