Apple Will Sell iPhone Parts to Repair Shops
Apple (MacRumors, Hacker News):
Apple today announced a new repair program, offering customers additional options for the most common out-of-warranty iPhone repairs. Apple will provide more independent repair businesses — large or small — with the same genuine parts, tools, training, repair manuals and diagnostics as its Apple Authorized Service Providers (AASPs).
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There is no cost to join Apple’s independent repair program. To qualify for the new program, businesses need to have an Apple-certified technician who can perform the repairs. The process for certification is simple and free of charge.
Interesting that non-iPhone devices are excluded.
Second, it will have the very real effect of making it easier for people to get their iPhones repaired in rural areas and countries without many Apple Stores.
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Apple isn’t going to begin selling parts to the general public, it’s not going to sell to people who repair phones out of their homes, and it’s only making the program available to people who meet specific requirements.
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Apple is also selling a limited number of parts. These include iPhone batteries, cameras, speakers, and displays. This means Apple isn’t going to allow independent repair professionals to do a wide variety of repairs (for example, as of October 2018, it wasn’t selling charging ports for iPhones, a part that is both easy to replace and commonly needs replacement on older iPhones.)
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Buying these new parts from Apple is also still more expensive than buying original but refurbished parts, which are commonly used by independent repair companies.
Self-repair advocates iFixit seem enthusiastic about the news, with some caveats. iFixit’s Kyle Wiens applauded the move, while also pointing out that more formal right-to-repair legislation is probably on the way and this is Apple’s attempt to get in front of that.
Repair → screen or housing replacements and not much else
Apple doesn’t even truly repair their own iOS devices. This doesn’t mean they’re magically going to allow third parties to try advanced repairs
Previously:
