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British right to repair law excludes smartphones and computers

9to5mac.com

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Re: British right to repair law excludes smartphones and computers

#11

Post by 14 »

shadilay wrote: post #8
xroche wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple solve this by making spares super expensive and only available from partners. This is even more hilarious: they sell you a "spare part" which is the logic board, for nearly the price of the laptop. But they (1) do provide spare parts and (2) sell them at a ""reasonable price""

Having a price even if ridiculous allows researches to write papers like "What brand has the most affordable repairs".

also even if the price is really expensive, I would pay it if it meant recovering my lost data on a phone.

Re: British right to repair law excludes smartphones and computers

#12

Post by oneplane »

undfg wrote: post #10
xroche wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple solve this by making spares super expensive and only available from partners. This is even more hilarious: they sell you a "spare part" which is the logic board, for nearly the price of the laptop. But they (1) do provide spare parts and (2) sell them at a ""reasonable price""

That's okay - if people care about this they will stop buying Apple products.

That is part of the problem: a lot of people just don't care.

Re: British right to repair law excludes smartphones and computers

#13

Post by tuukkah »

hprotagonist wrote: post #6

translation: this "right to repair" law appears to exclude everything you'd actually want the right to repair. Rather a lot of the right to repair fight in the US comes down to ECUs and data formats and readers for things like OBD ports on vehicles, or firmware for your farm equipment, or lots of other things that certainly have computers in them.

Here, a computer might be interpreted as a laptop or a desktop, not an embedded system "with a computer in them".

Anyway, the list is very short and exclusive (for now?): "For now, the right to repair laws only cover: Dishwashers; Washing machines and washer-dryers; Refrigeration appliances; Televisions and other electronic displays"

Re: British right to repair law excludes smartphones and computers

#16

Post by emouryto »

Well, smartphones must be updated to include better spyware.

And newer computers are also better locked down to allow better surveillance.

So, the older ones can't break down fast enough!

You don't want a repairable computer so creeps install, like, a Linux distro. You want disposable TPM machines with Windows 11 Home Edition and unstoppable "telemetry".

Re: British right to repair law excludes smartphones and computers

#17

Post by nradov »

hunta2097 wrote: post #5
FridayoLeary wrote: post #2

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57665593 This doesn't sound very exciting to me. From experience spare parts from the manufacturer cost a fortune.

Apple solve this by making spares super expensive and only available from partners. The legislation needs to stipulate what a "component" or "part" is, i.e. not the entire motherboard.

As a practical matter some motherboards are now so tightly integrated that component level repair is no longer feasible.

Re: British right to repair law excludes smartphones and computers

#18

Post by nradov »

oneplane wrote: post #12
undfg wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's okay - if people care about this they will stop buying Apple products.

That is part of the problem: a lot of people just don't care.

Is that a problem? Should customers care?

Re: British right to repair law excludes smartphones and computers

#19

Post by danpalmer »

xroche wrote: post #7
hunta2097 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple solve this by making spares super expensive and only available from partners. The legislation needs to stipulate what a "component" or "part" is, i.e. not the entire motherboard.

> Apple solve this by making spares super expensive and only available from partners. This is even more hilarious: they sell you a "spare part" which is the logic board, for nearly the price of the laptop. But they (1) do provide spare parts and (2) sell them at a ""reasonable price""

In my experience with Apple parts they are roughly in line with my expectations based on a) the price of the computer, and b) not being designed for any part to be replaced independently. These aren't great factors of course, but I'm not sure the problem is expensive parts.

I've usually found logic boards to be ~1/3-1/2 of the price of the machine, which considering they have the RAM/SSD soldered on, feels like ~1/3-1/2 of the value of the machine to me. Similarly, screens are often in the same sort of ballpark and I'd say that matches my expectations.

If you start from "how much does a motherboard cost" or "how much does a screen cost", that's going to miss a lot of the legit costs of additional components, higher quality components, or laptop form factor costing more.

Re: British right to repair law excludes smartphones and computers

#20

Post by fsflover »

undfg wrote: post #10
xroche wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple solve this by making spares super expensive and only available from partners. This is even more hilarious: they sell you a "spare part" which is the logic board, for nearly the price of the laptop. But they (1) do provide spare parts and (2) sell them at a ""reasonable price""

That's okay - if people care about this they will stop buying Apple products.

Only in case there is a reasonable alternative.
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