This gets me thinking, has anyone done any research on whether Apple’s decision to completely replace devices rather than fixing and returning them and to solder RAM and storage increases e-waste production (regardless of whether the waste is recycled) to the point where any increased reliability can’t justify the increase in waste?
This is a US thing due to customer traffic but it still doesn’t work this way. In other countries they do “modular level repairs,” in store i.e Logic Board swaps, Display swaps and other components. Those parts get refurbished and eventually become other parts for repairs. The apple store would never do component level repairs because the turnaround time would be insane. Did this shit for 10 years and people would lose their mind over a 24 hour turnaround time to get their computer back. Our store would turn around over 100 devices a day doing system level repairs I couldn’t imagine how much slower it would be if had everyone running digital microscopes and micro soldering components.
Also apple rarely swaps out devices anymore the only exceptions are headphones, iPads, and watches. Only time devices get swapped out if they’re beyond economical repair or the time to repair won’t make their guidelines due to part constraint or other issues. During my time I would literally rebuild entire Macbooks because they were dunked in water and maybe one component was salvageable from the previous computer.
This gets me thinking, has anyone done any research on whether Apple’s decision to completely replace devices rather than fixing and returning them and to solder RAM and storage increases e-waste production (regardless of whether the waste is recycled) to the point where any increased reliability can’t justify the increase in waste?
Apple sends devices back to repair depots. They don’t do component level repair at stores anymore.
It is much easier to give a new/refurb device on the spot and then have their depot repair and put that item back into circulation that way.
People here actually think Apple yeets their intake into the trash from every Apple Store are smoking something I’d like to partake in.
This is a US thing due to customer traffic but it still doesn’t work this way. In other countries they do “modular level repairs,” in store i.e Logic Board swaps, Display swaps and other components. Those parts get refurbished and eventually become other parts for repairs. The apple store would never do component level repairs because the turnaround time would be insane. Did this shit for 10 years and people would lose their mind over a 24 hour turnaround time to get their computer back. Our store would turn around over 100 devices a day doing system level repairs I couldn’t imagine how much slower it would be if had everyone running digital microscopes and micro soldering components.
Also apple rarely swaps out devices anymore the only exceptions are headphones, iPads, and watches. Only time devices get swapped out if they’re beyond economical repair or the time to repair won’t make their guidelines due to part constraint or other issues. During my time I would literally rebuild entire Macbooks because they were dunked in water and maybe one component was salvageable from the previous computer.