Page 18 - Seniors Today - March Issue
P. 18
Tech4Seniors
Repair or despair?
How Apple and others are making it impossible to get a cheap and easy
phone repair. By Ritesh Chugh
If Apple and other tech companies have But it seems Apple doesn’t want its
their way, it will only become harder to customers to fix their iPhones or Macbooks
have our phones and other devices repaired themselves. The company has lobbied
by third-party businesses. against the right to repair in the United
Smartphones and many other tech devices States and has been accused of deliberately
are increasingly being designed in ways slowing down iPhones with older batteries.
that make it challenging to repair or replace Opposition against the right to repair from
individual components. tech companies is to be expected. Cornering
This might involve soldering the processor consumers into using their service centres
and flash memory to the motherboard, increases their revenue and extends their
gluing components together unnecessarily, market domination.
or using non-standard pentalobe screws In its defence, Apple has said third-party
which make replacements problematic. repairers could use lower quality parts and
Many submissions to an Australian also make devices vulnerable to hackers.
“right to repair” inquiry have called on It also defended its battery warning
tech manufacturers to provide a fair indication as a “safety” feature, wherein
and competitive market for repairs, and it started to alert users if their phone’s
produce products that are easily repairable. replacement battery hadn’t come from a
The right to repair refers to consumers’ certified Apple repairer.
ability to have their products repaired at In the US, Apple’s independent repair
a competitive price. This includes being provider programme grants certain
able to choose a repairer, rather than providers access to the parts and resources
being forced by default to use the device needed to fix its devices. Independent
manufacturer’s services. repair shops in 32 countries can now apply,
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