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Apple Adding iPhone 5 and Additional Macs to Pilot Program Allowing Repairs of Select 'Vintage' Products
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Ah ha! Apple’s recycling program. All new computers with material from your old computer at a higher cost.
Oh no, my trusty 15” 2012 finally becomes obsolete at the end of this year. Wow, it’s been that long. It’s like waking up one day and realising you’ve been with the same woman for 14 years.
She’s been a good workhorse and I’d hate it when she finally dies. The laptop that is, not the wife.
Yeah, it was a really sad day for me when my 15" 2011 MBP died.
I had upgraded the memory myself to 16GB and replaced the HD with a 512GB SSD myself.
I really really miss all of those ports and the ability to upgrade the important things myself .
I have NEVER bought an Apple product based on how thin it was, and never will.
I am keeping my iPhone SE until it dies and then reluctantly going to replace it with an Android phone because everything that Apple now makes is too big, they may as well call it the pocket iPad.
Of course it is. It’s an attempt to cushion political disagreement with their current monopoly on service repairs.
Apple’s “technicians” don’t repair defects. They perform expensive shotgun part replacements. Instead of replacing a problematic part, they replace an entire assembly. I doubt you’d find a solder iron in their shop.
At Apple, we believe that our computers belong in the landfill after a few years of use, and that our customers should just buy a new one instead of selling it or giving it to a less needy family member. Did your battery die? Time to buy a new computer. Oh you want the battery replaced? Too bad, we don't do that. Oh, you want someone else to replace the battery? Haha! Too bad, we've made that illegal.
Because here at Apple, we believe you're our b*tch, and you do as we say. Now, go and buy the new MacBook Glue. It's an iPad with a keyboard, sort of. But for twice the price. And best of all? There is no way anyone can ever repair it. Not even us. Yep, the new MacBook Glue. It's made of mostly glue! Starting at only $1799 if you're okay with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. It has one USB port. Shut up. It's rose gold.
Because here at Apple, we believe you're our b*tch, and you do as we say. Now, go and buy the new MacBook Glue. It's an iPad with a keyboard, sort of. But for twice the price. And best of all? There is no way anyone can ever repair it. Not even us. Yep, the new MacBook Glue. It's made of mostly glue! Starting at only $1799 if you're okay with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. It has one USB port. Shut up. It's rose gold.
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Yeah, I miss the upgradability too. Back at my final year in University I bought my 15” 2011 for around £1250 with student discount and free AppleCare. That promptly died multiple times due to Logic Board failure and they replaced it with the 2012 I still have today.
I spent probably £300-400 on upgrades in that time, putting it to less than £2000. I actually love the new MBP build quality and I think they’re overall much stronger machines, and upgradability wouldn’t be the biggest concern for me if they just priced the components more reasonably.
To get a machine suitable for my next 5 years, with enough overhead to handle future projects, I’ll be looking at a top spec 15” MBP with a 1TB SSD and that will cost about £4500 with AppleCare. It’s just too damn much knowing how much I originally paid and it’s not an investment I can justify. The SSDs are fast, but they’re just the Samsung NVMe Pro chips which are at least twice as cheap (depending on the storage size) on the new market.
Wondering where the forced obsolescence conspiracy theorists are today? 
Glad to see Apple attempting to extend the life of their devices further. Something that I hope other electronics companies and even Apple can expand on.
The ICs, flash memory, screens, and other solid state items in these devices don’t really wear out. In many ways, the new replacements don’t really do much more ( fundamentally ) anyway.
Glad to see Apple attempting to extend the life of their devices further. Something that I hope other electronics companies and even Apple can expand on.
The ICs, flash memory, screens, and other solid state items in these devices don’t really wear out. In many ways, the new replacements don’t really do much more ( fundamentally ) anyway.
Here is how "commercial" repair goes:
If you give a client a bill for $500 labour, parts 20c they get upset about the labour charge
If you give a client a bill for $50 labour, parts $800 they are happy.
Thing is with "repairs" is there can often be secondary damage on a board that may not show up for days -> months. A new board can often have hardware bugs removed, firmware updates, etc etc etc and therefore be more reliable.
Downtime for customers can be very costly for them, I have been to one place where is was $2000 a minute (back in the 1990s)
Now I do both, I fix down to component level (Scientific equipment) and I board swap, and trust me I cry at the cost we pay for parts, retail at the local hardware store may be $10, we pay $130+, but because we can not guarantee the specs and because it is a health and safety issue, the genuine part is bought and fitted. But then again I have replaced a 2c resistor and saved work $4000 for a new board.
However, I am a firm believer in that parts and service information should be made available.
It’s scary how fast time goes, remember i5 scuff gate on here like it was yesterday!
My history with the i5 was a bit bumpy though, had to have mine replaced due to the touch screen not working but only intermittently (the store wouldn’t believe me after they replaced the screen so I had to fire off an email to Tim Cook/his secretary which soon sorted me out!),
I then dropped it and smashed my phone screen for pretty much the first time ever, got that replaced by a third party then a couple of weeks later someone stole it, again the only time I’ve had a phone stolen! They were welcome to the terrible battery life by that point, you literally couldn’t go a morning without it needing a charge never mind a day!
After all that I had to buy a iPhone 6 Plus which I’m still using happily to this day! I guess it’ll be next on the ‘vintage’ list though sadly!
My history with the i5 was a bit bumpy though, had to have mine replaced due to the touch screen not working but only intermittently (the store wouldn’t believe me after they replaced the screen so I had to fire off an email to Tim Cook/his secretary which soon sorted me out!),
I then dropped it and smashed my phone screen for pretty much the first time ever, got that replaced by a third party then a couple of weeks later someone stole it, again the only time I’ve had a phone stolen! They were welcome to the terrible battery life by that point, you literally couldn’t go a morning without it needing a charge never mind a day!
After all that I had to buy a iPhone 6 Plus which I’m still using happily to this day! I guess it’ll be next on the ‘vintage’ list though sadly!
Wondering where the forced obsolescence conspiracy theorists are today?
Glad to see Apple attempting to extend the life of their devices further. Something that I hope other electronics companies and even Apple can expand on.
The ICs, flash memory, screens, and other solid state items in these devices don’t really wear out. In many ways, the new replacements don’t really do much more ( fundamentally ) anyway.
Yeah, remember these are all at "Apple prices", so you will only be paying 2-3 times what it cost for any other company to supply.
I thought the same way when I first saw his videos, but I don’t have to like him to realize he’s on to something.
Sure, Apple is not the worst, but they are nowhere near best either. The focus of their repair service has changed from doing the best thing for the customer with a broken device, to revenue and sales.
Perhaps my perspective is different as I have experienced the way Apple service used to be - long before Genius bars existed. I also have other consumer electronics where replacement parts are sold at cost - the policy being that they want you to help you keep the product working as long as possible - since you already paid the big profit margin at first purchase.
It grates me to have to queue or make an appointment to see a millennial “Genius” with no more qualifications than a supermarket checkout operator - to tell me what is wrong with my device.
I lucked out recently when an Apple Genius told me that my daughter’s iPhone 6s was uneconomic to repair (Apple policy), but that an unofficial repairer would do the job. Bless that guy - he may have let that slip by accident, but it turned out to be the best advice.
I don't think Apple did that. I think you're misremembering that you actually took it to a dealer.
And some of us actually still do it if necessary to get a customer up and running. Vintage machine? No problem, we'll still recap your Macintosh Plus analog board if you need it. Apple once ordered one of our guys to stop working on a MBP "immediately" and give it back to the customer unfixed because it was vintage. Did we? Nope, we fixed the computer.
Louis actually fixes sh*t. He's a New York Ass about it, but he does it. He's too annoying to watch with all the rants, but some of them are absolutely justified, and Apple absolutely behaves badly sometimes. The entire "vintage" concept isn't all that old, parts could be ordered for any Mac as long as the warehouse hadn't run out. The really old stuff went to Sun Remarketing, you could still get Lisa parts in the late '90s.
I have a very bad feeling I know what Apple's plan with this program is. They're doing it to get the part supply back. Those 661 parts (part numbers of parts that have to be returned to Apple generally start with 661) are still going to be collected, but instead of Apple sending them to the rework depot, they're just going to shred them. That's what the running out of parts is about, they'll ship all the boards they have, and shred what comes back to reduce the supply of reworkable boards for 3rd party repair providers.
He has an agenda, that is obvious.
I wonder where is the MacBook Pro 13 inch from mid 2012 (non Retina)? Probably still "young" for being labeled as vintage, considering it got discontinued in 2015.
It was absolutely Apple, at their Asia headquarters in Ang Mo Kio, Singapore. Probably about 10-15 years ago.
I phoned them and explained that it was important to me because I was leaving on a business trip and they said “bring it in”
Absolutely clear on that point. Distinctly remember because it was the first and only visit to that Apple location.
If they offered service on the 2011 15” pro they’d have my money for a logic board and a battery...
Well apparently after this year the only non-obsoleted Mac in our house will be the 27” iMac I bought this year. It just feels weird as they all run really well with RAM and SSD upgrades.
I am glad to hear my non retina 2012 MBP will be part of this. It may need a new battery and the screen is slightly scratched. I am hoping they are able to replace the GLASS and not the screen because there is no damage to the screen. The thing is a tank. I have used it just about everyday for 6 years now. upgraded RAM to 16 and put in a 500 GB SSD myself. All the ports plus the optical drive I use for my extensive DVD collection. I know once this thing quits on me I will appreciate the Retina display on a newer one...But will hate to lose all the ports. fingers crossed it lasts me 5 more years.
What's wrong with it?
If it's the usual problem (graphics chip failure) you can get the chip replaced for a couple hundred, it's cheaper than a board swap, and an Apple swapped board probably has a bad chip anyway. I saw them fail pretty quickly after board swaps, particularly toward the end of the repair extension. There are quite a few options for getting it done, Louis Rossmann is obviously one, I know the "brickfence" user on eBay does a decent job of it, you might be able to find somebody local.
Newer Tech makes batteries for it.
You don't need Apple to fix that computer.
October 2021, it was actually discontinued in October 2016.
It's a shame the real MacBook Pro didn't last that long. (The 2012 15" non-retina MBP, which was the last actual pro laptop Apple built.) (And no, the current 15" "Pro" doesn't count. It's better than last year's joke, but it's still stupid thin, has soldered RAM, and worst of all soldered storage. It's ridiculous.)
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Yes.
You can't abuse it, but no laptop will last 10 years if you abuse it.
And of course there's getting lucky enough to avoid one of the problem machines. Sony used the same problem Nvidia chip Apple did in 2011, and got hit with the same class action.
I know of several 2008 MacBooks that are still in use. I wouldn't want to use one daily, the Core 2 Duo is really slow compared to the i7 from a few years later. But people absolutely do.
It’s only because they were still selling the MD101 as late as the end of 2016 if not a bit later. They were popular with K-12 because of the SuperDrive and frugal customers who wanted to max the RAM, install an SSD or 2 and have a capable machine albeit without a high res display and strong GPU. Denying service on a product some people bought just 2 years ago would invite lawsuits.
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So “Pro” really means upgradable storage and RAM huh?
The soldered RAM was a necessity since LPDDR3 is not available in dimms. The soldered NVMe just made sense when designing the boards. I suspect more and more manufacturers will start soldering these things very soon. I certainly wouldn’t leave money on the table.
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