For the first time, Apple discussed repairability during its iPhone launch event. An engineer mentioned the new iPhone 15 Pro models were designed with a structural frame that makes the back glass easier to replace. This comes after the iPhone 14 introduced a design that allows removal of the front or back. Repair advocates welcomed the acknowledgment but will still examine the devices for barriers like parts pairing. While praising initiatives to reduce emissions, critics argue the most sustainable option is not buying a new phone annually. The conversation on repairability is complex as commitments face scrutiny versus past actions restricting repair. Only time will tell if Apple’s claims translate to meaningful improvements or are more superficial than substantive.
Huh? A phone battery, for example, is about 50 bucks (the exact price is slightly different for every model). And they sell the parts directly, to anyone, via self service repair.
They recommend renting or service tools that often cost quite a lot… but you don’t have to use them, such as their “heated display removal” tool which gently and consistently heats up a display then pulls it off with a suction cup and a “display press” which holds a phone and a display perfectly aligned and allows you to pull a lever to glue them back together with sub-millimetre precision. Those do cost a bit of money (especially if you buy them, instead of renting them) but again - you don’t have to use them. There are cheaper ways to do it (such as microwaving a standard heatpack from a first aid kit then resting it on the display to heat it up).
They only introduced this recently because of the always increasing backlash against their practices.
And thing is, they only sells parts for a small subset of devices from the last few decades. If you have one of the latest devices (from iPhone 12), great. If not, get fucked.
There was hardly any backlash.
They’re doing it as part of reducing their carbon footprint. There’s so much carbon produced during manufacturing that they need devices to continue being used for about ten years after the original sale, otherwise the company will never be carbon neutral.
That means the devices have to be cheap to repair - both in terms of parts and labor/time. I have an older phone (too old to be eligible for Apple’s self repair process) that I tried to repair recently - took it to a tech, they gave me an outrageous price - more than the phone is worth. And when I checked ifixit’s step by step guide for the repair… yeah over a hundred steps and it will take at least 3 hours with a high probability of messing it up and having to buy other parts that you’ve damaged during the process.
Apple’s newer models, that are supported for self repair, are designed to be easy to repair. That’s why they’re the only ones that are supported.
Bull fucking shit.
Apple goes out of their way to stop repairs. They ask the companies that supply their microcomponents to create a new version of them, just different enough for the original not to work, then make them sign a contract to only sell to them. By doing this, third party component level repair shops can’t just buy the components from the supplier and have to have a stock of donors boards in order to repair anything.
When you go to the Apple store because something in your board failed, they charge you the price of a new device to repair it and then advise you to just buy a new one. Even if you decide to do the repair because it’s more eco-friendly even thought it costs the same, you will lose all your data, because they just replace the entire thing instead of the milimeter capacitor or microchip that is broken.
Apple devices are still a pain in the ass to open and use non-standard screws with tons of different sizes, making sure that if you mix a longer and a shorter screw, you will probably break something.
Or you can buy a phone that doesn’t require this bullshit to change the battery
Such as? I’ve considered buying a pixel (for other reasons). But one of the things holding me back is they’re worse for long term software support and they’re no better than an iPhone for repairability.