Let’s have the same policy for everything made from a German company.
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Germany Urges EU to Require 7 Years of Updates and Repairs for iOS Devices
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That blockheaded mandates will. Software updates are great, repairability is fine, and then there are blockheaded mandates. Two completely different things.
Don’t enter EU market if EU policy is not with your liking. Ezpz. Otherwise, deal with these problems.
For some unknown reason reliability and repairability becomes mutually exclusive now. It’s not like repair must be allowed to be performed by end user. Licensed technician exist for a reason.
Most of them are calculated with refund, not minus VAT Germany is listed at $965 when it should have been $899 because you cant refund all of your VAT. At $899 you are paying $70 more than US, or 8.5% more. When you factor in exchange rate hedging where you always want to price higher exchange rate rather than lower there are hardly any difference.
More people will hold their device longer as year goes by, be it price out of reach, personal demand drops, or simply don’t care about latest and greatest anymore. Fewer and fewer people will care about latest and greatest except people who reviews those as their job. Pandemic and lockdown only accelerates this trend.
A product like the AirPods would probably never have existed if Apple engineers had to consider repairability.
To me, there’s nothing wrong with an index which ranks how readily serviceable a product is (something like what ifixit does) so long as there is no penalty for a company who scores on the lower end, and they are not forced to make their products adhere to arbitrary requirements (eg: batteries must be readily replaceable).
While there may be an exchange rate addition, Apple can hedge most exchange rate risk so 8.5% would be, IMHO, high for just exchange rate fluctuations; which is why I think at least some % is to account for legal requirements. Since it is amortized across all units sold it needed be too high. I suspect the delta is higher for Macs given the higher repair costs.
Anyone who sticks to the same phone for 7 years is a hero in my book. The longest I've done is 1 month shy of 3 years and that seem like forever
I wish they could make them repairable, given the life of batteries will be the limiting factor and we will face a growing mountain of waste simply due to battery degradation. Part of the problem is “design” wins out over repairablity. A removable stalk would leave a small line and no doubt the designers cringe at the idea of that spoiling their design. If companies were forced to deal with the waste they generate we would see more engineering for repair and recycle ease, IMHO.
There are a lot of regulations as to what a company needs to do, to be legally allowed to operate or sell products in a country. Why not this?
Taking a 5,6,7 year old iPhone to a licensed service technician? Really? Probably far cheaper and better to get a two or three year old device that works.
In Spain they passed a law that requires manufacturers to give 3 years warranty (instead of 2) and 10 years of spare parts.
Manufacturers have said that another year of warranty is not a problem but 10 years of spare parts is absolutely nonsensical.
Manufacturers have said that another year of warranty is not a problem but 10 years of spare parts is absolutely nonsensical.
And the average Mercedes lifespan in an EU country is probably 15. Case closed. Repairable products and available spare parts are a cornerstone of that industry.
I mean with Apple it is actually doable and partially happening, but with Android, even flagships, does not work 
Not for all people and not everyone wants to give up certain features that only old device has (cough) headphone jack (cough).
Also after all these years there is no globally collaborated recycle initiative and system in place. Dumping is still the main way of disposing electronics. Fewer dumping means better chance for us to not eat food that is poisoned by those dumped electronics.
It doesn’t specify full capacity though. Is it unreasonable to provide proportionally proper amount of parts for some occasional repair that happens way later?
Just for the heck of it, in Sydney, many times old style lights has been out of production for just a year or two, repairing those lights become infeasible due to lack of parts. That’s lights of all things. Unless the company goes bankrupt, I don’t see why it is that nonsensical, and certainly won’t be the issue for a company like apple.
I hope this fails is all I’m saying as apple share holder. If they need the device fixed take it to apple. End of story
Sleeking looking device and unibody certainly gains more appeal than a slightly ugly but otherwise easier to repair and easier to maintain product. That’s not to say we go back to Osborn days when a “portable” is 20KG luggable case, but acknowledging the society under heavy pressure to pollute the environment seems to be far more difficult than ever smh.
That’s more like “US superior” mindset, but I won’t dive deep into it here.
Nothing wrong with that mindset, it is after all, 100% correct. We are the BEST. We gave you apple, we shall take apple away. I don't support 3rd party companies repairing our devices either if they can't get the tooling right to adapt, then they die off. Apple should not have to change its design to cater to anyone, or stock/waste money on parts they will never need.
I am just tired of everyone attacking apple. Apple should say, make your own software and hardware if you want a different design and stick to their roots.
The sad part is the society as a whole would probably only acknowledge that well until it is way too late and we are approaching ultimate extinction.