First reported by iGeneration, the information was then backed up by MacRumors by an internal Apple document that the site has acquired from several reliable sources. While the site didn’t publicly publish the full document, it has provided quite a number of useful information regarding the new policy.
For example, Genius Bar and ASSP are now permitted to replace a third-party battery with an official Apple battery for the standard fee. If the repair is unrelated to the battery, they can ignore the third-party battery and proceed with the service. However, they can still refuse to service iPhones that contained certain third-party components. Among those in the list include logic boards, enclosures, microphones, headphones jacks, Lightning connectors, and TrueDepth sensor arrays as well as volume and sleep/wake buttons. MacRumors further added that the updated guidelines will be in effect starting this Thursday and should apply worldwide. Based on past experiences, Apple doesn’t usually reveal this information to the public, so do proceed with caution if you sending over an iPhone with third-party batteries to local AASPs. (Source: iGeneration and MacRumors. Images: iFixit.)