[intopieces]

They are not locking the replacement, they are refusing to guarantee the performance of parts they can’t certify are genuine.

There are third party battery health checking apps on the App Store that replace this functionality.

[jaclaz]

>They are not locking the replacement, they are refusing to guarantee the performance of parts they can’t certify are genuine.

According to the article:

> is shown regardless of whether a genuine Apple battery has been installed in the phone — it all comes down to whether Apple or one of its Authorized Service Providers installed the replacement.

So the theme is not on the genuinity of the part (unless we assume that Apple doesn't know how to recognize an "own" original part or that third party, unofficial batteries are indistinguishable from the original ones [1]), it is only on the fact that the person that changed it (and regardless of how good the work was performed) did know the "secret handshake".

Very likely it is a matter of either a sequence of commands/taps/whatever or of connecting the device to some program (or server or whatever) to "reset" a flag.

And yes it shouldn't be so different from how a number of cars have "reset codes" for errors or for oil/filter change log.

Now in the car, the on board oomputer has no way to know if the oil you (or the dealer) changed is good or bad, but a battery on a smartphone?

[1] even if it seems I am saying the same thing twice, the meaning is actually slightly different

[kitsunesoba]

As far as I understand it, it’s not uncommon for third party parts to try to appear genuine. There’s usually imperfections in the faking that Apple hones in on, but it’s a bit of a cat and mouse game.

There’s also the possibility of repairs being performed with used or otherwise tampered with genuine parts, which are almost as much of a wildcard as third party parts.

Maybe things have improved with smartphones, but I remember third party replacements for MacBooks with swappable batteries being worse than a crapshoot — on top of bad capacity and faster degradation they also often caused kernel panics and power management issues. I can see why Apple might want to not be stuck with supporting that.

[jaclaz]

Yes, but the point still stands.

If an original (used) battery is installed, it should be recognized as original and graded accordingly to its state (let's say 80% of what it should be).

The current provision doesn't prevent the use of a defective or used or sub-standard battery, it only prevents non-Apple personnel from performing a repair without triggering the (possibly unjustified) alarm.

[intopieces]

I agree with your original assessment and support this move from Apple. I am glad there is a mechanism for determining whether work done on a device I might purchase (such as a used iPhone) was done by Apple certified technicians. I do not think Apple should spend time or money attempting to certify or measure every battery that a person could put in the phone.

This is a pro-consumer move, because it gives the consumer more information about the state of a product. They can ignore it if they want, it doesn’t impact the operation of the device.

[eesmith]

But there is no reason for Apple to "guarantee the performance of parts they can’t certify are genuine".

This is not pro-consumer any more than saying that only Ford-certified auto shops are able to disable the "check engine" light, because Ford can't guarantee the performance of auto parts they can't certify are genuine.