Aircraft manufacturers must be thrilled at this. Imagine boarding an airplane or helicopter not knowing if the parts meet the spec and it being totally ok. Aircraft manufacturers fought for years to prevent fake parts from entering the supply chain, for safety, and to protect themselves from lawsuits.
Oregon this week signed a Right to Repair bill into law, and it is notable because it is the first such law that puts a stop to the practice of parts pairing. Manufacturers like Apple are not able to require customers to use Apple-sourced parts that then have to be authenticated, with the bill giving Apple device owners the right to use new parts, used parts, or third-party parts.
Apple has launched repair tools for both independent repair shops and consumers, but repair components must be purchased directly from Apple. Components must be paired with a device serial number after being installed, which prevents unauthorized repairs that use third-party components. The bill states that companies cannot reduce the performance of a device or display misleading warnings for parts that are not properly paired.
According to repair site iFixit, Oregon's Right to Repair law is the strongest that has been passed to date. It does have consumer protections, such as requiring independent repair shops to have a "valid and unexpired certification" ensuring the person doing the repair has the "technical capabilities and competence necessary" to make a successful fix.
The elimination of the parts pairing restriction will allow independent repair shops to make more repairs without having to rely solely on components from Apple.
In addition to preventing manufacturers from requiring components to be free from pairing restrictions, the law requires companies to make parts, tools, documentation, and software available for smartphones produced in 2021 or later. For other electronics like computers, it is applicable to devices produced in 2015 and later.
Apple did not support Oregon's Right to Repair bill, and the company has said that it will result in safety and security issues for consumers. Apple will need to comply with the parts pairing portion of the bill for products made after January 1, 2025.
Article Link: Oregon's New Right to Repair Law Bans 'Parts Pairing' Restrictions
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Oregon's New Right to Repair Law Bans 'Parts Pairing' Restrictions
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That's what the regulation enables:
The consumer choose where they purchase their repair service.
Let's get real here: When have displays running too hot ever damaged a computer or phone?
When replacing a full keyboard top cover for $300 that has 50% or 100% margin on it, Apple make more money than on replacing a ribbon cable for $10.
well it’s kind of super relevant.
If the cost is 10$ to exchange a chip or a cable, but they charge you 800$ to swap the motherboard, with 95% functioning parts.
I don't want to go cheap. I actually do want to use original Apple parts for repairs and don't mind if they do a certification check. But I want to be able to buy these parts like I would buy any other Apple item; just order from their online shop or walk into a store. I don't want to jump through hoops and registrations and having to rent tools from Apple in order to change a simple battery.
People have already started identifying what plane will be flying while booking to allow customers to stay away from Boeing should they want.
Especially after Boeing, aircraft makers and airlines have wisened up.
Doesn’t affect aircraft given that there are a bunch of other laws in place on aircraft repairs. The part does not have to comes from the OEM but still requires very detailed history on the part to be used.
What makes aircraft parts so expensive is the very detail tracking history of every single part no matter who makes it.
lol, do you think there no regulations on how planes are maintained? After 10.000-40.000 flight hours of a Boeing 737 they take the whole think apart going over everything.
You honestly think the airline companies do the maintenance? They only lease the planes
The NSA and equivalent signals intel agencies and operational espionage branches never needed no steenkin' US State legislation to pwn a phwn. But on the street, parts pairing does have the effect (primary or knock-on) of securing the supply chain, at least in normal commercial logistics.
Kudos to anyone with the courage and conviction to travel anywhere today. It's possible. It's culturally rewarding. There have always been DOs and DONTs. DO try to learn some of the language. The locals might find it quaint and endearing that you tried. DONT take your domestic daily driver across an international border. If you can afford to travel at all, and you insist on comms on the ground where you're going, buy a burner at your departure airport. Do not apply any personal credentials or install apps. When you land, let the customs personnel pwn it. Leave it at the airport right before you get on the plane.
There's been plenty of picking on Dell and their commodity tech cohorts over the years. They all really take it in the teeth when they attempt to truly innovate. People don't go particularly nuts because everyone know they sell mostly commoditized trash, mostly running a parasitic operating system. They stay in their lane. They monetize as best they can, Expectations are managed. Their shareholders won't have it any other way.
Apple, however, is on the luxury continuum, where expectations are inflated, sometimes unrealistically, by pride of price. Apple doesn't design with for cut-price trash market segments in mind. Apple customers instinctively believe Apple's products are not trash. This makes Apple owners very defensive. Therefore, the inevitable disappointment sublimates straight to rage.
Right-to-repair is obviously, indisputably beneficial. But in the shadows, Oregon's parts pairing decision will express as increased theft of Apple devices. This is inevitable. The grey/black market for parts will develop. Back in the day, in the US at least, there were crime waves surrounding Apple's fashionable white gizmos. Some big city jurisdictions even criticized Apple for their success, and begged for theft reductions measures.
How might Apple comply with Oregon, without giving up the rest of the nation? With Oregon serial numbers logged, a geofence could allow unpaired parts to operate only in Oregon, and only on Oregon serials. Imagine having to apply to Apple for permission to take a device out of Oregon when you move, and charged a true-up fee for all the third-party parts in your off-applecare tech. Or, moving to Oregon, finding that less expensive non-paired parts wouldn't work in your Kansas phone.
It's not hard to picture Apple engaging in malicious compliance, like they're doing in Europe, right now. MAybe they'll place signs in stores and put "Cancer Labels" on boxes that says -- "Parts-Paired for Your Protection. Third Party Parts Will Not Operate. You accept these terms by opening this package or using this device." Maybe they'll etch it on the device casing.
Yes, control, but don't be fooled about the Apple's repair profit center. Apples full retail repair prices are extremely high, partly because they absolutely intend to make a profit on time and materials, partly as a sales hook for AppleCare insurance. The FUD sure as hell works on me; I suppose I'm retarded or something. I buy AppleCare on everything, even though I've never broken a phone, and haven't had a warranty claim on a Mac since 1989, a Mac Plus Power Supply. I even dodged the stupid butterfly keyboard issue. Conversely, on the job, I've had dozens of Dell and HP that needed warranty repairs.
Looking back, I'd conclude that I truly didn't need AppleCare in the earlier days. Now, however, it is even more essential, as Apple's commitment to out-the-door quality has really contracted, as they struggle with more numerous foreign factories, and to fully, correctly integrate software in scenarios beyond their requirements analysts' darkest nightmares.
This supposition carries weight. Deere occupies a critical link in the food chain (obviously not alone there). They maintain positive lockout of third party and non-dealer sourced parts, and sometimes even end-user jiggering like de-powering and reconnecting a part. However, Deere does not have anywhere near enough field service techs to keep up with re-pairs. I personally know farmers with critical crops who were forced to BUY/FINANCE a new 8-series tractor to get a crop in, because no Deere techs would visit farm for WEEKS. They probably returned the tractor later, or had them repossessed, but still.
How much would it cost Deere to honorably fulfill their end game of anti-repair methodology? Enough parts in stock at all times? Enough field service techs on call? Loaner tractors for tricky repair cases? They're a dog that caught the car.
As for Apple, well, very few folks would starve if their iPhones croaked and couldn't be re-paired with a third party 800 miga-squiggle camera, or hyper-ripsey display, or clairopathic pseudofunction button. But SOOOO many more people can RELATE to their phones, than to farm tractors, Apple is the most efficient vector to legislation. Good deeds and punishment, right?
They kinda do... because SOFTWARE is what makes the iPhone what it is, and you agree to a license when you first power it up and update it. That, plus the Federal Digital Millenia Copyright Act (DMCA) make it so you don't own the experience, and have no practical recourse. Wrongly in my opinion, but there it is.
Teeeechnically correct, but these days, that's hair-splitting. Through Apple's license, to which you agree, they aren't compelled to allow their software to run on that new hardware configuration. Because they wedge software in to every hardware component, even the hardware is covered under the DMCA. It's ********, and we ALL know it. As a comparison, HP remains embroiled in lawsuits over code locking their printer ink and toner cartridges - and it's not because they DO it, it's because they didn't ANNOUNCE it plainly enough on packaging. Maybe now they get away with it by putting the "Cancer Label" on the box.
Naively wishful thinking.
I'm not arguing against idealism. Philosophically, I FULLY SUPPORT RIGHT TO REPAIR, in all it's forms, accepting all consequences.
However, I'm part nihilist, part fatalist on this topic. Big Tech, Big Farm, Big Cars, etc., etc., will just find another way to screw us. There's no way shareholders will tolerate, "Sorry, we were making too much money. We have to stop being ******** now." Same goes for Canva's "pledge" not to eliminate Affinity's stand-alone licensing model. There's no way they'll tolerate that scale of revenue leakage, especially when it's time to cash out with an IPO. Do they have that in Australia? They don't consistently behave like proper zero-sum, blood-thirsty capitalists.
Dealing with Apple is a choice. I sure as hell can't make my own tech stuff, and despite Apple's questionable ethics and street-etiquette, no other vendor provides better functionality, or makes a more compelling case to extract my money. There's no particular joy in Apple tech anymore. They're just tools. In every sense of the word.
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If you only knew how many used parts are implemented during official aircraft maintenance...
It’s truly sad that Apple is very likely to be malicious in how they comply. Even tho they can do better and implement it with minimal effort to make it extremely pro consumer, maintain security and fight against pirated parts etc. but they won’t as it doesn’t make profits and they lose control.
In Sweden at least I just use my extended home insurance to fix any such issues.
It’s effective customer entrapment encouraging them to stay with instead of going to competitors.
It’s kind of tragic the laws surrounding contracts are so weak in the U.S. that it invalidates the meaning of purchasing something to effectively just being a rental service.
Just come to Germany and purchase the phone and you will be all good as German law doesn’t recognize EULA at all.
Well it can always be fixed with new laws and regulations that enforce private property rights.
If EU can do it then the U.S. and their states should be able to do it
I also don't think there is a single commercial aircraft manufacturer selling aircraft in Oregon.
No, it's not at all relevant to the claim that I was responding to, which is that Apple makes a huge profit on repairs. If Apple is charging $800 for a repair that costs them $800—say $600 for parts and $200 for labor/overhead (just making numbers up here)—that's not a profit-making enterprise.
So one can certainly quibble with the necessity of the repair in the first place—I certainly do, and think Apple should be willing to make more repairs rather than replacements—but that's an entirely different point.
This is flatly untrue, as I've pointed out multiple times in this thread. Apple's repair prices, particularly for the latest devices, are the same as if not cheaper than equivalent third-party/DIY.
Care to cite any support for this claim? Because anecdotally, and from everything I've read (which is quite a lot), Apple's hardware quality is second to none and better now than it's ever been, particularly with the Mac.
1: If you purchased every part needed to repair a Mac it will cost more than buying a new Mac.
2: the part they exchanged still gets refurbished
3: the act of exchanging the 800$ part with an already existing part that costs them 8$ to fix is an enormous profit margin.
They don’t because it’s much cheaper to fix the parts in a large centralized area with specialized repairmen who are really good at repairing small parts. More likely to be consistent as well as just putting in an already known fixed board instead of Troubleshooting it and diagnosing it.
They aren’t. Reputable Independent repair shops are 100% always cheaper when they need to fix something instead of exchanging a part. When parts need to be exchanged it’s sold to them at ludicrously expensive prices and they must return the “broken part” so they can’t use it as a donation board when chips, and fuses etc need to be replaced that you can’t purchase legitimately.
The entire Apple’s butterfly debacle over a couple of years, multiple of their laptops was wrongly designed with a few mm too short display cable that causes it to fail in a short time, having the IO board directly connected to the motherboard without a ribbon cable means every time any of the IO’s gets damaged it will often damage the motherboard and make it impossible to repair.
Etc etc
But this is nonsense. Apple never reuses any part that a user touches, so the aluminum case, keyboard, and trackpad are all thrown out or recycled. Batteries are also not reused so that’s out. Really the only things Apple could be refurbishing/reusing are ports, cables, and maybe speakers and misc. chips/controllers, which aren’t going to net them very much. Then you also have to factor in all the labor and other overhead it takes to pull these things apart and dispose of or reuse them.
Soooo you have no actual support, just a collection of complaints from 5–10 years ago that are no longer true.
There's vanishingly little to fix on any modern device that doesn't require a replacement part. Nearly all of the most common repairs—screens, back glass, batteries, speakers, ports—are competitively priced at Apple, completed by authorized technicians, and come with the best available parts.
But you're correct that if you need micro-soldering you're better off going third-party (because Apple won't do it at all).
Rent tools from Apple? Try and fix your modern car. My mechanic says it costs him 65k a year to keep his advanced systems and special tools up to date. So he can fix the modern cars. Apple should only sell the tools with zero to no markup. Costs Apple a bunch of money to design, build, stock, so you can repair with their special tools. Just like the cars. Not a very good business decision on Apples part. Wonder why the DOJ is not suing GM?
What do you think a refurbished computer is? They absolutely reapply new chips, replace cables, put on new solder, etc etc.
It’s both easier, cheaper and faster to tear apart and repair a broken computer with a faulty chip compared to manufacturing a new one.
They aren’t recycling a perfectly usable 1.000$ motherboard when all that’s needed is troubleshooting (very easy if you have the schematics of what everything does and how it’s connected and an idea of what’s wrong) and 20min to remove the broken chip/cable and replace it with a functional one.
And if you don’t believe it you are to open up a few refurbished computers.
The chips and controllers are going to net them a lot, considering they can often be replaced for pennies. Example of the chip responsible for charging breaks it will make the computer completely dead and if you replace that single piece you have a fully functional computer.
They have effectively free motherboards they can resell again.
The motherboard contains many reusable parts. You can’t recycle silicon chips. It’s completely useless silicon waste.
An Apple top case includes the aluminum body, keyboard, trackpad, battery, speakers, and maybe ports (I'm not certain, and it may depend on the particular model); it does not include the logic board/motherboard, which can be replaced independently.
So as I said, all Apple is really getting back out of a top case replacement are smaller chips/controllers, cables, possibly antennas, and other random bits that they may or may not be able to reuse. The calculus is potentially different for logic board replacements, where you're probably better off going third-party if possible. And I wouldn't be surprised at all if Apple doesn't bother with board-level repairs, even at their dedicated facilities, and just sells them into the secondary market (though I have no idea).
Again, as much as you don't wait it to be true, repairs are not generating large profits for Apple.
Sorry? But it’s not 5-10 years ago, but 2023 history going back at least to 2016 with the exact same issue. Such as the 2022 A2338 M2 MacBook Pro 13” that was discontinued in October 30, 2023….
That’s what I could think of the top of my head. Haven’t looked in to the M3 ones tho.
you can check their boneheaded placement of the SSD and the power circuit.
The SSD needs 2.7v it gets from a 2.7v rail
And next to it you have 13v rale. And if the 2.7v is shorted to ground it’s because it’s been fried by the 13v rale…
Effectively blowing your SSD up in the 2019 MacBook Pro that was discontinued in 2021, can’t say when they stopped selling refurbished ones.
Or the fact the SSD in the current M1/2 MacBooks have their memory in a raid configuration, so if one chip get damaged or corrupted you effectively lose all your data.
Or the high tolerances of the screen and keyboard/palmrest distance causes it to damage and potentially cracking it as by apples own statement
Well yes if it’s the screen, battery, speakers and the, then it can often be more equal, but if it’s anything to do with the motherboard it’s never cheaper with Apple or authorized technicians as they are limited in what they are allowed to do without sending it in and get replacement part
Unless you can refurbish the motherboards
The sad part apple doesn’t allow reselling of such parts so it’s sadly required to ether purchase it from the grey market or use parts from an existing motherboard that is broken.
They aren‘t selling a part that costs them $600 for $600.
Oregon better hope other states, or the Feds, follow suit with similarly tough legislation. If they don't, or if other legislation is less stringent, there is the possibility of Apple stopping sales of iPhones/iPads in Oregon.
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