Without a warranty, screen replacements will cost $149 (€110), sources say

Nov 7, 2013 09:16 GMT  ·  By

People with knowledge of Apple’s retail operations have noticed new replacement parts and calibration machines arriving at the company’s retail stores. The Cupertino giant is on track to offer iPhone repairs on-site.

Sources close to 9to5mac say that “the replacement parts, new iPhone screen calibration machines, and training manuals for conducing these repairs have begun arriving at some Apple Stores.”

Apple kicked off its repair initiative earlier this year, and it is now expanding it across more retail stores (perhaps internationally).

The sources in question say that screen replacements will cost $149 (€110) for each device. Other pieces of hardware that Apple will be able to service and replace on-site include the volume buttons, vibrating motor, rear-camera, the speaker system, and batteries on the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c.

Under AppleCare warranty, part replacements due to defects will be free of charge. For a phone that isn’t covered by warranty, a fee will be charged for each part replacement. A battery replacement will cost $79 (€58), and a Home button will be $29 (€21).

The sources also say Apple Store technicians will take about one hour to replace your iPhone’s faulty screen, but they can sometimes do it in 30 minutes.

The main reason behind Apple’s initiative is to avoid replacing whole phones. Last year, after the iPhone 5 was launched, Apple was faced with having to swap thousands of defective devices, something that also led to some tensions between the company and its Asian assembler, Foxconn.

Citing J.P. Morgan analyst Alvin Kwock, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that “the high return rate of defective iPhone 5 smartphones [...] led to tensions between Apple and Hon Hai over which company would be responsible for repair-work costs.”

Apple is now taking some of Foxconn’s workload and dumping it onto Compal and Winstron.

This way, Foxconn can better focus on making the aluminum iPhone 5s more durable, while the other suppliers will be tasked with assembling the plastic iPhone 5c.