April 19, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Four days after tech giant Apple announced a discounted battery replacement program in the US amid criticism that it intentionally slowed down older smartphones, its Korean unit on Jan. 2 pledged a similar scheme for local customers.

“We are currently updating our Korean website about reducing the battery replacement cost for iPhones. The service for domestic consumers will be the same as the US and all models released after the iPhone 6 will be covered under the scheme,” said Apple Korea. 

Apple’s Cupertino headquarters officially apologized for the iPhone’s performance deterioration and announced its support of US$50 for the US$79 battery replacement fee on its website on Dec. 28 (local time). However, Apple Korea received criticism for not following suit with an apology or compensation. 

The Korean unit has now responded by pledging to provide on-par services for domestic consumers, who can replace their iPhone batteries at designated service centers for 34,000 won (US$32), down from the previous 100,000 won cost of new batteries.

In addition, Apple plans to update its iOS so that iPhone users can check the battery status in real time and see how the software update affects their performance.

By Alex Lee and newswires (alexlee@heraldcorp.com)