In a shocking U-Turn, Apple have announced that they will be making genuine apple parts, tools and manuals available to consumers for them to fix their own phones. A huge win for the right to repair movement, or is it?
Recently the tech giant has come under widespread criticism for making repair of their devices by third parties difficult or even impossible With the iPhone 13 being the first phone where it was not possible to replace a screen due to this invalidating face ID, even when replaced with a genuine part. Although Apple U-turned on this last week, they have a history of issues with aftermarket replacement parts, including battery health not showing on batteries from the iPhone XS onwards and error messages appearing about parts not being genuine since iPhone 7.
So what does this mean for the device repair industry? The short answer is it is unknown, the scheme is not yet launched and details are sparse. How-to Guides and aftermarket iPhone parts have been available online for years, so there has been nothing actually preventing consumers from sourcing the information and parts themselves, other than them not being genuine, so how much does this influence their decision?
The timing of this press release is interesting, as it comes less than a week after the Face ID U-turn and after governmental backing of the Right to Repair movement. It is undoubtedly good PR for Apple with most major news outlets talking about it to a wide audience, whereas the criticism has previously been a conversation only for existing device repair communities and tech journals.
Will these parts be available to third party suppliers?
Currently, we don’t know, from the information in Apple’s press release, they state the customer will purchase the parts from the Apple Self Service Repair Online Store. We can safely assume this will be done through the customer’s Apple ID, tying the parts to the device. Currently iPhone screens require programming (from iPhone 8 upwards) when being replaced, in order to keep True-Tone colour and transfer screen serial data. Whilst tools like the JCV-1S exist to allow repairers to do this, it is not something that the average consumer will be able to do. So how will Apple get around this? Likely by pre-programming the parts for individuals before sending them out, further tying the parts to that consumer’s device. Or by having the customer contact Apple to pair their part once installed so that they can confirm there has been no third party involvement.
Genuine Samsung spare parts, as well as Huawei have been available for years, and this has not caused any harm to the industry. Whilst it is possible for a consumer to learn how to fix their phones, there is a risk as well as significant time investment that most people are not willing to take on. Not only that, what happens when the customer tries to fix their own phone and breaks it? Will Apple cover this damage? Or will consumers take these failed attempts into their local repair shop who will then gain business from this?
What do we know?
We know that repairing iPhones, especially the 12 and 13 models that Apple have stated the scheme covers, is not easy. It requires specialist equipment such as heating tools, mobile repair screwdrivers and suction cups. When we tried to disassemble the iPhone 13 ourselves on a livestream, we found even with the expertise of our in-house technician, it was not straightforward.
We also know that this is a very big U-turn for Apple, who have actively lobbied against the right to repair movement in the past, so what is the catch?
We don’t know the price of these repair parts, nor do we know how the guides will be accessed or if Apple will make any changes to their parts or phones in order to make them easier to repair, something that will undoubtedly benefit the industry as a whole. We also don’t know what sorts of insurance or warranties will be offered to those who attempt these repairs and cause damage to their own phones. Only time will tell.
