From Sean Hollister’s “Apple shipped me a 79-pound iPhone repair kit to fix a 1.1-ounce battery” posted Saturday on The Verge:
Last month, Apple launched its Self-Service Repair program, letting US customers fix broken screens, batteries, and cameras on the latest iPhones using Apple’s own parts and tools for the first time ever. I couldn’t wait. I’d never successfully repaired a phone — and my wife has never let me live down the one time I broke her Samsung Galaxy while using a hair dryer to replace the screen. This time, armed with an official repair manual and genuine parts, I’d make it right…
I expected Apple would send me a small box of screwdrivers, spudgers, and pliers; I own a mini iPhone, after all. Instead, I found two giant Pelican cases — 79 pounds of tools — on my front porch. I couldn’t believe just how big and heavy they were considering Apple’s paying to ship them both ways.
[Skipping a 12-paragraphs detailing a complex, error-code generating battery swap…]
It would be an understatement to say that Apple has a history of resisting right-to-repair efforts. Before the iPhone, replacing a battery was typically as easy as inserting a thumbnail to pop off your phone’s back cover; afterwards, phones largely became tricky to even open without specialized tools, which arguably pushed customers to replace their perfectly good devices when they might have only needed a new screen or battery. Also see: batterygate.
The more I think about it, the more I realize Apple’s Self-Service Repair program is the perfect way to make it look like the company supports right-to-repair policies without actually encouraging them at all. Apple can say it’s giving consumers access to everything, even the same tools its technicians use, while scaring them away with high prices, complexity, and the risk of losing a $1,200 deposit. This way, Apple gets credit for walking you through an 80-page repair, instead of building phones where — say — you don’t need to remove the phone’s most delicate components and two different types of security screws just to replace a battery…
I don’t think Apple expects anyone to seriously take it up on the offer of self-service repair kits. It stacked the deck in favor of taking your phone to an Apple Store, where it can tempt you to buy something new instead. The real victory will come months or years down the road, though. That’s when Apple can tell legislators it tried to give right-to-repair advocates what they wanted — but that consumers overwhelmingly decided Apple knows best.
My take: Kudos to Hollister for trying. If he hadn’t had a story to write, he confesses, he wouldn’t have.
Were SmartPhones, not just iPhones, waterproof and rustproof back when replacing batteries and screens was easy?
Apple has made iPhones far more durable. A trade off is making them harder to repair. Battery life keeps getting better too.
Aye…there’s the rub
😉
Point is, do they really want the ability to repair or do they want Apple to do it they way they want?
(Yes, I realize these requests start at the customer level, but it’s those in the fourth estate that are rarely satisfied)
We spent a fair amount of time to make a library of documented system calls so a customer could write their own software for our scientific instrument. I think one person actually used this.
For the most part people just want their products to work, and when they fail they want an experienced person to fix them quickly and correctly for a fair price.
There are a small number of people who like to tinker with things. Not many.
If Apple could make it as easy to change batteries as changing batteries in a flashlight what would you give up to make that happen? The level of waterproofing? The case strength which could affect the shattering of the screen?
Why should they make it easy to change the battery if it only needs it once in three years? Why make the glass super easy to change if most people don’t break the glass? It’s a tough call. Most of us, legislators included, work with a small sample size of users. Apple, Samsung and others deal with hundreds of millions of phones. With so much at stake I’m sure they have gamed this out.
Apple laptop batteries used to be swappable. Back then you might only get an hour or two on a charge. I used to carry a spare when I traveled. Also, after a year or two the batteries might swell up and need replacement. Technology has changed. Batteries are much more reliable. The trade off is we take them to a service center in the relatively rare case that they fail.
The assumption that the repair equipment is proportional to the size of what’s being repaired is probably about as superficial as one can get.
“I am sorry doctor, but that robotic surgical equipment is way too large for my small Prostate “
IMO, Apple is providing everything that is used by their personnel when repairing a phone “In House.” Where all repairs ought to be done if it’s to be completed properly. This is reminiscent of the scene from the movie: “Apollo 13” when Ken Mattingly was in a mock up space capsule on the ground trying to solve a problem utilizing only the tools and resources available to the crew in orbit flying a bucket of bolts.
The author of this hit piece is a clown!
That’s like the politician that says “ if I didn’t have something important to say, I won’t speak. “
Wouldn’t that be nice if politicians only talked when they had something important to say? And not just because they like to, hear themselves speak?
I can just see Hollister going to his boss at the end of the week and saying, “Sorry, no article this week. Couldn’t find a good story. Feel free to give me a new assignment next week.”