Retina MacBook Pro Battery Replacement To Cost a Small Fortune

Apple is going all-out to remove choice and increase costs for their customers. The new Retina display MacBook Pro costing a whopping $3850, doesn’t have upgradeable memory or SSD storage. Also, the battery in all Apple portable devices is non-removeable. All these are things that can be replaced in competitor’s Windows laptops costing just a fraction of the price. Now, the price to replace the Retina MacBook Pro’s battery has been revealed: $199. This is a 54% increase over the $129 cost, which is already expensive, to replace the battery for the MacBook Air or the non-Retina MacBook Pro and there doesn’t seem to be a good reason for the price increase except that Apple can.

The battery in the Retina MacBook Pro is glued to the case and cannot be removed by the customer, while previous models were screwed in. To have it replaced, the user must either ship it back to Apple, or have it done at an Apple store. All this leads to expense, inconvenience and downtime for the customer, since with a competitor’s laptop, they could simply buy a new battery online from a number of retailers or a local computer shop and fit it in seconds, in the comfort of their own home.