I think the problem with unofficial repairs right now is where the parts come from. If you buy an iphone camera, where does that camera actually come from. I doubt there is an unoffical iphone camera factory. So those parts only have 2 sources, broken and stolen iphones.
What ideally would happen is each part on the iphone has a serial number and is registered with icloud. If a phone gets stolen, you get a message when you install the camera telling you this. And if the original user deregisters their phone on the icloud web ui, the camera works again. Then Apple should be forced to publicly sell this part for a reasonable price for x years.
Just these small steps would move us a long way to repairability.
OEMs must be required to provide all parts at cost plus s/h. And misc docs for free.
I totally get that Apple is constantly under seige from scammers, knockoffs, etc. Not my problem.
Further, setting up official spares channel would likely resolve 90% of fraud by fullfilling a definite need. No diff than acceptible streaming moots most demand for pirating.
Lastly, I'm fine with self repair requiring an official factory reset, or whatever, for stuff dependent on the secure enclave. Like rebinding FaceID to a new camera/display assembly. A fair tradeoff between security and convenience. So I can repair my phone now, suffer with entering PIN, and then make a quick stop at a Genius Bar later, at my leisure, to reenable FaceID. With so many third parties trying to pwn Apple gear, I totally grok
this precaution.
They already work this way. If you swap almost any part on the iphone it either refuses to work or shows a warning about a unofficial part. My suggestion is simply to make this functionality only target stolen parts instead of just refusing to work at all if the apple store hasn't used their software to bless the new serial number.
Repairable is not limited to just OS support, but fair and equal access to replacement components. For example, apple can ask Texas Instruments to not sell a particular chip that is used on their logic boards to anyone else but them, rendering odds of third party repair slimmer [1].
Apple went as far as to prevent genuine, that is, salvaged parts, from legitimately bought phones, from being used to replace camera units [2,3,4], or lock phones with replaced batteries.
Right to repair is a real issue that needs to be dealt with but if we consider some other points, when you do an unofficial screen or battery replacement, where does that screen actually come from? I'm not aware of any companies manufacturing brand new iphone displays. So my only thought is they must be mostly from stolen phones and for batteries, also stolen and second hand batteries.
When I have done my own battery replacements on android phones I have found that half the time the battery I got off ebay is already stuffed probably because it was in someones phone for 2 years already.
We need to consider how much use letting users replace their own screens is compared to how much use having users not get their phone stolen is. Perhaps there could be a system where the part ids are tied to an apple id and the original id has to authorize a transfer but then all the displays on ebay would still not work because they are stolen.
It's telling that you see this as a trial. Nobody else does; there is no defense or prosecution or any of that.
The reason Apple prompts for genuine parts is to devalue the stolen phone market. If repair shops could put in any old camera, there would be a lot more incentive to sell stolen phones to repair shops, therefore more incentive to steal phones, therefore more stolen phones.
Apple's a giant company. I have no emotional connection to them. But most of what we're talking about here makes sense from a business and even customer-friendly perspective, or at least as a reasonable tradeoff between ease/expense of repair and likelihood of having your phone stolen or pwned.
So, I've to iPhones, one with a broken camera and one with a donor camera (for whatever reason, battery problem, mainboard, whatever). I can swap the camera module, or take up a repair shop. But Some make sure the repaired device won't work fully even though all of the parts are Apple originals.
Tell me how Apple not doing that shit would make the slightest iota of difference to their ability to make devices that last?
How would them not attacking 3rd party repairers make a difference.
For any of this to happen, there would have to be some serious changes in either sentiment of device makers or the legal environment. And, honestly, the number of people who want to repair their own phone is basically zero.
Where I live, there are dozens of shops that can replace just about any part of your iPhone, except the secure elements (fingerprint sensor). They don't seem to have trouble getting parts. So really we are taking about a mechanism for consumers to buy OEM parts one-off. I don't see that happening.
We're getting quite thin in the hypotheticals now, but here goes:
1. A person with no 'specialty knowledge' bought an iPhone, and
2. This person wants to have it repaired, but doesn't want to use Apple's repair service which is available in stores or direct-to-home through couriers, and
3. This person also doesn't want to use a 3rd party apple-approved repairer, and
4. This person also doesn't want to use a repairer who is using Apple's self service repair programme, and
5. This person needs a component repaired that includes a security feature such as faceid or touchid. Which rules out 3rd party component suppliers, such as those available on iFixit.com and similar for speakers/batteries/ports/etc, and
6. This person can afford an iPhone, but can't afford an official replacement part for a component that includes a security feature such as FaceID or TouchID.
The result is that this person can still have the repair made with an unofficial part and the security feature (FaceID/TouchID) won't function. That's it, that's the compromise. The device can also be repaired later with an official part to reenable the security feature.
The proposition you're making here is that the cumulative points 1-6 are somehow likely and burdensome. When it seems much more likely that the consumer would just take advantage of one of the many endorsed routes available, which also maintain the integrity of the device (e.g. camera alignment, drop strength & waterproofing). The idea that the consumer would trash their device to landfill and buy a new one doesn't hold water, not only does that produce the maximum amount of cash expenditure, but it also requires that the consumer didn't take advantage of the trade-in, buy-back and recycling schemes available.
I find most arguments about this topic fall over because many aren't aware of the breadth of what's available. So when it comes back to the article about the French government being "concerned" about paired componentry for "environmental waste" reasons - it really does smell like b/s, why aren't they looking at the myriad of brands which have no waste handling processes for phones. Instead they just happen to be fixated on the hardware which enables a high level of personal security.
It seems like we (good people) would want Apple to prevent these stolen, parted-out components from being used as replacement parts. Apple could prevent that, in theory through software that looks at secure serial numbers from components ... but how will this comport with "right to repair"?
Apple has official repair locations all over the planet and they stock parts long after products are discontinued. Yes it kinda sucks that they killed third party repair but having an official location with official parts is actually more useful than being able to do it yourself but not being able to get parts.
For my pixel 2, while there were no technical restrictions preventing me from replacing the broken camera, the screen was glued in in a way making it very difficult to open without smashing. There were also no places to buy the camera other than what seemed to be cameras stripped out of broken/stolen pixel 2s.
If the manufacturer makes parts easily available, wouldn't the incentive to steal devices to sell for parts more or less disappear? Same thing with counterfeit parts. The market for stolen/fake parts exists because OEM parts are essentially impossible to acquire legally.
Serialisation is simply another way for Apple to maintain control. You can now repair a device, but only with Apple's blessing and knowledge. The privacy/safety stories they sell are just that.
That does sound like a pretty good solution, if it can be done for a broken phone. The major issue I see is that refurbish companies are already complaining about "bricked" MacBooks, because nobody actually cared enough to ensure that those laptops where reset before being sold. I don't see the same industry being capable of guiding users through resetting permissions for spare parts.
A better solutions is to take the direction FairPhone has chosen and make the things that break user-serviceable and offer the parts for sale on Apples own website. If the issue is that phones are being stolen and sold for parts, just flood the market with cheap parts. The new iPhones are absolutely massive, so I'm not buying that you can't make them a bit thicker and allow a user to take them apart. How many people use their phone without a cover anyway?
If Apple is serious about being more environmentally friendly, then make a user serviceable phone. Not replacing your phone because fixing it is either impossible or impossibly expensive is going to have a much bigger impact than buying carbon credits for people who charge their watch. My best guess is that Apple is so obsessed with just-in-time production and so hostile to the idea of stocking parts, that they can even see the potential benefits.
There are definitely pros and cons to part serialization.
However, I think we can all agree that when Apple is selling genuine replacement parts, those parts should be ready to pair with the first phone they're put into, instantly, without needing to call Apple Support to finish the repair process. You should also be able to order the parts without needing to give Apple your device's serial number ahead of time. Otherwise, repair shops can't keep genuine parts in stock, and your ability to complete a repair is entirely dependent on whether Apple is staffing their call center sufficiently, which is currently a requirement.
Optionally, maybe there would be a way where the phone could prompt the user to choose whether they want to serialize those replacement parts to this specific device, and then they would be registered with Apple, unable to be moved to a new device if this one were stolen and parted out. An automatic check for whether these parts have previously been registered would not be as onerous as a phone call.
Not really defending it as such, just offering my experience.
That being said if I was trying to see it from Apple’s perspective, it does address a lot of problems pretty easily: thieves breaking devices down for parts or coercing users, customers having issues with their devices due to low quality repairs, users buying second hand phones with unofficial parts, various security concerns, etc. Apple do also sell old and refurbished devices also.
That being said, I do think Apple should be solving this in a way that allows unofficial repairs, even if that involves taking your ID and proof of purchase into an Apple Store to get your device “unlocked” for free so you can do whatever you want with it, knowing it may hurt the resale value and impact the device’s security. More than that, I think it should be legally required under right to repair legislation.
Scraping stolen goods for parts doesn't happen because it can be done. It is viable because manufacturers make access to spare parts artificially difficult or expensive.
Locking a device to serial is adding insult to injury when companies like Apple decide to campaign against Right to Repair. It must be said that Apple made strides towards making repairing phones easier, but as long as counterfeit or stolen parts remain economically viable, this kind of market will exist.
I get your perspective but I feel the situation is more complex than that. Replacement parts _never_ brick the phone. They can disable FaceID, TrueTone and show "non genuine" warnings. They also seem to bug out the cameras but this was fixed via an update on the 12 and seems likely to be fixed here too.
The FaceID one seems legitimate as a malicious faceid sensor could compromise security. The truetone one looks like total rubbish and should be fixed. And the non genuine messages are useful.
The problem is not you knowingly putting in a non genuine part. It's that a disappointing chunk of repair stalls and almost all online parts are non genuine and essentially fraud as they advertise as being genuine and better than the original parts. Often they are recycled parts from used / stolen devices which are worn out before you even get them. There are even stores in 3rd world countries which will remove genuine parts from your phone and replace them with fakes while doing something like a battery replacement.
The non genuine message protects the customer who gets their phone repaired. It also protects the second hand buyer so they can see that the whole phone is genuine and no bad parts are used. It also protects the phone owner by making theft less valuable as the parts can not be used to their fullest.
So I totally understand the issues with DIY repair here, but I also see all of the other issues at play. The main issue I see is that Apple does not do repairs on certain parts of the phone like the lightning port so if those parts break, they won't do anything for you. I'd like to see Apple and governments work together to find a solution that ensures users get maximum repairability while still being protected against part fraud. I'd like to see Apple have some open dialog with the public and governments about exactly _why_ each restriction is in place, what problems they face, and why they have to do things this way.
I'm all for pushing for more right-to-repair, but I'm not sure pushing for facilitating component level repair that require soldering is the right way to go.
Those kinds of repairs are incredibly difficult (I've done some myself). There are very few people I would trust to do it right, and it's hard to know which repair shop to trust. If Apple put out manuals and components for those kinds of repairs, I can imagine the number of botched repairs skyrocketing, and the resale value of the phones diminishing significantly.
I think there's a balance to strike: you want easy repairs to keep phones going for a long time, but you also want people buying used phones to not worry about getting a frankensteined phone that will last 2 weeks before dying. Only by having high trust in the second hand market do you actually get phones that get used for years and years rather than staying in a drawer or getting trashed when people buy new ones.
I would even support having ID-tags on all components and having them bound to the phone, as long as anyone can buy original replaceable components from Apple at a fair price, and that anyone can do the binding procedure themselves.. including moving components from one phone to another. You should be able to see the history of all the components in the phone, so you have some idea if a third party repair shop just moved an ID chip from an old original battery to a new unoriginal one, or used a really old original battery.
I've experienced several times that screens and batteries you get at third party repair shops die/break much faster than the ones that come with the phone. Why is that? Is it really better to use brand new electronics that will be trash in a few months, just to extend the life a bit?
If you're going to replace the battery and screen, you better be damn sure that the phones lasts 2-3 years or more, because you're buying brand new parts, constituting a large fraction of the rare and expensive materials used by the phone.. so it's not that much better than just buying an entirely new phone where all components could easily last 5 years if you treat them well.
I don’t know. It might be better if Apple controls the repair process. The reason is that my iPhone 11 stores a great deal of information including my Apple Card. I don’t want any of that info getting out into the wild. In addition, the latest cellphones are very complex. The latest iPhone used a 3D circuit board! Who has knowledge and skill to work on that? Look I’m all for people trying to make a living repairing stuff but the cellphone might be an item that falls outside the mean.
Reminds me of a Louis Rossman video [0] where he shares his frustration with Apple's independent repair shop program. He says that to get access to genuine Apple parts (and the ability to pair them to devices), Apple requires that his shop not be able to do certain things like fix a broken angle detection sensor.
It's utter BS, and the lip service companies are paying to right-to-repair bills in state legislatures honestly confuses me given their directly antithetical behavior. Hope strong repair bills get passed and they are fined to hell and back :)
What ideally would happen is each part on the iphone has a serial number and is registered with icloud. If a phone gets stolen, you get a message when you install the camera telling you this. And if the original user deregisters their phone on the icloud web ui, the camera works again. Then Apple should be forced to publicly sell this part for a reasonable price for x years.
Just these small steps would move us a long way to repairability.
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