Julianne Hanson

Op-Ed Paper
Professor Stoltman
ENG 110
iBuy, iOwn, iRepair?

The fall of my senior year in high school I still remember as one of the most stressful

times of my life. But not because of homework and sports and friends, though I had all that going

on too, but because my iPhone battery did not work. It would die within ten minutes of being

unplugged. Now that may sound shallow and teenagery of me to say, but it really was difficult. I

don’t know if any of you have ever had to go without your phone for a couple of weeks but it’s a

lot harder than you’d think. It took me weeks to become resolved to the fact that I needed a new

battery and I reluctantly forked over the $80 to replace it.

Apple iPhones are expensive to repair because of the way they are designed. The battery

is buried under multiple other components and requires 20 plus steps and various specialized

tools to replace. In addition to being expensive for the consumer to repair, this has negative

effects on the environment because of the “buy then bye” mentality it creates.

How does it create this mentality? Well unfortunately, it is almost as expensive to repair

an iPhone as it is to buy a new one. I paid $80 for a new battery and it would have been about

$150-200 to replace my phone. Most people who have had their phone for a while would look at

those prices and say “screw it, I’m just getting a new phone”. They buy a new phone and say bye

to the old one. This is what Apple relies on to keep business booming.

Their business would suffer if they offered cheap battery replacements. This was shown

at the end of 2017, when Apple confessed that they did in fact program their software updates to

slow down old iPhones which in turn affected the battery life. To reduce the backlash from this

scandal some affectionately dubbed as “batterygate”, Apple offered a short term program that
 Hanson 2

allowed for battery replacements for $29 instead of the usual $79 (Shi). Unfortunately for me,

this happened a couple of short weeks after I paid full price for my battery to be replaced.

Unfortunately for Apple, they took a five billion dollar revenue hit while this program was in

place. That’s right, during the holiday quarter of 2018 Apple had five billion dollars less revenue

than they told investors to expect. This is because they replaced almost 10x as many batteries as

they usually do (Leswing). Selling cheap battery replacements allowed people to put off buying

new phones which hurt the company.

However, people buying fewer phones means fewer phones being thrown away, which is

good for the environment. Phones are very difficult to dispose of and need to be carefully

recycled. Phones contain many chemicals that will be introduced into the groundwater system if

they are dropped in a landfill. However, lots of people don’t know this so they throw it in the

trash anyway. According to the Population Reference Bureau, only about 13% percent of e-

waste, which is old and unused electronics such as laptops and phones, is recycled. And even

worse, very little e-waste is recycled properly. Some “recycling” companies simply export the

waste to third world countries where they use chemicals on them that just result in more

greenhouse gasses (Mcallister). This is damaging to the environment and the inhabitants of these

countries. To be fair, Apple tries to do a good job of recycling their products. If you bring your

old iPhone into the store they recycle it for free. However, not enough people know about this, so

Apple is still a contributor to the huge e-waste problem.

In spite of this, Apple has its reasons for designing its phones the way they do, aside from

making more money. By making their phones difficult to take apart, they are more water

resistant. Any phone that can be opened easily is also open to water. Another reason is cosmetic.

If they were to make their batteries easily replaceable they would have to be bigger and bulkier,
 Hanson 3

not as sleek as they are now. It is also impossible to have a shiny metal or glass back with a

replaceable battery. Also, many of the newer iPhones have strangely shaped batteries, not

something that could easily be removed. The different shapes help it fit better and give it more

power.

These reasons all have merit; it is convenient to have a water resistant phone, and a shiny

metal back looks much nicer than plastic. I also like having as much power in a battery as

possible, goodness knows I need it, but I have a hard time believing that there is no way to

configure the hardware so the battery is on top of everything. There are so many intelligent

people at Apple, I am sure they will keep designing smaller and more powerful batteries that

could be easily replaced. However, even these benefits pale in comparison to the arguments in

favor of easily replaceable parts. It would be way more convenient for the consumer and better

for the environment. The growth of e-waste being produced is becoming exponential and I

believe we need to slow the growth any way we possibly can. Making iPhones more fixable

could provide a ceiling for the growth of e-waste.

I believe that Apple should make their products much more repair friendly for their

consumers, specifically when it comes to batteries and screens. When you have a problem with

Apple, let them know. It doesn’t take long; all you need to do is leave a comment or complaint

on their website. The “batterygate” scandal only happened because people were complaining and

Apple finally decided to tell the truth. Big companies rely and their consumers and it is our job to

keep them in check.

Hanson 4