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Apple-Backed Right to Repair Bill Signed Into Law in California
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This will soon be tackled by the EU.
Apple's next iPhones may side-step EU removable battery requirement
Technically removable, the best kind of removable
FWIW, in the biomedical industry, this is a BFD. Our analytical equipment costs anywhere from $20k-$2M and requires constant preventative maintenance and service. The manufacturers limit access to replacement parts and require customers to maintain service contracts with them. Third-party service providers are left in the cold, and customers are stuck with annual contracts costing 10-20% of the devices' original price every year. These costs impact everything from diagnostic testing and imaging to drug discovery and development.
Having tried to service my own Switch joycons, I no longer trust myself with any ZIF connector.
It’s really useless as long as it doesn’t compel manufacturers to stop sealing the devices with all kinds of glue and soldering the internal components. Those are the two things that make repairing extremely difficult. Not to mention the steps they’ve taken to ensure genuine components are used.
15% is pretty typical for a service contract. It's what we paid for computer service back in the day too, and pretty much aligned with service on all big-ticket low volume items. Some come with service guarantees, e.g. 99.999% uptime but charge extra for that.
I anticipate the bill with result in more service choices, but not lower costs.
Well, the $1000 phone is not $1000 4-5 years down the line, and will sometimes change hands several times over.
This over protection and serialization stops them from being repaired down the line even after Apple refuses to repair them when marked as vintage or obsolete.
Same goes for the M1 macbooks, like why does the screen angle sensor needs to be serialized?
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Great, let's see the battery replacement toolkit for AirPods. They cost more than $99.99.
Or does this bill not actually do anything?
No, it locks in the status quo while making it harder for non-authorized repair shops, beyond those doing Apple repairs, from competing on price. It applies to electronic products, does an EV qualify? That would really mess up Tesla.
The independent repair shops that customers would like to bring their iPhones to because they want an alternative to Apple's flat rate repair prices, those repair shops that right to repair is meant to allow getting their hands on original Apple parts, the technicians working there don't regularly repair these devices?
I really can't believe that you posted this in good faith when it even says in the article itself:
We both know the average consumer doesn't order iPhone parts to do repairs themselves, it's about manufacturers locking down their products to the point where consumers are forced to go through manufacturer-approved repair processes and pay those prices.
If it doesn't force companies to design more reparable products rather than disposable products like AirPods, "right to repair" doesn't even deserve to be in the same sentence. California is a weird mix of faux progressivism and corporatocracy which this bill is a perfect example of. Still better than most of the states if we ignore the insane cost of living.
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Nah, for the average consumer, this is about being able to go to either a 3rd party repairer, or Apple themselves, for a repair, instead of having to simply buy an entire new machine because a single component blew out, and the parts are proprietary, and aren't available for sale, and it isn't worth the cost of replacing the entire motherboard, including soldered in chip, RAM, and SSD.
No one is looking at this and seriously thinking of jumping into micro soldering on their shiny new MBP.
Or access to a 3rd party repairer who does this sort of stuff for a living.
I meant give us the right to repair cars. Example, I can't fix a Tesla battery or motor. If I do, they send an OTA signal to kill it.