SINGAPORE: iPhone users looking to replace their batteries at a discounted price of S$38 will be able to do so from Saturday (Dec 30), according to Apple.

The smartphone maker had initially said the cut-priced out-of-warranty battery replacements would be available from "late January".



"We expected to need more time to be ready, but we are happy to offer our customers the lower pricing right away," a spokesperson told Channel NewsAsia, but cautioned that initial supplies of some replacement batteries “may be limited”.





The tech company had apologised to customers on Thursday in a statement on its website for its handling of the issue of flagging batteries on older phone models.

In Singapore, the price for the out-of-warranty battery replacements will be S$38, down from the original S$118. Consumers can head to Apple's store at Orchard Road or authorised resellers to get their batteries replaced. This is available worldwide through December 2018, it said.



Staff at the Apple Store in Singapore told Channel NewsAsia the battery replacement process would take about two hours and users are advised to back up the content on their iPhones first.

Apple also said it would issue an iOS software update with new features to allow users to have more information on the health of their mobile device’s batteries. This will come “early in 2018”, it added.

The apology and measures to mitigate the fallout from the incident some have called “batterygate” came after lawsuits were filed against the tech giant in the United States, Israel and France, while there are also reports that similar cases were being readied in South Korea.