Engadget: If Memory Shortages Persist, Tech Companies Should Offer Cheap Battery Replacements

The article examined current battery service prices. Apple charges $129 to replace the battery in its newest Pro model out of warranty, $10 more than for older Pro models, while an older base model such as the 2020 iPhone 12 costs $89. Apple has priced iPhone Duo batteries at $229. Samsung does not prominently list out-of-warranty battery replacement costs on its website, but most reports online suggest a direct replacement costs between $99 and $129. Both Apple and Samsung use extended warranty plans, AppleCare and Samsung Care+, to include battery replacements, though customers must sign up shortly after buying a device. Engadget noted iFixit as a DIY alternative, but said most modern phones are not designed to be easily user-repairable.

Engadget said those prices are not egregious at first glance, but noted Apple has charged far less historically. In 2018, after its iPhone throttling controversy, Apple reduced the price of out-of-warranty battery swaps to $29 in the United States for a full year, $50 less than its regular price at the time. Before 2018, Apple averaged about 1 to 2 million battery swaps per year; in 2018, that number reportedly jumped to 11 million. Then-CEO Tim Cook cut the company's revenue forecast in January 2019, saying some customers were 'taking advantage of significantly reduced pricing for iPhone battery replacements' instead of upgrading. Apple's revenue for that quarter fell 5 percent year over year, driven by a 15 percent drop in iPhone revenue, though Cook attributed most of the shortfall to an economic slowdown in China worsened by the U.S.-China trade war. Cheap battery replacements were, at best, a minor factor.

Since 2018, phone prices have climbed, gradually at first and then sharply in recent months, according to the article. On the same day Apple announced the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Duo, it raised the price of older iPhones, including the iPhone 17, by $100. At the start of this month, Samsung hiked the price of most of its S26 phones by $100, after those phones had already launched at higher prices than their 2025 counterparts. Midrange phones have been affected too. Samsung's newest FE model, the S26 FE, costs $700 at release, more than the S25 FE and S24 FE did, while offering only modest upgrades over its predecessors.

Engadget also pointed to broader pressure on American consumers. Consumer prices are up about 34 percent since January 2018, meaning a dollar now buys roughly a quarter less than it did then. On paper, workers are earning more: average hourly earnings for private-sector employees rose from $26.72 to $29.91 by December 2020, an 11.9 percent increase, while the Consumer Price Index rose 5.3 percent, for a real gain of about 6.3 percent. But the article said the average masks what happened to the typical worker. A recent Pew Research Center analysis found that median weekly wages, adjusted for inflation, fell about 3.2 percent between December 2020 and December 2025. Average wages have slipped too: real hourly earnings are about 1 percent below their December 2020 level, and in August they were down 0.3 percent from a year earlier as inflation outpaced pay.

Engadget called the response from companies such as Apple and Samsung one of the most disappointing aspects of the memory crunch. For the most part, the article said, they have moved to protect profitability by raising prices above inflation. It cited the $100 increase on the iPhone 17's previous $799 price, a 12.5 percent jump at a time when the cost of other consumer goods rose about 3.4 percent. While phones have become more complex, labor costs have increased and some components have grown scarcer, Engadget said the one part of a phone that has truly cratered in cost has been the lithium-ion cells that power them. Before the memory crunch, there were already sustainability arguments for cheap battery replacements. If predictions from SK Hynix and other memory manufacturers prove true, and supply will not catch up with demand until 2030, Engadget argued that Apple and Samsung should offer cheap battery replacements.

Editor's Summary Engadget reported that memory-driven smartphone price increases are making longer device ownership more attractive, but battery replacement costs remain high. It pointed to Apple's 2018 $29 battery program and current pricing to argue that cheap replacements could help consumers and reduce upgrade pressure. The article said if memory supply remains tight until 2030, Apple and Samsung should act.