Apple Self Service Repair perfectly timed to ease both sustainability and cost of living crisis.
The Apple Self Service Repair initiative is perfectly timed to ease anxiety caused by the cost of living crisis and could help persuade consumers of a better economy in investing in a new iPhone, as reparability could allow consumers to extend the life of their device and delay upgrading due to phone damage.
Consumer electronics market regulators have been pushing for reparability initiatives such as the Apple Self Service Repair for a long time, to address ‘planned obsolescence’ that has allegedly governed the smartphone original equipment manufacturer (OEM) market to date, Emma Mohr-McClune, Technology Service Director at GlobalData.
“Planned obsolescence is the practice of designing fragile products with a limited usability period, due to the difficulties end-users face in ordering spare parts for independent repair,” she said.
“The pricing of the various Apple replacement components, from batteries to screens, are individually priced and dependent on model, although Apple is offering a USD 49 repair tool rental kit with this initiative. Unlike having an iPhone repaired via an Apple-authorized or certified repair service dealer, Apple Self Service Repair comes with no other charge. However, the initiative is unlikely to remain unique – Samsung and Google have both indicated a movement in the same self-service repair direction.
Apple is one of the two biggest names in the global smartphone market, and as such the new Apple Self Service Repair marks a solid reparability benchmark, with online manuals, a store to order spare parts and tools, including the ability to rent a tool set. The store is currently up and running in the US, with plans to open up in Europe later this year.
The one issue we have with Apple Self Service Repair is its pitch. Apple has pitched this service at consumers who are ‘experienced with the complexities of repairing electronic devices’. That’s certainly too limiting for the European concept of reparability, which insists consumer electronics should be designed in such a way to make them easily reparable by just about anyone.
“It will be interesting to see whether the European version of Apple Self Service Repair will be pitched more broadly. Although it is far too early to predict the impact of this initiative on new Apple iPhone sales, it seems likely that self service repair will encourage some to repair older or damaged devices as opposed to investing in a brand new device,” said Emma Mohr-McClune, Technology Service Director at GlobalData.
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