Apple Discusses iPhone Repairability at Keynote for First Time in Its History
Apple Discusses iPhone Repairability at Keynote for First Time in Its History
In 15 years of new iPhone announcements, Apple had never talked about repairability, until now.
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.
Ease of swapping parts is quite pointless as long as they keep bricking your device/disabling features when unoriginal part is detected even if it's from another genuine iPhone.
They say it's to stop people from stealing iPhones to sell for parts.
What they don't say is that the only reason there is a market for that is that they aren't willing to sell the parts directly at an affordable price....
They say it’s to stop people from stealing iPhones to sell for parts.
There's an easy fix to this. Allow users to mark their devices as broken/dead in their (icloud?) system, so its parts can be extracted and used for genuine repair. Put it behind 2FA, email confirmation, and require purchase invoice, or whatever to make it happen. To counter edge cases, give a month for appeal, only then mark it safe for usage of its parts on other phones. A trillion dollar company should be able to implement this, but they're trillion dollar company for a reason, so yea...
Thiefs don't have access to the accounts inside a locked phone, let alone the invoice of purchase.
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).
It's cool if anyone can change it. It's not if it checks if it's an apple backplate and blocks you from using your phone if it's not from Apple
The coming replaceable battery will be another big step towards repairability.