Only a 'Small Fraction' of iPhone Users Will Use Self Service Repair Program, Study Suggests

[MacRumors]

Very few iPhone users will repair their own iPhone to postpone their next smartphone purchase, despite the Self Service Repair program, according to research by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP).

Earlier this week, Apple announced the Self Service Repair program, giving customers who are comfortable with the idea of completing their own repairs access to Apple genuine parts, tools, and manuals, starting with the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 lineups. While the scheme has been met with praise from Right to Repair advocates, it seems that few iPhone users will take advantage of it in practice.

CIRP's research suggests that almost all iPhones in use have a display in "useable" condition and most iPhones have a battery in "useable" condition. 12 percent of iPhone displays are cracked but useable, and just six percent are unusable and in need of replacement. 26 percent of iPhone batteries are said to provide battery life lasting half a day without charging, and 14 percent need to be charged every couple of hours. Battery replacements are therefore likely to be among the most common repairs, but comparatively few active devices are in need of replacing either of these parts that are subject to a high level of wear and tear.

The small number of active devices in need of replacement parts, combined with the fact that many users will not be comfortable completing their own repairs, indicates that very few iPhone users will actually take advantage of the Self Service Repair program. CIRP Partner and Co-Founder Mike Levin said:

It seems battery life affects consumers more than screen condition. 14 percent of iPhone buyers reported needing to charge a battery in their old iPhone every few hours. Only six percent of iPhone buyers said they had a cracked screen that made the old phone unusable, while another 12 percent had a cracked screen that was still useable. Of course, buyers have many reasons for upgrading from an old iPhone, including processor performance or storage capacity. So, at best a small fraction of buyers are likely to postpone a new iPhone purchase by repairing an old phone through the Self Service Repair program.

Since most new iPhone buyers already have "more than adequately usable phones," "few owners would use the Self Service Repair program to postpone their next iPhone purchase," according to CIRP's Josh Lowitz.

The Self Service Repair program will be available to users starting early next year in the United States and expand to additional countries throughout 2022.

CIRP's findings are based on a survey of 2,000 Apple customers in the U.S. that purchased an Apple Watch, iPhone, iPad, or Mac between October 2020 and September 2021.

Article Link: Only a 'Small Fraction' of iPhone Users Will Use Self Service Repair Program, Study Suggests

 

[Populus]

I wish they make the next iPad Pro/Air easy to open to change the battery easily.

Having to exchange it for a refurbished one has several downsides: First, your battery has to be severely degraded for them to offer you the battery service. Second: after you pay for the battery service, you receive a “refurbished” device, which could have a lower color accuracy or lower screen quality. It happened to me with an old MacBook Pro (non retina), I had to replace the screen and the new one didn’t have the same color accuracy.

Being able to safely open the iPad and replacing just the battery (something that eventually will be needed) is a win/win for all.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

Questions!

Does it void the warranty?

Is SIRI going to be available if you get stuck fixing the iPhone?

Let’s be real who plans on fixing their iPhone by themselves? This all sounds very scary.

Apple: How about lowering the Applecare prices? How about lowering the prices what technician will charge you. This will be more beneficial for the consumer. I don’t think this self-repair thing will work.

 

[Tagbert]

Not a surprise. Most of us could do repair work on our cars but don't.

 

[Heat_Fan89]

Seriously, if I have the money to drop $1K+ on a smartphone, you think I would cheap out on trying to repair it myself? No way, i'd rather spend the money and have either Apple or Best Buy who have the proper tools to do the job right the first time and not make it look like an amateur did the repairs. And think about it. If you try and sell a phone back to Apple or anyone else and they see it has been visibly repaired, you think you're going to get top dollar for it?

 

[Keymaster]

No surprise here, most people weren't interested in repairing or upgrading their computers even before they started to be difficult to work on. The vast majority or users see their computer as a sealed box that they don't want to open, and they would rather replace it than work on it themselves. It's a tiny sliver of users today that will build their own computer or open one to upgrade it, which is why the iPad is so successful as it requires no thought after purchase.

Sure, there are people who would do the upgrades (myself among them, I installed upgraded RAM in my Mac Mini just last year), and odds are the people reading this site are more likely to be willing to open their computer and swap out or fix things. We're a tiny minority though...which actually makes it more surprising that Apple instituted a repair program at all.

 

[lazyrighteye]

This is not surprising. We've become such a disposable (and lazy) society. Ice maker in the fridge no longer working? Get a new one. Still, I firmly sit in the camp that would gladly tackle - and have - some of these more frequent repairs. I'm all for easing the repair process and remain interested to learn more about pricing and other program details.

 

[Nicky G]

John Gruber made a point of how niche a group this would appeal to yesterday, but he updated his blog today to reflect another point of view that some folks shared with him: This will be great for small-scale, non-AASP repair shops, who have the skills, but have not had access to manuals and authorized parts, and have not been able to do in-warranty repairs before now. From that perspective, even though it might not be a numerically large group who do these repairs, they may actually serve a much wider number of people now that this is open to them. It's a good point, I think.

 

[dmr727]

That's why this was such a good move by Apple - it generates a huge amount of positive press without actually affecting them much at all.

 

[jz0309]

Really? I would have thought every single iPhone user will do this

 

[dmr727]

This is not surprising. We've become such a disposable (and lazy) society.

Earlier in the year I had to retrieve my lost ID from a TSA office at the airport, and I noticed a huge bin of full of phones and tablets off to the side. I commented about the number of devices in the bin and the agent commented that the vast majority won't be recovered - people insure against loss/theft and with the cloud making it trivial to restore from a backup, it's become easier to just get another one.

 

[minimo3]

Really? I would have thought every single iPhone user will do this

I don’t think it’s surprising: It’s very easy and inexpensive to change oil in your car, yet what percentage of car owners do it?

 

[ouimetnick]

Seriously, if I have the money to drop $1K+ on a smartphone, you think I would cheap out on trying to repair it myself? No way, i'd rather spend the money and have either Apple or Best Buy who have the proper tools to do the job right the first time and not make it look like an amateur did the repairs. And think about it. If you try and sell a phone back to Apple or anyone else and they see it has been visibly repaired, you think you're going to get top dollar for it?

If your $1k+ iPhone is 3 years old and you are comfortable doing your own repairs, why not?

I recently repaired an iPhone 11 Pro Max with a cracked back, by swapping over the battery, logic board, camera, Face ID, and display into a new back housing. Took about 3 hours and definitely not for a newbie, but it worked out just fine.

 

[BWhaler]

But many will use independent repair shops.

It’s about choice and empowerment—and no tech companies becoming John Deere where farmers can no longer fix their own farm equipment.

 

[LogicalApex]

This isn’t a surprise. Few people repair their own laptops even though OEMs will sell you the parts. Doesn’t mean the program shouldn’t exist… Good thing it is finally being offered, but it is just so Apple can get ahead of the inevitable right to repair laws that were inevitable.

This is not surprising. We've become such a disposable (and lazy) society. Ice maker in the fridge no longer working? Get a new one. Still, I firmly sit in the camp that would gladly tackle - and have - some of these more frequent repairs. I'm all for easing the repair process and remain interested to learn more about pricing and other program details.

This isn’t a bad thing actually. As we increasingly move to make products use less energy to reduce the impact on the climate we need people to upgrade “boring” devices that they otherwise wouldn’t want to upgrade. For instance, we waste a lot of energy in the vampire energy devices use that isn’t well tracked, but it is being improved upon.

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[Art Mark]

Headline: No kidding! Very few people care about this except small groups of obsessives. And as electronics get smaller, and even more complicated, having your cousin Bud, in his basement, 'fixing' things - it ain't going to happen anymore than NASA sends up Joe the plumber to fix the space station. It takes increasing expertise and for the vast majority of consumers they have no interest in home repairs. BUT for those that want it - go ahead. But please stop making this into a 'rights' issue. There is no 'right' to repair. Will cousin Bud in the basement also perform your next medical procedure because, you know, the 'right' to repair?

 

[JPack]

What kind of survey is this??

Of course most respondents would indicate they have a working phone. If they didn’t, it’s likely to have been replaced or serviced already. This is similar to walking down the street and asking who needs to visit the hospital.

What this self repair program enables is any third party repair shop or person to buy and replace batteries and displays with full confidence. Grandma or grandpa might not want to replace their own battery, but they can be confident someone else can help using OEM parts.

 

[Villarrealadrian]

I don't know this survey sound really sketchy, they didn't asked me

 

[anthogag]

I would fix my iPhone using a "kit" if I cracked the screen or need to change the battery in between yearly upgrades. I would not repair my iPhone to prolong its use because I like the shiny new exciting iPhone. I upgraded every year since I moved from BlackBerry to iPhone; iPhone X, 11, 12, and now 13.

 

[CARIB_APPLE]

This is not surprising. We've become such a disposable (and lazy) society. Ice maker in the fridge no longer working? Get a new one. Still, I firmly sit in the camp that would gladly tackle - and have - some of these more frequent repairs. I'm all for easing the repair process and remain interested to learn more about pricing and other program details.

It has nothing to do with being Lazy. Ive updated the SSD on my old MacBook Pro, but trying to open an iPhone and replace the battery... If there were screws to get the back cover off then maybe I would attempt it, but with how it's sealed I would save myself the headache and have it sent to a professional.

 

[anson42]

Sure, there are people who would do the upgrades (myself among them, I installed upgraded RAM in my Mac Mini just last year)

Same here. Upgrades are "easy" but diagnosing, say, a motherboard problem is near impossible without the right tools and knowledge, and then fixing it is probably a replacement anyways. And depending on the computer, replacing a motherboard is also way more effort than it is worth. I took apart an older MBP once to replace its motherboard and while I was successful, it was a far cry from replacing a PC motherboard that has much larger connectors. Never again.

 

[dasmb]

Oh, 100%. That's why it makes so little sense to resist self service repairs -- it's goodwill and it is likely to have little impact on actual repair revenue.

Resisting these types of repairs also encourages Right to Repair legisltion, which for all its good intentions likely would force some uncomfortable choices on manufacturers. For example: could you imagine if it was legislated that users be able to repair a display independently from an input device? Thick screens forever!

 

[ignatius345]

This whole "people will/won't fix their own devices" speculation is a total red herring.

Everyone benefits when independent shops have the same access to parts, tools and documentation -- and therefore are able to compete with Apple on price, turnaround time and physical availability near where they live. There are vast numbers of people throughout the world who don't live anywhere near an Apple Store, but if an indie repair shop or three opened in their town, they'd benefit. And if you don't trust anyone but Apple to fix your phone, you can still do that.

 

[Heat_Fan89]

If your $1k+ iPhone is 3 years old and you are comfortable doing your own repairs, why not?

I recently repaired an iPhone 11 Pro Max with a cracked back, by swapping over the battery, logic board, camera, Face ID, and display into a new back housing. Took about 3 hours and definitely not for a newbie, but it worked out just fine.

But that's not the point. If a person can do the repairs without having it look like someone has visibly repaired it, fine because i'm all for that. However that group is rather small because they don't have the equipment Apple uses to properly break apart an iPhone. If I trade in a device back to Apple they ask you if the device has a cracked screen and looks good. If not they have the right to give you less on the trade in. Some people are willing to take that chance, others not so.

This user repairability is just the first step. It only will only benefit most end users when Apple decides to design and engineer their devices for much easier service.

 

[tomashi]

Accurate. I upgrade every year. Also I run a case and a screen protector, haven't broken **** yet