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F*O*A*D

On 9/9/14 1:38 PM, wrote:
On Tue, 9 Sep 2014 09:43:23 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

On Tuesday, September 9, 2014 11:22:55 AM UTC-4, wrote:
On Tue, 9 Sep 2014 04:38:15 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

On Tuesday, September 9, 2014 7:31:11 AM UTC-4, Tim wrote:

On Monday, September 8, 2014 8:50:45 AM UTC-7, F*O*A*D wrote:

One of my dislikes about the Apple iPhone has to do with battery

replacement/upgrades. There really are no upgrades, and replacing the

battery is a real pain in the ass and requires "fine motor skills" I'm

sure I never had. So, you end up going to Apple ($75 plus tax) or one of

the third party kiosk guys at the mall ($55 plus tax) for a new battery.

Bummer.

$50 bucks to change a $5.00 battery?

Union labor? You can get the whole front screen replaced for just over $100, including the screen. That's a *lot* more labor and trouble.

I used to write contracts and one thing you always have to factor in

is "risk".

If there is a chance you will trash a $700 phone, you need to build

that chance into your price.

The better the guy, the more you have to pay him and you allow more

time so the lessen the risk.

In the extended labor cost world,. $50 is chump change.

Even 20 years ago, the minimum IBM labor rate was ~$185 an hour (up to

$325), one hour minimum. I could write a contract at $125 an hour but

that was 4 hour minimum and virtually zero risk.

I understand what you're saying, but it's apples and oranges (see what I did there?). You're talking about onsite maintenance of enterprise computer equipment by highly trained, professional staff. And if they cause an outage it could potentially cost the client 10's or 100's of thousands of $$$.

This is a kid in a little shop at a strip mall or kiosk in the mall, doing a 5 minute battery replacement with virtually zero risk. Think changing your cordless phone battery, but with smaller parts.

I suppose if someone had bad eyesight and their hands were shaky, there's some risk. :-)

If this kid is making $15 an hour, the actual labor cost is closer to
$30 by the time you pay FICA, unemployment and insurance and they have
to keep the lights on in the store.
$50 is probably a fair price when you throw in the battery. I wouldn't
pay it but if I was nervous about cracking into a $700 phone I might.

to get this back to boats...
Dealers charge about $300 for the 100 hour service on a Yamaha and
that is basically dropping the foot and changing the oil. They give
you a long checklist of stuff they did but is mostly just looking at
stuff and saying "it looks OK to me". Unnecessary parts replacement
can get that south of $400. (replacing pristine spark plugs, impellers
and such)

My "problem" with the iPhone battery is not the cost of replacement so
much as it is Apple's never ending quest to make its phones thinner and
thinner and thinner. The iPhone 6 introduced today is even thinner than
the iPhone 5S. For Apple, the thinness means a sealed phone that
requires pain in the ass effort to change out the battery. My old 'droid
phone allowed me to open up the back of the case and pop in a newly
charged and really larger battery.

I didn't see anything in the iPhone 6 announcement today that will
motivate me to became an "early adopter."