> How would owners possibly know that a compromised component has been added ?
Some will, some won't. They don't need you or some other individual or company or institution to decide for them they are too ignorant to decide for themselves where to go for replacement parts. If you're so worried over these problems just take the thing to Apple to have it repaired but leave open the option for others to get their own parts and repair it themselves or have someone repair it for them. The same goes for anyone else, it is not as if the option to use 'authorised' repair services will disappear.
> because a lot manufacturers don’t want anyone to know how to fix them.
I actually don't think they could care less if you fix it yourself. Apple, Samsung etc have done nothing to stop repair shops around the world that fix/replace phone or computer components and companies like MacSales have happily existed for years.
I can imagine if he has attempted to repair a MagSafe charger or a battery that Apple would rightly want to protect their customers but anything else would be largely harmless.
> the customer is likely to blame Apple again instead of whoever did the repair.
Says who?
Bad repair shops are a problem, but Apple is exacerbating that problem and they know it. They want people to go the Apple store where their "geniuses" can tell them they have to spend thousands of dollars to replace a main board when the actual problem is a bent pin or an unplugged battery. They want independent repair to have a bad name so they can keep getting away with that nonsense.
How are independent repair shops supposed to use on-brand parts when Apple wont even sell them at a reasonable price without some ridiculous contract?
Apple's independent repair program is complete BS. Expensive parts, a lackluster part selection, and frivolous certifications are one thing, but that's not enough for Apple. Their independent repair program essentially prevents shops from doing anything more than simple screen and battery replacements. If they offer services beyond that, Apple revokes the shop's "privilege" to purchase overpriced OEM components.
They say they want to prevent customers from being scammed by bad repair shops, but Apple's scam is just as bad. They want you to buy new devices, regardless of whether you want them, and they will trick you into buying them if they think they can get away with it.
> Why should Apple decide what part I put in the phone? If the phone is out of warranty then I should be able to use batteries, screens, chargers or software that is not blessed by Apple's grace.
For a lot of people, this is a feature, not a bug.
It prevents repair shops using substandard components, or even replacing good components with cheaper ones and then re-selling them.
Edit: another much more serious issue, is security. 3rd party components are an obvious target for supply chain attacks.
> without any kind of guidance or oversight of the repairs made using the parts that they would be forced to provide
I may have missed calls to force Apple to sell parts. Is that actually happening? In any case, aftermarket parts exist, but Apple is intentionally annoying users with persistent messaging in their product and intentionally making their devices difficult to repair. Further, Apple often replaces devices instead of repairing. Difficult repair in not incidental to their design; they're doing it on purpose. And I wouldn't expect Apple to have oversight of an unaffiliated company. It's not their business to play regulator.
> Can you give a practical example of such a thing happening in anything except the rarest of rarest case?
This happens _all_the_time_. Especially in complex precision-engineered electronics products.
If a third-party repair shop is making repairs using Apple certified components then that's fine. If it's any aftermarket component then clearly Apple should not have any sort of responsibility to the device, which has been fundamentally altered.
>Apple doesn't allow those who aren't Authorized Repair Centers to purchase genuine replacement parts or to have access to service manuals
And why shouldn't they be allowed to do that? They're not stopping anyone from reverse engineering the parts. They're not stopping anyone from doing the repairs and documenting them otherwise. I don't understand why anyone thinks that Apple should be compelled to willfully aid people that could harm their business model and their brand and to do it for free, no less.
> 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.
You just presented a technical restriction, didn't you?
> 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.
I disagree. This is not so much about DIY-repairs, but about a free market for third-party repairs, without which Apple can force people to pay as much as they want.
> And then someone will mess up the repair and blame Apple for a malfunctioning device or demand they fix it for free.
I call this bs. Apple doesn’t want devices repaired because they are too greedy. Their own repairs in store are sometimes more expensive than buying new. Guess why that is? Pure greed.
>Consumers just want a choice to bring their broken vechicle/device to a guy who charges a reasonable amount to repair.
This. I will be happy even if Apple ( and specifically Apple ) will do this themselves instead of charging parts that earn their exact same margin as if you were buying a new computer.
Everything is wrong with the logic board, which cost you $400+. Apple speakers are ( comparatively speaking ) easily blown. FlexGate, StainGate... the list goes on and on. What could have been an easy fix which turns out to cost few hundred bucks.
>Forget ICs, now you can't even upgrade storage or RAM in your own computer
Why forget? We're talking about Apple, and it's a choice
Apple could make at any time. It took me a few years, but I am now pretty damn good with my hot air reflow station and can reliably work with pretty much any SMD.
If someone (who of of course has given informed consent that I am not Apple and they have no responsibility for this repair) wants me to try and fix their device, what's the good reason for Apple not selling me a component?
Because it makes no sense if your goal is to make as much money as possible. You'd rather sell them something new or capture as much profit as possible by selling your repairs.
I'm an apple customer only because I consider them the least worst option for me at this time. Nobody is king forever, and the second there's a viable option for me, I'm out.
> Factories will often overproduce Apple parts like screens then sell the excess to independent vendors.
In fairness to Apple, that’s not fair at all.
I hope right to repair keeps gaining traction. If I need to buy a laptop any time soon it’s going to be a Framework. I replaced a DIMM in my current laptop (ThinkPad) and would have been pretty upset if I had to throw it away because of soldered RAM.
My fear with authorized repair programs as the only option is the risk of changing what’s considered fact. After a (people) generation where all training and education says “this is impossible,” people will believe it. The manufacturers get to dictate the new reality with no pushback from knowledgeable opponents because those opponents won’t exist anymore.
I’ve personally fixed many vehicle problems, a hot tub, a stove, a dishwasher, a fridge, a furnace, etc.. I’m 100% positive the manufacturers are lying about the complexity of everything and confident in saying that a lot of the complexity is intentionally engineered to be complex.
People want to fix their own stuff and they’ll try no matter what. The manufacturers like to tout the risks of DIY repair, but the biggest risk, by far IMO, is a lack of official schematics and docs. The manufacturers are literally creating the risk by withholding repair resources and forcing everyone to trust random internet strangers.
Learn how to discharge capacitors if you’re going to DIY fix anything :-)
> I assume they want to be able to confirm the shops aren't also buying counterfeit Chinese components on the side and swapping them in for the genuine ones.
> I also assume they want the repair information to feed into their tracking of the history of the device, as it can affect warranty, AppleCare, whether Apple is willing to service the device in the future, etc.
> I don't know the details, but can you point to specifics (actual text) that seem unreasonable,
All of that is unreasonable. When you purchase a device, it is yours. Apple isn't asking for repair information but is demanding personal data on customers of the repair shops.
> Apple is so anti-repair they have no provisions for a reasonable at home process.
Just because they don't prioritize their designs for at home repair, doesn't mean they're anti-repair. Clearly they're not anti-repair if they're voluntarily making their tooling available for repairs.
I can't really blame them for prioritizing design over repairability. At least for now, repairability doesn't sell a lot of phones -- the number of people who want to repair their own phone is so small, and I say that as someone who has repaired a couple iPhones in the past.
> and totally get why people want the right to use 3rd party repair services. I've used them myself in the past to save (a lot of) money.
The BBC article talks about someone who was in Macedonia. Apple doesn't have repair centres there. What they did - try to repair their device in a non-Apple-served country - was about all they could reasonably do.
As Apple wants more of our life to be phone-oriented (payment details, wallet, physical data, etc) expecting 100% of people to be within X minutes of official repair centers 100% of the time is not workable, nor reasonable.
I get it - the home button is secure and might have been compromised. This was just horrible design - they failed to account for a failure mode, and default to a brick instead.
A warning bar or message on boot indicating "the touch id may have been compromised - all touch id features are disabled - please contact Apple" - while annoying - would have been reasonable.
>But people buy the devices knowing that that's not an option.
A manufacturer cannot dictate the consumer's options regarding the owned devices, even though they have it in their terms and conditions. Apple is currently being gobsmacked by right to repair claims under this very principle.
> Dont worry, Apple is hard at work implementing parts blacklists
Source?
We get iPhone repairs out of Apple very often - If we mention it's urgent they'll swap it for a refurb, which is a good thing: It's allowed me to be in-and-out in 15 minutes versus dropping an iPhone off and picking it up the next day.
We have a business account - I've not broken my personal iPhone in years so I can't speak as a consumer. I did have a MacBook Pro 15" keyboard (pre-butterfly) fail WAY out of warranty and they replaced that for free too. Maybe I'm lucky, or maybe Apple aren't so bad to deal with after all?
Some will, some won't. They don't need you or some other individual or company or institution to decide for them they are too ignorant to decide for themselves where to go for replacement parts. If you're so worried over these problems just take the thing to Apple to have it repaired but leave open the option for others to get their own parts and repair it themselves or have someone repair it for them. The same goes for anyone else, it is not as if the option to use 'authorised' repair services will disappear.
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