Apple is reportedly planning big changes in the way it handles warranties and repairs through AppleCare, according to details leaked from an employee briefing last week.
AppleInsider brings word Apple will soon be moving to a single subscription model, which would cover all of the customer's Apple devices, replacing or sitting alongside the current one-warranty-per-device system.
Under the proposed system, Apple would offer exclusive 24/7 support for customers, while extending the option for One to One in-store training, to other devices beyond the purchase of Mac computers.
The changes, which may arrive this autumn in the US, before a worldwide roll-out, would also extend free after-purchase phone support, which currently stands at 90 days after purchase, for at least a year.
No more easy iPhone swaps?
Another intriguing item to leak from the Town Hall-style were purported plans for the company to fix more iPhones in Apple Store locations rather than replace them.
Currently iPhone users can return their busted handsets to the Apple Store and usually receive a straight swap for a device in similar condition.
Currently, technicians at Apple Stores can replace speakers, receivers, home buttons, the vibrator motor and the iPhone's battery. From this summer cameras, sleep/wake buttons and logic boards will also be replaced in-store.
The Apple employee who leaked the info to AppleInsider said: "The biggest announcement, was the way repairs for iPhones will be handled soon.
"The way it is now, if almost anything is wrong with an iPhone, iPod, or iPad, the entire device is exchanged for a like-new re manufactured (sic) device, whether brought into an apple store or sent in for mail in repair. Now we are starting to actually repair the products and return the same device to the customer."
