Originally published at: Apple says it will start selling replacement parts and provide repair guides for iPhones, Macs | Boing Boing
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Amazing in theory, we just need to make sure it actually happens…
And lets just say i’m more than a little sceptical*…
*this is a company that locks its components to serial numbers to actively prevent replacement parts being added
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Wow, hell just froze over. What a Wednesday…
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I’ll believe it when I see it. What’s funny is how the press release tries to make Apple sound all friendly and magnanimous to its customers, when the reality is that they are being dragged into this kicking and screaming via lawsuits.
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Let me guess, the $38 screw driver needed to fix an iphone 12 will not work with with the iPhone 13?
Dongle not included?
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Keep an eye out for airborne pigs while you go about your day!
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The European Commission announced plans for right-to-repair rules for phones, the UK introduced rules requiring manufacturers sell spare parts for electrical appliances, and half of US states have an active right-to-repair bill in their legislatures this year. This move is just Apple doing whatever it can to limit regulation
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Louis Rossman has already commented on it. He got burned the last time Apple said they were going to allow independent repairs. He’ll thank Apple if they actually allow proper self or 3rd party repair. So we’ll see if this is yet another PR stunt to kill right to repair.
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I’m waiting for Apple to quietly reduce the length of time they provide OS support for older hardware. If you have the ability to render something obsolete, it doesn’t really matter if people can fix it or not. I imagine the number of relatively new devices that require repair and aren’t still under warranty is a pretty tiny market that won’t have much of an impact on Apple’s revenue.
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They’ve just been spotted over Battersea!
(sorry, I realize that’s super on the nose, but Pink Floyd is always relevant for a reason)
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Still never buying an iPhone, but excited that this may set a norm that makes all phones more user-serviceable (at least let me change the damned battery after a couple of years).
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Apple already has a repair policy. This is so silly!
From my manual: “Please mail us your device and a check for $1300, and we will send you a (repaired) phone.”
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Replacing batteries should be doable by anybody with the willingness and tools to do so and I’d imagine this will be the minimum bar for this program.
Replacing memory and storage? That’s probably not gonna happen on Apple devices that aren’t otherwise designed for user-serviceable memory/storage replacements. Most modern Macs have memory and SSDs soldered onto the logic board – and BGA rework is not for the faint of heart. The secure enclave (T2) chip further complicates storage upgrades.
Anyway it’s good to see Apple taking some steps here to allow more user serviceability of their products but I remain skeptical about how far they will actually go here.
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I still have several old macs that I will keep running for a while and have used ifixit a lot through the years for repairing/upgrading apple products
For most of the years I’ve used apple products they were repair friendly. All the old apple and mac computers came with actual manuals and a Apple Hardware Test disc to help diagnose problems and make it easier to repair the computer. Its the past ~15 years that they’ve become awful about treating customers as the enemy and/or suckers to be bled for every penny. Haven’t bought any apple products in the past 8 years; won’t buy another for the foreseeable future.
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Oh sure, we don’t care if you want to fix it, but you’re going to have to purchase, exclusively from us, this overpriced proprietary connector and these exclusive embedded software bits that may allow you to repair this unit. And as for the remaining 95% of this device, well I’m afraid that’s designed in such a way that it basically impossible for you to disassemble.
This ain’t that scrappy little computer company I fell in love with 30 years ago. Apple is now an all consuming conglomerate machine with a cute little smiley face stuck on the front.
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iFixit is a treasure!
It would be nice if they made all that available for older equipment, instead of the latest & greatest.
Not all of us can afford to buy new Apple stuff.
I certainly wouldn’t expect much in the way of parts, but maybe specialized tools, & certainly manuals should be available.
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I believe it when it actually happens.
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There is some wording in this that makes it reasonable to assume that Apple will allow this only for spare parts purchased directly from them. In other words, just another monopoly.
This seems like nothing more than Apple working really hard to come up to the question “How can we look like we’re supporting device repair, while really we’re just wringing even more money from our customers?”
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But at least you know it’ll work, and fit correctly, which is no guarantee with some random eBay or Amazon vendor.
I wonder if I could get a better Home button to replace the shonky one on my iPhone 4…?
That might very well be, but that is still in no way whatsoever an argument for locking down the repair software to only certify and activate parts bought through apple. Not at all. That is precisely the type of nonsensical monopolistic arguments they would use, and they do not stand up to scrutiny whatsoever. “We have to have a monopoly because alternatives might have worse quality” is not a logically sound statement.
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