“Creating greater access to Apple genuine parts gives our customers even more choice if a repair is needed,” Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer, said in a statement.
Why is this a big deal?
In short, you will have more options to mend an iPhone, which can bring your costs down.
Previously, it was easiest to visit an Apple store to get an iPhone fixed. But just as taking your car to a dealer for servicing isn’t the cheapest option, going to an Apple store also wasn’t the most cost-effective.
The alternative was to take your iPhone to a third party for repair, potentially for a more competitive price. When I took a broken iPhone XS screen to an Apple store this year, I was quoted $280 for the repair, compared with $180 from an independent outlet.
Yet Apple has made iPhone repairs increasingly difficult for third-party shops, said Kyle Wiens, chief executive of iFixit, a company that sells parts and publishes instructions for consumers to repair their electronics.
Even when genuine parts were used, some repairs could be authenticated only with Apple’s software tools, which were not available to the public. Apple provided those software tools only to its staff and authorized repair shops that signed a contract and agreed to buy parts solely from the company. These authorized shops were then more likely to charge higher prices than unauthorized ones.
Apple’s new program opens more doors. You could try fixing your device yourself to save cash. Or you could buy the parts from Apple and take them to someone else to do the repair.
All of this may encourage people to maintain their products for longer and hold on to them, similar to doing regular maintenance on a car. That has implications for reducing technology waste and helping the environment.
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/17/technology/personaltech/apple-iphone-self-repair.html
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