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SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- U.S. top tech company Apple Inc.'s offer to replace iPhone batteries at lower prices could cut sales by millions of units this year, Bloomberg reported Thursday.

The report quoted Barclays' analyst Mark Moskowitz as saying that Apple could lose 16 million iPhone upgrades in 2018, as more people would take the 29-U.S.-dollar battery offer and decide not to buy a new iPhone.

Last week, Apple apologized for slowing down the performance of old-version iPhones with older batteries, which has already drawn multiple lawsuits.

The unannounced move by Apple has aroused anger among some Apple customers, who regarded Apple's secret handling of iPhones with older batteries as a trick to force them to buy newer but more expensive Apple devices.

In response to consumer outrage, Apple said it will cut 50 dollars from the out-of-warranty iPhone battery replacement for the next year.