For years, independent repair shops have asked Apple for genuine replacement parts so they could repair their customers’ laptops and phones. Apple has refused. But new documents leaked by Motherboard show that Apple may finally be changing their tune—at least, as much as they’re required to by potential legislation.
If you haven’t been to an independent repair shop, you’re missing out on some true art. Take Steven and Nicole Spink, owners of Olympia iPhone Repair in Washington. They can seemingly fix anything—board-level repairs that Apple would refuse to perform are a piece of cake for them, and far less costly than replacing your device. (You can hear Nicole describe these challenges in this Washington hearing on Right to Repair laws—just skip to 6:40.) Unfortunately, without device schematics and other tools from Apple, they can’t always do those jobs, causing them to lose business and forcing customers to pay much more for a full part replacement from Apple.
Apple has long taken a firm stance against these types of repair shops. With scandals like the Error 53 debacle, they’ve clearly planted their foot on the ground and said “you should repair your phone at an Apple store, or you should get bent.” Apart from a few very select Apple Authorized Repair Providers, no one has access to the genuine, OEM parts Apple uses to make these devices, or the diagnostics and schematics that Apple keeps so close to the chest. As a result, they’re stuck turning people away, or settling for third-party components instead. If you go to a good shop, they’ll use high-quality replacement parts, but Apple could still brick those at any time. Apple’s lobbyists claim that allowing independent shops access to their diagnostic data and parts will threaten their security model, which we think is rather silly—not to mention something other manufacturers have proven wrong time and again.
Read more at iFixit.com