Want to repair your own iPhone 12/13 (and soon M1 Mac) with official parts? Apple will now sell them to you complete with instructions and tools

[saltycaramel]

In an unexpected move, Apple today announced they will be providing repair manuals and genuine parts for iPhone 12, iPhone 13 and M1 Macs to anyone, even individual users and technicians. 

 

Quotes

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CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA Apple today announced Self Service Repair, which will allow customers who are comfortable with completing their own repairs access to Apple genuine parts and tools. Available first for the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 lineups, and soon to be followed by Mac computers featuring M1 chips, Self Service Repair will be available early next year in the US and expand to additional countries throughout 2022. Customers join more than 5,000 Apple Authorized Service Providers (AASPs) and 2,800 Independent Repair Providers who have access to these parts, tools, and manuals.

The initial phase of the program will focus on the most commonly serviced modules, such as the iPhone display, battery, and camera. The ability for additional repairs will be available later next year.

 

…

 

To ensure a customer can safely perform a repair, it’s important they first review the Repair Manual. Then a customer will place an order for the Apple genuine parts and tools using the Apple Self Service Repair Online Store. Following the repair, customers who return their used part for recycling will receive credit toward their purchase.

The new store will offer more than 200 individual parts and tools, enabling customers to complete the most common repairs on iPhone 12 and iPhone 13.

Self Service Repair is intended for individual technicians with the knowledge and experience to repair electronic devices. For the vast majority of customers, visiting a professional repair provider with certified technicians who use genuine Apple parts is the safest and most reliable way to get a repair.

 

My thoughts

Well this is huge. Right to repair is happening and Apple is now doing a lot better in that regard with this initiative. 

 

Sources

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2021/11/apple-announces-self-service-repair/

[SignatureSigner]

They will still hold on to their 30% app store cut like the worlds ending,

W for right to repair tho

[rockking1379]

I think they are seeing some writing on the wall in terms of possible legislative action. It’s better to get ahead of this now than wait for the courts to get involved. And especially with the FTC having said new laws weren’t really necessary for right to repair, just actual enforcement. 

[tkitch]

Now, will they price the parts reasonably?  Or will they price them at a level that makes self-repair stupid, and replacement better?  

[BondiBlue]

Summary

Apple has announced a new program called Self Service Repair, which will allow customers to gain access to Apple guides for repairing Apple devices in addition to purchasing genuine Apple replacement parts. This program is starting with the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13, and will be expanded to cover Macs as well with the M1 chip. You can even get credit towards your purchase if you send your old part back for recycling. 

 

Quotes

Quote

"To ensure a customer can safely perform a repair, it’s important they first review the Repair Manual. Then a customer will place an order for the Apple genuine parts and tools using the Apple Self Service Repair Online Store. Following the repair, customers who return their used part for recycling will receive credit toward their purchase."

 

My thoughts

Finally. I don't own an iPhone anymore (not as a daily driver, anyways), but if I did I would be even happier about being able to officially work on my own phone. Apple hasn't had a good track record when it comes to device repairability over the past several years. Batteries are glued into MacBooks, SSDs are soldered, parts in the iPhone are paired to the logic board, etc. I really hope this program works out in the long run. 

 

Sources

Apple Newsroom

[StDragon]

It's not April 1st yet. 

[Spotty]

2 minutes ago, BondiBlue said:

Apple has announced a new program called Self Service Repair

Someone beat you to posting by a few minutes so I've merged your post in to that thread.

[linkboy]

What the ever loving hell? That's something I didn't expect to see. Good on Apple to finally do it.

[kanyewestlover911]

Finally something good i can say about Apple 

[Inkz]

TBH I feel like they are only doing this because they are going to be forced to and they want to do it at the very last second before it's law so they can say "We already allow right to repair" and look like the good guys.

[AlTech]

As much as people are celebrating this, this is Apple's way of destroying right to repair by 4D Chess. They know they need to pretend to be repair friendly but they're going to try to kill right to repair properly so that Apple can make things hard to repair and then charge insane amounts to let them repair it or to do other things.

 

Apple deliberately made the iPhone 12 and 13 hard to repair by the end user and by repair shops so that Apple could make people hate right to repair by forcing repair shops to either accept lower margins on screen repairs, charge the customer more, or use inferior screens to Apple so that they could continue to charge the customer the same amount.

 

This is all part of Apple's 4D chess way of killing right to repair, they genuinely don't care about it and they don't want users to repair their own stuff despite the PR and propaganda they're trying to push.

[WhitetailAni]

I hope they go back with repairing things further. Seems kinda dumb to only allow self-repair on their modern phones while there's MANY more models that support iOS 15.

Probably won't but they literally just blew my mind.

[saltycaramel]

Wonder if the store will offer flash SSD modules or even RAM for after-the-fact upgrades for M1 Macs

(a procedure that’s not for the faint of heart, of course…but local shops may get good at it)

 

[GreatnessRD]

Looks like a too good to be true win for the consumers. Wouldn't surprise me if the parts are GPU prices, lol. However, this is major W for right to repair from the walled garden folks.

[saltycaramel]

 

[Leek Soup]

Wow. I did not see this coming. 

[Commodus]

I'm sure Apple is doing this under pressure from governments (thanks Biden!), but still, it's a good move.

 

Also, gotta love how this takes at least some ammo away from the Anything But Apple crowd. There are still legit things to complain about, but serviceability may have been take off the list (if the pricing is fair, at least).

[BondiBlue]

30 minutes ago, saltycaramel said:

Wonder if the store will offer flash SSD modules or even RAM for after-the-fact upgrades for M1 Macs

(a procedure that’s not for the faint of heart, of course…but local shops may get good at it)

No, I really don't see them ever doing that. The fact that they're offering parts for iPhones at all is still amazing, but I don't think they'll be willing to go that far. 

[Zodiark1593]

59 minutes ago, James Evens said:

To early to say anything good (can't find pricing/conditions).

One of the key phrases:

If it is like the existing program's the prices will be extremely high with huge "credit" when you return the old part.

 

You might ask what about all the DRM apple includes now preventing repairs? It will still be there but you buy access to it.

 

 

Not exactly unprecedented as a lot of auto parts require refundable “Core” charges. 
 

Given supply chain issues though (ill-intent aside), I fully expect parts to be expensive, as Apple will prioritize iPhone production over keeping spare parts for independent sale.

 

Honestly, Apple wouldn’t have even needed to do this so long as they’ve stayed out of the way of repair (ie, no direct action to restrict or prevent repairs). 

[Helpful Tech Witch]

So like will they sell chips? or at least not stop chip makers from selling chips?
Because trashing a batterypack to get a ISL9240 to charge is insane

[leadeater]

1 hour ago, BondiBlue said:

No, I really don't see them ever doing that. The fact that they're offering parts for iPhones at all is still amazing, but I don't think they'll be willing to go that far. 

Would be of absolutely zero use to end users. Or maybe I'll grab out my soldering iron and try and replace the RAM modules lol. Joke aside, no way.

[Helpful Tech Witch]

Just now, leadeater said:

Would be of absolutely zero use to end users. Or maybe I'll grab out my soldering iron and try and replace the RAM modules lol. Joke aside, no way.

End users, yes.

Repair shops coudl use it (esp the ones like Rossman Repair).

At most I can see them selling the SOC itself.

[leadeater]

Just now, HelpfulTechWizard said:

End users, yes.

Repair shops coudl use it (esp the ones like Rossman Repair).

At most I can see them selling the SOC itself.

Yep, but it's a parts program not setup for that, it's primary purpose is for feasibly replicable parts for anyone not specialists. Would require an entirely different support and logistics program for that and it'll be way more costly on Apple than it's actually worth.

[Helpful Tech Witch]

2 minutes ago, leadeater said:

Yep, but it's a parts program not setup for that, it's primary purpose is for feasibly replicable parts for anyone not specialists. Would require an entirely different support and logistics program for that and it'll be way more costly on Apple than it's actually worth.

Yea. 
Wishful thinking.

I can't wait to see Louis Rossman's opinion on this, however.

But if they can stop asking companies to not sell their parts at the componet level, itd be godsend

[Quackers101]

due to lawsuits that they suddenly changed tune?

or a lot of ** and with a focus around having an apple license