Originally published at: https://tidbits.com/2019/08/29/apple-offers-genuine-iphone-parts-and-tools-to-independent-repair-shops/
In a welcome change of heart for a company that has lobbied against Right to Repair legislation, Apple has announced the Independent Repair Program, which will provide genuine iPhone parts, tools, training, repair manuals, and diagnostics to independent repair businesses.
I agree with your take, Adam. Itās great theyāre doing this for iPhone. Like you, I can only hope it will eventually also happen for Macs.
To be honest, Iād be perfectly happy relying on Apple stores for Mac repairs. But as long as Apple keeps quoting this 5 day turn-around thatās just not realistic. If this is a work machine, you want to have it diagnosed and, if it canāt be fixed immediately, only bring it in once the parts have arrived and theyāre ready to go. Then drop it off, pick it up a few hours later, done. Not five days later. If they donāt want to offer that level of service to regular paying customers (Iām aware itās different for corporate accounts), they might as well let independent shops do it, whoād be more than happy for that kind of extra business.
" Thatās also true, but itās none of Appleās business unless Apple is doing the repair. If I choose to take my iPhone to an independent repair shop that is clearly not affiliated with Apple, the relationship is between that repair shop and me, and Apple is not a party to it. If Iām unhappy with the repair, it would be unreasonable to assume it was Appleās fault in any way, and Iād take it up with the repair shop."
But if you take that poorly repaired phone onto the A380 Iām flying on along with 500 others, and it starts a fire, suddenly itās not just between you and the repair shop, is it? I find this āright to repair whether I know how to do it or not and with whatever parts I chooseā thing very, very scary when we are talking about ignition devices like lithium batteries. And yes, I ran an un-authorized and then an authorized Apple service shop for many years and saw what terrible things people did or had done to their devices. YMMV.
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Apple has seemingly reversed course
Or itās possible that Appleās course was never quite what the media and iFixit decided it was.
Hey, nice to have you joining us, David!
Itās true that a fire aboard a plane affects other people, but Apple is still not involved. This sort of thing happens all the time, and there havenāt been major media reports blaming Apple. Hereās the FAAās list of 265 incidents involving lithium batteries since 1991. I count 10 instances of iPhones catching fire.
https://www.faa.gov/hazmat/resources/lithium_batteries/media/Battery_incident_chart.pdf
And to return to the car analogy, people die all the time in car crashes, some of which are undoubtedly due to mechanical failures, but the manufacturers are never blamed unless the problem is somehow endemic to the model. Of course, car companies also issue recalls all the time to reduce the chances of that happening.
Yes, thatās possible. I donāt believe itās supported by the companyās actions, however, in suing the repair shop in Norway and tweaking iOS to identify even genuine Apple batteries that werenāt installed by someone with official Apple gear. Apart from the introduction of this program, I canāt think of a single thing Apple has done in the last few years that makes repair outside of Appleās tight control easier.
It seems more likely to me that this is another case where Apple decided the negative press, in conjunction with societal support for Right to Repair legislation and the companyās inability to keep up with iPhone repairs, led it to change its behavior.
Apple is sensitive to negative pressāitās quite clear that the whistleblower report to the Guardian about Apple contractors listening to Siri recordings prompted the company to tweak iOS to request permissions, eliminate the use of contractors, and revise the grading program to protect user privacy.
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Iām not worried about Apple being blamed, Iām just worried about cheap crappy batteries or genuine Apple batteries carelessly installed putting other peopleās lives at risk. I think some things that affect all of our safety are best done by accountable organizations. Using your car analogy, I have to go to a state authorized shop for an inspection once a year, although in between I can of course mod my engine control computer and do other dangerous things.
Trueā¦but theyāre not Apple. The haters in the media will blame Apple and only Apple if an iPhone or mob catches on fire on a planeā¦you know thatās true. Unjustified maybeā¦but trueā¦
Fair enough, and the new Independent Repair Program should make it easier for people not having do such repairs on their own.
Apparently, only 15 US states require periodic safety inspections, mostly in the Northeast.
Interestingly, although it would seem to be common sense that periodic safety inspections reduce accidents, thereās conflicting evidence to that effect.
Except we have 10 (sorry, I counted manually rather than just believing the searchās count of 23) instances of iPhone catching on fire on airplanes across multiple years that show this concern hasnāt played out yet.
Iām in the same camp. Appleās actions spoke a very clear language. Also, if this was truly Appleās course all along why did they wait until they got hit with bad press to implement something they could have started years ago? My conclusion is they didnāt really want to. But faced with negative publicity they were forced to change course.
Thatās also why often times I think some bad publicity ends up doing Apple good, at least in the long run. This is no longer the 90s where theyāre at risk of going under and weād all be stuck in a world of pain with Windows and crappy PCs. Nowadays Apple is a super powerful global player that has no reservations flexing its muscles when it feels the urge. Some critical coverage and even a bit of bad publicity here and there is exactly whatās needed to reign in bad habits or every once in a while a misguided idea they float. I see that as a version of ātough loveā that ultimately will only make Apple a better company.
Itās funny how when it comes to flying weāre always super strict and quick to call for an all-or-nothing approach.
Roughly 90% of US drivers admit to at least occasionally speeding (NHTSA and insurance industry studies). And we all know perfectly well how that endangers other peopleās lives. We also know that US traffic fatalities amount to 38,000 a year, basically two A380s crashing every week. Imagine what level of drama weād see if that were to start happening. Yet when it comes to speeding, we tend to go with āyeah, well, whateverā.
OTOH when it comes to flying and batteries we start acting like a bunch of ferrets on amphetamines. I refuse to play along. There needs to be some level-headed middle ground. I believe the level of scrutiny and inconvenience (and yes in fact, cost) has to be roughly adjusted to meet the level of danger. The number of fatalities due to Li ion batteries speaks a very clear language. And yes, I know of their potential devastation. As a physicist Iām actually well aware of the energy density in such a cell and yes, I have also seen the great FAA videos of what happens when such a cell starts a runaway and how it will continue to burn under water. I still prefer to remain rational about it.
It is not Appleās responsibility if somebody goes out of their way to install dangerous components into an Apple device. Consequently, itās not Appleās business to interfere with legitimate customer efforts to repair Apple devices through third parties. Especially not when the repair involves genuine parts and skilled labor.
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Also, if this was truly Appleās course all along why did they wait until they got hit with bad press to implement something they could have started years ago?
An article I read said that Apple has been testing this new system for nearly a year with 10 independent repair shops, and only just now opened it up to all, so this has been in the works for a while.
The bad press about this topic didnāt start yesterday. That was already well underway a year ago. I have so far seen nothing to indicate Apple has been proactive here, looks quite reactive to me so far.
I have so far seen nothing to indicate Apple has been proactive here, looks quite reactive to me so far.
Why does that matter? Iām 100% sure Apple is doing this to negate the āright to repairā movement, but that doesnāt change that itās a positive move, does it?
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No, the Independent Repair Program is absolutely a positive move. The debate was merely if it was a change in direction for Apple or if the company has actually been supportive of independent repair shops all along.
They did exactly this for me at my local Apple Store. Unfortunately, once the part arrived and I dropped the computer off, it was still several days for the actual repair. 
I was curious to hear Louis Rossmanās take, since heās been hammering Apple over its repair policies, and generally hates Apple (he repairs MacBooks for a living, and as they say, familiarity breeds contempt).
He actually praised them for it! Itās not perfect, but a big step in the right direction.
tweaking iOS to identify even genuine Apple batteries that werenāt installed by someone with official Apple gear
Weāve already had a long argument about that in the thread on that story ā if Apple was trying to prevent third party battery installations with a really innocuous warning in the battery health section, they were doing it quite badly.
Also, if this was truly Appleās course all along why did they wait until they got hit with bad press to implement something they could have started years ago?
Apparently, they did start testing it a while ago. And if it was earlier bad publicity that made them do this, why did they do the battery health warning?
I think they donāt particularly care about the impact of their actions on third party stores and I think theyāre very sensitive to exposing themselves to legal liability, but not that theyāre going out of their way to screw over those third party stores.
The āApple hates third party stores and is trying to destroy themā was a media narrative (helped along by iFixit), and so is the āApple has seen the light of day because of bad publicity and changed courseā narrative.
In a month or six months or a year, Apple will do something that hurts third party repair shops, and weāll get a rash of āAppleās backslidingā stories.
(Any bets on whether the next iPhone is more repairable than current models?)
Congress is now interested in this program and Appleās opinions about repair.
Apple is expanding the program.
FWIW, this program is useful, but (as people like Louis Rossmann have already said) it is no replacement for the existing, unlicensed independent repair shops.
Apple authorized repair shops are not allowed to perform board-level repairs. They can only replace complete components (presumably those that have SKUs) like batteries, displays, cases and logic boards.
If your phone is dead because of a blown capacitor or a failed Tigris chip, an authorized repair shop must replace the entire motherboard. Simply replacing the failed chip is not allowed. Which is bad for many reasons. It costs a lot more, and you lose all your data.
Apple really needs to expand the program to certify board-repair shops (similar to the people they hire internally to refurbish boards) and let these shops buy the chips that canāt be purchased elsewhere. But I donāt think weāll be seeing this any time soon.