Tech giant, Apple has announced Self Service Repair, which will allow customers to repair their iPhones & MacBooks on their own by having access to Apple’s genuine parts and tools. Under this program, expert users won’t have to take their devices to the Apple store or any other repair shop for getting them fixed.
The program will begin with iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 line-ups and soon be followed by Macs featuring M1 chipsets probably by the end of next year. This self-repair program will begin early next year in the US and slowly expand to other countries throughout the year.
Under this program, Apple claims that customers will join more than 5000 Apple Authorized Service Providers and 2800 Independent Service Providers who will have access to these parts, tools, and manuals.
The initial phase of the program is said to focus on the most commonly needed parts like iPhone display, camera, and battery, but Apple says other parts will also be joining the list soon.
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Although Apple is known for making durable products for everyday use, still repairs are a common necessity in any gadget market. And for this, users can go not just to Apple stores and Independent Repair Providers, but also repair their devices themselves too.
“Creating greater access to Apple genuine parts gives our customers even more choice if a repair is needed,” said Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer. “In the past three years, Apple has nearly doubled the number of service locations with access to Apple genuine parts, tools, and training and now we’re providing an option for those who wish to complete their repairs.”
What is Self Service Repair?
Repair Manuals will be provided by Apple to consumers who wish to repair their devices on their own. Users will be able to place an order for the genuine parts and tools they need from the Apple Self Service Repair Online Store.
Apple claims that it will offer more than 200 individual parts and tools, which will enable the users to complete the most common repairs on iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 models.
After the repair has been done, customers who return their used parts for recycling to Apple and receive credit towards their purchase.
This service is intended for individual technicians with appropriate knowledge/experience to repair electronic devices, which means one can’t be a novice in this field and still open the device for repairs. That will, of course, be a bad move.
So, for the vast majority of such consumers, visiting a professional repair provider with certified technicians who use genuine Apple parts will be the safest and most reliable way to get a repair.
Would Apple Self-Repair Program be worth it?
Louis Anthony Rossmann, an American independent repair technician, YouTube personality, and right to repair activist has shared a video analyzing if this move by Apple is actually useful or just a PR Stunt like something it did back in 2019. First of all, he feels that display, camera, and battery are not at all enough to cover maximum people’s repairs as there are some other common parts which come up for repair very often. These include charge ports, which he believes will be most in demand.
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Apple providing a manual is a good move but the actual usefulness of this program will depend on what kind of parts the company will supply in the market. If a person’s MacBook has an issue with the display cell (which costs around 72 dollars), will he find only this display cell to be replaced or he will have to buy the entire screen assembly (costing 450 dollars) to replace his display cell. If this will be the case, then the program will not be sensible as many consumers would not want to spend such a huge amount on repairs.
Rossmann feels that the only way this program would be beneficial for consumers is that if they can get the broken part replaced from local repair shops and not the entire portion that doesn’t even need repairing. Till the time, the company doesn’t provide any clarity on this he can’t be sure if the self-repair program is made for benefit of consumers or is just a meme. You can watch the video here:
