Apple will honor California's 'right to repair' rules nationwide
Apple will honor California's 'right to repair' rules nationwide
Apple, once a staunch opponent of the right to repair movement, now supports having a uniform federal right to repair law.
This isn’t Apple being nice.
This is Apple wanting to sell things in California, combined with Apple not wanting to manufacture two separate versions of their devices for the US market.
This is also why everyone gets USB-C iPhones now, instead of only the EU.
Nothing new or exclusive for Apple: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_effect
Same with the Brussels Effect
They supported this legislation before it was passed. Still not out of the goodness of their hearts, this version includes provisions that they had wanted previously.
They "supported" this legislation by implementing a system where parts still require users to call in to activate them, you are "strongly encouraged" to rent or buy specialized tools from apple, and the price of parts plus rental generally comes out as only slightly less than paying an apple store to do it for you.
It is malicious compliance that they get to use for a PR boost.
IIRC: They battled this talking point/discussion and legislation for years. Up until a week before it was voted on and passed.
They are not your friend.
Maybe because EU passed this before California. Then it's easy to on board.
In this case, they managed to delay the bill long enough that they now have a bunch of programs in place to actually profit from third-party repairs of their devices. This gives them an advantage over their competitors, so they are now in support of this bill.
Thumbnail looks like a purple Dodge Challenger is about to drive through the window.
I'm glad for the EU, California, and other places that are big enough to force this sort of stuff nationally or globally.
Apple »claims« they will honor ‘right to repair’ – just like they claim their latest devices are ‘carbon neutral’
this is a ruleset though, and it's likely much cheaper for them to produce one SKU for the US rather than two, a california rule abiding one, and a rest of the country one.
Right, this is absolutely because it’s cheapest for them to adopt across their product line and their PR team is trying to spin it like they are doing it for altruistic reasons. It’s the same with USB-C. Once forced by the EU, it was announced all iPhones would use usb-c, same situation
Their carbon neutral claims are a stretch, but they did massively reduce their carbon footrprint in addition to using offsets. The majority of the reduction is from using green energy at their factories and no longer using air shipping.
Apple saying they will honor like they're in control and have a choice.
They had the choice of not doing business in California, which is what they had threatened to do with previous right-to-repair and other consumer protection laws. In this case, they found a way to make money off it if so they are supportive of this bill now since they have successfully delayed it long enough to have an advantage over their competitors.
Well, didn't they play a huge role in the genesis of this law? I think they have some way to continue ignoring costumers.
Not by choice
Too bad I still need a hammer and chisel to replace the keyboard on my MacBook and don't even get me started on removing the battery which I need to do first
Same thing happened with net neutrality, California put NN into law, and the rest of the country followed because it doesn't make sense to build a separate Internet for California.
I understand this as the California Effect and similarly the Brussels effect. While both do change company policies, I do understand that many companies are going to continues to try and avoid a regulatory ruling as there is so much status quo market loss on the line for them.
This article describes how they'll be trying to use MOUs with nongovernment bodies to mollify consumers and regulators.
That's great. I'm still gonna avoid everything Apple.
The iPod Touch 7 was great.. but then they decided it didn't actually deserve long term support even though it was the last version they'd be making. So go ahead and come out with an iPod Touch 8, Apple, but I won't be trusting enough to buy it after getting burnt.
iPod touches were great for giving kids a small device without needing a cell connection. You could give them a iPhone without service but they cost way too damn much for that.
Ehhh with eu sideloading, right to repair and generally a good phone it looks like a good deal but i also think full software liberty(you can replace the software on it) is a part of RTR and i dont know if thats ever gonna happen especially with even android phones getting more and more restricted.
They get to sell their parts without having to pay all of the repair people and probably getting out of a certain amount of warranty liability. Win-win-win for them.
And people repairing their own stuff is always a good idea. People learning how to maintain their electronics is never a bad thing! Everyone should pick up a soldering iron at some point. :)
Not that I fully disagree, just that there's a reason they didn't do it before. Probably more profitable to not have repairable devices. Not that they won't try to make the best of the current situation, as you said.
Also, it would likely be more expensive to produce a line of repairable products just for one state and do different for the others, so this is the best way of spinning this.
What does this mean regarding their components pairing? Will they still force indepent repair shops to go through apple to validate a repair by requesting a new pairing for the replaced part? Will it be free? Will it depend on whether the part is a genuine apple part? A salvaged one? A third party part?
you now have the right to repair with only their parts, which is progress, albeit minimal and expensive
Here, you can buy a screen for 80% of the cost of a new iPhone.
Like they have a choice. Even Apple can't manufacture separate devices for specifically for California.
4 choices: don’t sell in CA, fight the law, make a separate phone to meet R2R laws that are likely going to become more prevalent, release a press report portraying magnanimity towards R2R and make the bare minimum effort to meet the law.
The last is the only real answer.
they saw the writing on the wall and decided to get ahead of it, by agreeing to locked down firmware apple only replacement parts, which isn't a full right to repair, but it does extend the life of an apple device, if you pay the apple tax
Damn this is huge.
We need Louis Rossman to do his best recreation of the skeptical Fry meme in response to this.