Apple's New Self-Repair Program Praised by Third-Party Repair Providers

RJ Pierce, Tech Times 17 November 2021, 05:11 pm

Apple surprised a lot of people when they announced their Self-Service Repair Program, which will finally allow people to perform DIY repairs on their devices.

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Photo taken on Nov. 13, 2021 shows the logo of Apple Inc. in London, Britain. Several chip-related companies have responded to an earlier request by the United States to supply confidential supply chain information in the name of better understanding the global chip shortage as the deadline expired on Nov. 8.

The reception was quite stellar, especially from those who have long wanted Apple to honor user right-to-repair. One of these is the popular repair company iFixit, who says they're "excited" about the news, writes MacRumors.

Other right-to-repair advocates, while praising the decision, also told people to be wary. Among these is the Right To Repair Coalition, who posted this to Twitter:

Big cave by Apple, but the devil is in the details. This is far off the requirements of #righttorepair but proves that legislators are on the right track making similar requirements more broadly. https://t.co/Ms99LIgwcc
— Right to Repair (@RepairCoalition) November 17, 2021

Either way, from here on out, Apple will now be sending company-approved parts, supplies, and tools to individual DIYers, starting with the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13, according to an official press release.

It won't be just iPhones as well.

The Cupertino, California Big Tech giant plans to introduce self-service repair to Macs fitted with the new M1 chip next. As per the original press release, the service is scheduled to launch "early next year" for the supported Mac devices.

According to iFixit, this decision by Apple is "invalidating" a lot of the comments the company has previously made against the right-to-repair movement.

As recently as two years ago, the company was actively fighting right-to-repair settlements by claiming that users could "hurt themselves" if they try to fix their devices on their own, writes MacRumors.

With this news, some people might feel vindicated--perhaps including even Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, who weighed in on the right-to-repair movement and called on the company to "do the right thing."

No More 'Repair Trap' For iPhone 13

Tech Times recently reported on a so-called iPhone 13 "repair trap" that essentially prevents people from performing DIY screen replacements by locking FaceID.

While this FaceID bricking issue no longer exists in the iOS 15.2 beta release, the new Apple Self-Repair service basically makes sure that the issue is dead in the water. There are two main reasons for this.

One, it's about the screen. On the iOS 15.2 beta, the phone flashes a warning saying it "cannot verify" whether the replacement screen is a genuine Apple part. FaceID will still work, but the warning will still be there.

But with access to company-verified components, this will no longer be an issue for DIYers and third-party repair centers.

Two, the tools required to do DIY repairs will also be provided via the Apple Self-Repair service. This could make the fixes far easier to perform, more so for experienced third-party service providers.

Plus, these tools are going to come in handy when dealing with extremely tiny parts, which could be out of reach for more common tools. The best example would be the microcontroller that Apple put in iPhone 13 screens, which used to brick FaceID, as detailed in this famous teardown from iFixit:

What About Other Apple Devices?

There's no news about whether other devices not mentioned in the press release will be covered. For now, all that's confirmed are iPhone 12s, iPhone 13s, and M1-equipped Macs--be it Macbooks or iMacs.

Support for other devices could come in the future, but for now, take the news for what it is.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by RJ Pierce