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Apple Shipped Me a 79-Pound iPhone Repair Kit to Fix a 1.1-Ounce Battery

theverge.com

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Re: Apple Shipped Me a 79-Pound iPhone Repair Kit to Fix a 1.1-Ounce Battery

#151
Apple also provides a set of fancy torque drivers to make sure you don’t screw down the phone’s tiny screws too tightly, but it’s a bit of a chore. I must have dropped Apple’s incredibly tiny fasteners a dozen times

My God this guy is insufferable. You asked for professional tools, you got professional tools. Between this and the How to Build a PC video I'm beginning to wonder if the Verge staff rode the short bus to school.

Re: Apple Shipped Me a 79-Pound iPhone Repair Kit to Fix a 1.1-Ounce Battery

#152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or they and other phone manufacturers could just stop building phones that are purposefully difficult to disassemble or repair.

Or consumers could stop buying phones that can’t be easily disassembled or repaired.

Consumers don't know any better. Someone has to explain the problem to them first.

Re: Apple Shipped Me a 79-Pound iPhone Repair Kit to Fix a 1.1-Ounce Battery

#153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but does it really need to be for a one-off home repair? Again: cue the "Apple provided me with second-class tools that are NOT the ones they used in store and I broke my iPhone" story. Manufacturers can't possibly satisfy "right to repair" if every single person gets to decide how they want to do the repair, how much compromise they're prepared to take in terms of likely outcome and so on.

Apple can trivially comply with Right To Repair by just selling parts , documentation and any software needed to pair new parts. They don't have to provide tools, just like car manufacturers don't provide tools when you buy parts. This repair programme is purely a PR move to maliciously (attempt) to comply with Right to Repair and try to prevent actual regulation all while putting the spotlight on how complicated, da…

Did you even research the program? Apple’s SSR store will happily sell you the parts without the toolkit if you want to improvise and use the iFixIt method of repair. You are not required to buy or rent any tools when placing an order.

Re: Apple Shipped Me a 79-Pound iPhone Repair Kit to Fix a 1.1-Ounce Battery

#154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I will pay more for a device that is designed to be repaired.

... and when there's enough of you for this to represent an actual, realistic target market you will then find someone who will sell you one. Personally, my perspective on this is that it's a lot like the kind of complaining that gets a lot of play in the motoring press about the disappearance of the manual transmission (like Car and Driver's "Save the Manuals" thing). Lots of people will claim they would like the ch…

> ... and when there's enough of you for this to represent an actual, realistic target market you will then find someone who will sell you one.

Probably not, considering the very high cost of entry in the target market, it is unlikely to be offset by the marginal amount of additional money people are ready to invest into such devices. Markets don't produce goods out of nothing. Especially if that person specifically wants an iphone for whatever (objective or subjective) reason, the market cannot deliver that.

Re: Apple Shipped Me a 79-Pound iPhone Repair Kit to Fix a 1.1-Ounce Battery

#155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I will pay more for a device that is designed to be repaired.

... and when there's enough of you for this to represent an actual, realistic target market you will then find someone who will sell you one. Personally, my perspective on this is that it's a lot like the kind of complaining that gets a lot of play in the motoring press about the disappearance of the manual transmission (like Car and Driver's "Save the Manuals" thing). Lots of people will claim they would like the ch…

If it was, say $40 more or even $100 and was marketed as being repairable, I bet a lot of people would buy it. They would after all be actually likely to get that money back over the lifetime of the phone, and it’s much more environmentally friendly.

This isn’t a case of “market doesn’t want it”, this is a case of Apple don’t want to offer that choice because they make money off of the repairs.

Re: Apple Shipped Me a 79-Pound iPhone Repair Kit to Fix a 1.1-Ounce Battery

#156
It is a device that every millimeter-cube counts so it's highly optimized in many ways and packagef tightly, well, because of battery life competition (to fit more battery at every bit).

Now Apple has been obliged to provide repair tools, and they are simply providing what they probably provide to authorized repair shops, and people are still complaining.

What's wrong with that? It's not a device that's designed to have it's battery replaced by the user anyway, and if you really want to, this is the kit. Simple as that.

It's impossible to make some people happy these days.

Re: Apple Shipped Me a 79-Pound iPhone Repair Kit to Fix a 1.1-Ounce Battery

#157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that Apple intentionally insists that this is the only way to do a repair to scare people away from it - and the media seems to be lapping it up pretty well and spreading it - I wish the article called out their BS right away. If I had a full-time repair operation going, I'd probably get those tools too. But for a single repair, I can open one with a hair dryer and 20 bucks of iFixit tools faster than…

> The problem is that Apple intentionally insists that this is the only way to do a repair to scare people away from it As they should. If Apple had instead shipped batteries with instructions for pure DIY repair, we’d be reading an article about “I tried to replace my iPhone battery but I destroyed my iPhone in the process” And if Apple redesigned the iPhone to be bigger so it could have a separate battery compartme…

> If Apple had instead shipped batteries with instructions for pure DIY repair, we’d be reading an article about “I tried to replace my iPhone battery but I destroyed my iPhone in the process”

Is that happening with cars? Because you can trivially walk up to any dealership and buy brake parts.

> It’s standard practice for manufacturers to cite specific manufacturer tools

Normal, cross-manufacturer tools (aka wrenches, sockets, etc) will get you 90% of the way there, and kludgy, one-off hacks with what you have on hand will usually get you the last 10%.

The main problem with regards to Apple and the right to repair is parts availability and intentional restrictions against repair such as part serialization where it still needs Apple to be in the loop to "pair" the part to the new device. Nobody was complaining about the lack of a specific machine to open their iPhone - that problem has been solved already long ago.

Re: Apple Shipped Me a 79-Pound iPhone Repair Kit to Fix a 1.1-Ounce Battery

#158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but does it really need to be for a one-off home repair? Again: cue the "Apple provided me with second-class tools that are NOT the ones they used in store and I broke my iPhone" story. Manufacturers can't possibly satisfy "right to repair" if every single person gets to decide how they want to do the repair, how much compromise they're prepared to take in terms of likely outcome and so on.

Apple can trivially comply with Right To Repair by just selling parts , documentation and any software needed to pair new parts. They don't have to provide tools, just like car manufacturers don't provide tools when you buy parts. This repair programme is purely a PR move to maliciously (attempt) to comply with Right to Repair and try to prevent actual regulation all while putting the spotlight on how complicated, da…

Browsing https://selfservicerepair.com/home, it seems to me they do more or less exactly that (the parts sometimes are bundled with mounting screws, the manuals assume you have professional tools, and you’ll have to call them to DRM ‘register’ your new part with the other hardware.

I can’t find the requirement to rent this set of tools on that site (disclaimer: I can’t fully emulate a sale, as the site asks for an IMEI, and I don’t have a device for which they sell parts)

So, from my browsing, renting the tools seems optional.

Re: Apple Shipped Me a 79-Pound iPhone Repair Kit to Fix a 1.1-Ounce Battery

#159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but does it really need to be for a one-off home repair? Again: cue the "Apple provided me with second-class tools that are NOT the ones they used in store and I broke my iPhone" story. Manufacturers can't possibly satisfy "right to repair" if every single person gets to decide how they want to do the repair, how much compromise they're prepared to take in terms of likely outcome and so on.

Apple can trivially comply with Right To Repair by just selling parts , documentation and any software needed to pair new parts. They don't have to provide tools, just like car manufacturers don't provide tools when you buy parts. This repair programme is purely a PR move to maliciously (attempt) to comply with Right to Repair and try to prevent actual regulation all while putting the spotlight on how complicated, da…

>Apple can trivially comply with Right To Repair by just selling parts, documentation and any software needed to pair new parts.

... which they do! It's $69.00 for the iPhone 13 mini battery or $70.99 for the kit which also includes a replacement display adhesive and a set of spare security screws. In both cases, you can get $24.15 credit when you return your old battery.

You don't have to get the toolkit; you can put together your own tools and do whatever crazy shit you want with a hairdryer or whatever.

Are you seriously saying that Apple's decision to both sell and rent (on what I'm pretty sure must be a loss-making basis) the tools that they themselves use for the repairs is ... malicious?

Re: Apple Shipped Me a 79-Pound iPhone Repair Kit to Fix a 1.1-Ounce Battery

#160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... and when there's enough of you for this to represent an actual, realistic target market you will then find someone who will sell you one. Personally, my perspective on this is that it's a lot like the kind of complaining that gets a lot of play in the motoring press about the disappearance of the manual transmission (like Car and Driver's "Save the Manuals" thing). Lots of people will claim they would like the ch…

> ... and when there's enough of you for this to represent an actual, realistic target market you will then find someone who will sell you one. Probably not, considering the very high cost of entry in the target market, it is unlikely to be offset by the marginal amount of additional money people are ready to invest into such devices. Markets don't produce goods out of nothing. Especially if that person specifically…

the iPhone Mini was a testament to that Apple themselves will respond to a certain amount of market demand, however its inability to sell well (with reportedly under 4% of total iPhone sales) is probably going to be a lesson for Apple to heavily consider whether or not extra SKUs are really worth it.
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