Apple have been blasted for their anti-repair designs and policy’s that have made repairing their devices extremtly costly, or at worse; impossible. Third party repair centres have been lamenting Apples actions for years, with Apple being a huge focus point on the Right to Repair movement.
The news today is Apple in early 2022 will be launching a new self service program that will allow device owners access to parts, tools and manuals to perform self repairs, assuming their comfortable. This is effectively an extension of the offering that Apple have provided to third party centres for access to Apple genuine parts and manuals.
There are some limits to the offering. First, the only devices supported at launch will be iPhone 12 and 13. and second, the only parts avaialble are display, battery, and camera. Apple have stated that more devices will be added, including M1 Mac products in the future. There is currently no wording on pricing and US support is only region announced.
This might seem like a big step for Apple, and its timing clearly indicates Apple are paying attention to the mounting pressure from the Right to Repair movement, and this may very well be their way to get some control and get out in front of it. All things considered, time will tell if this will have any real impact. There is still a lot of unknowns, including global availability, part availability will be assured for number of years, pricing, and overall device/part support. Lastly Apple is very much aware that a massive portion of their customers wont have the skills needed to make such repairs and ultimately what barriers for entry there may be have yet to be detailed.
None the less, if anything maybe this will spark some pressure from other companies to start making repair a staple in their devices, rather than an afterthought, or worse; preventative.
Source: Apple Newsroom
