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Comment by npunt | Hacker News Reader

I understand India's desire to push for local manufacturing, and some of this is all just a bunch of theater dancing around that issue. Meanwhile, the Bloomberg article does a good job of letting us read between the lines about the vested interests in keeping Apple out --

> “The millions of imported used phones will need their batteries replaced. What will happen to those batteries, where will they go?” asked Sunil Vachani, chairman of Dixon Technologies, whose phone assemblies roll out a million phones a month for brands like Japan’s Panasonic and China’s Gionee.

So what do they do with used batteries from other phones? This has nothing to do with whether a phone is imported or not.

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If a new phone is sold in India, its Indian owner benefits from the entire multi-year lifespan of the battery before it has to be disposed of. If a used phone is imported from the US to India, its battery will be nearing the end of its life - most of the benefit of that battery goes to the original American owner, but the disposal costs are dumped on India. From this perspective, it's a way for the developed world to dump our e-waste on the developing world and avoid having to dispose of it ourselves.

"If a used phone is imported from the US to India, its battery will be nearing the end of its life - most of the benefit of that battery goes to the original American owner, but the disposal costs are dumped on India."

If it is a refurbished model with a new battery that won't be the case. I have had refurbished Apple stuff in the past and those things were indistinguishable from new devices and yes that included the battery.

I've I read correctly that a company like Samsung is a member of one the organisations that are complaining, I think there are other stakes at play then the green card. Especially when a company like Apple is involved. There is a lot to be critical about, but they tend to do their best in those departments.

After a few years I'd cracked the screen on my iPhone 4 and the battery was losing it's charge. I took it to an Apple store and they replaced it with a refurbished model for £100 and it's still going strong. The Apple store employee told me the phones get new batteries as part of the refurbishment.

I've heard from multiple sources that no refurbished Apple iDevice has the original battery, they always replace it.

The fact that the battery needs to be disposed of sooner should be factored into the price of the phone. I don't see the issue if they are willing to accept a battery which will need to be disposed of sooner in exchange for a discount.

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