[HN Gopher] Ask HN: What happened to Apple's self service repair...
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Ask HN: What happened to Apple's self service repair program?
https://www.apple.com/ca/newsroom/2021/11/apple-announces-se...
This was announced in November 2021, but there hasn't been any
development since. The cynic in me thinks this was just a PR move
to quell EU right to repair regulations, but I really hope that's
not the case.
Author : adtac
Score : 80 points
Date : 2022-04-13 14:24 UTC (8 hours ago)
| nitinagg wrote:
| Apple is probably waiting for the EU laws which would actually
| force them to do this. Until then this would be on the backburner
| photochemsyn wrote:
| A corporation's fiduciary duty is to its shareholders, not to its
| customers, just in case anyone's forgetten how investment
| capitalism works:
|
| https://www.fudzilla.com/news/mobile/47872-cook-blames-users...
|
| The current debate is thus over whether or not customer disgust
| with their declining ability to repair and upgrade their devices,
| and resultant lost sales, will do more harm to shareholder
| profits than lost sales due to people extending the lifetime of
| their devices by easily replacing batteries etc.
| jrmg wrote:
| This is obvious nonsense. If the 'fiduciary duty' were as
| strong as modern urban legend suggests, it would imply that all
| companies need to abandon their customary businesses and do the
| most profitable thing at all times.
|
| Lemon prices down this week? Quick! Stop manufacturing spoons!
| Buy lemon farms!
|
| That's obviously not true in the short or the long terms.
| Tao331 wrote:
| "Fiduciary Duty Pile-On Thread" is always a good square to
| score in HN Bingo. Now I just need a guidelines reminder to
| complete this row...
| photochemsyn wrote:
| Joseph Conrad in Heart of Darkness is always an option:
|
| > "There had been a lot of such rot let loose in print and
| talk just about that time, and the excellent woman, living
| right in the rush of all that humbug, got carried off her
| feet. She talked about 'weaning those ignorant millions from
| their horrid ways', till, upon my word, she made me quite
| uncomfortable. I ventured to hint that the Company was run
| for profit."
| shiftpgdn wrote:
| Yet, Costco still sells $1.50 hotdogs and drinks. Just because
| you have a duty to shareholders doesn't mean you have to run
| your business into the ground seeking quarter over quarter
| profits.
| saurik wrote:
| They don't do this as charity, though: they do this because
| customer disgust with being nickle and dimed over a hotdog,
| and thereby the resultant lost sales from their actual
| warehouse, will do more harm to shareholder profits than they
| would gain back on selling more expensive hot dogs (and
| maybe, just maybe, the hotdogs were always a loss leader
| anyway, to make the trip to Costco to buy hundreds of dollars
| of groceries more enjoyable to begin with).
| bombcar wrote:
| They also change things, I notice they don't have the
| polish sausage anymore, the dog buns are different, etc.
| meristem wrote:
| Hotdogs and drinks are probably a loss leader for Costco.
| What Apple product would you suggest they sell below cost as
| an enticement to people to make other Apple purchases?
| bombcar wrote:
| Most of the Apple subscription services (Music, iCloud,
| etc) would be a perfect choice there.
| andyjohnson0 wrote:
| > A corporation's fiduciary duty is to its shareholders, not to
| its customers
|
| This is a myth.
|
| Firstly, _corporations_ don 't have fiduciary duties. Corporate
| officers, directors, and employees who act on behalf of the
| corporation, have fiduciary duties.
|
| And those duties (in the US, as far as I understand it) amount
| to putting the company's interests above their own and making
| responsible, informed decisions. That doesn't mean always
| putting the interests of the shareholders before the customers.
| Its a judgement left to the people acting on behalf of the
| corporation - as long as they can show that their decisions are
| reasonable and not made out of self-interest.
|
| Edit to add: This is also the basis for Corporate [Social |
| Environmental] Responsibility. People with fiduciary duties can
| reasonably decide that it is in the interest of a corporation
| for it to behave in certain ways within some wider context,
| even when that behaviour is not directly profit- or advantage-
| seeking.
| dewey wrote:
| The Apple blogpost says "will be available early next year in the
| US and expand to additional countries throughout 2022.", as it's
| still early in the year it's probably a bit early to see it as a
| pure PR move.
|
| https://9to5mac.com/2022/04/08/what-happened-to-apples-new-s...
| nojito wrote:
| Probably launch later this year due to component shortages.
|
| There are already hints that it's coming.
|
| https://twitter.com/tme_michael/status/1482163926112559107
| [deleted]
| pcdoodle wrote:
| We all lost interest when the parts were more expensive than the
| entire phone on ebay.
| kotaKat wrote:
| I assume they're still slowly adding repair frameworks into
| software, for instance. CoreRepairKit was added into macOS, and
| we're starting to see more things (like the 'request parts'
| function for Apple Watches in the Apple Support app).
|
| Logistics likely takes time for all of this as well as the legal
| side of things. It's not as simple as "poof, self repair!" as
| much as Samsung and Google are making it seem with iFixit.
|
| [1] https://twitter.com/marcan42/status/1484155025266180097
| arein3 wrote:
| iFixit feels a bit off to me
|
| they promote right to repair, but are doing some "not ideal"
| things, like reselling stuff from china at 2+ times the price
| without providing better quality
|
| seems like they are just a business and have chosen a good
| niche that now became very popular
| rblatz wrote:
| iFixit provides curation, support, and keeps stock to improve
| shipping times. This 2x price increase is a very typical
| markup from wholesale to retail.
| sergiomattei wrote:
| Question, what's CoreRepairKit? Googling only found me a
| symbols list on GitHub.
| wronglebowski wrote:
| I assume it's some form of functionality that allows serial
| number keyed equipment to be changed. You can't swap a large
| number of components on iPhones without locking yourself out.
| smm11 wrote:
| I must be dreaming, but could swear back in the day DHL would
| pick up your Apple product, fix it, and deliver it back to you.
| plussed_reader wrote:
| Before they get this program for the 'old and busted' way of
| owning technology they need to get their offering of the 'new and
| useful' way of owning technology up and
| running.(https://www.wired.com/story/apple-iphone-subscription-
| roundu...) This way they can farm the repair work out to their
| certified network and keep a handle on parts distribution to the
| 3rd party repair niches.
|
| I am of the mind that self repair on a leased device will void
| agreements.
| syshum wrote:
| Everything As A Service is bad for society
| dewey wrote:
| Like Cooking As A Service aka restaurants?
| sidewndr46 wrote:
| You've got the paradigm backwards. Cooking is a service.
| The closest thing to "as a service" would be your microwave
| requiring a subscription to cook some ramen in your own
| home. It's blatantly possible to be done without the
| subscription, but is added as a way to capture more
| revenue.
| bombcar wrote:
| Interestingly enough, in the olde days in the UK, you'd
| have boarding houses instead of apartments or condominiums,
| and they would often be a larger house where the
| householder would cook meals for the boarders.
|
| This is probably substantially more efficient than each
| dwelling unit having its own kitchen, but unlikely to be
| desired by many these days.
|
| College-life is often similar.
| Clubber wrote:
| Yes if you weren't allowed to cook your own food because
| grocery stores also owned restaurants and closed all their
| grocery stores.
| syshum wrote:
| If it was the only means to acquire food, yes absolutely
| that would be bad
|
| of course you know that is not what I was talking about,
| the "you will own nothing and like it" crowd which I assume
| you are a part of given your response never wants to debate
| the actual problems with that position instead they take
| hyperbolic positions designed to deflect
| jhartr wrote:
| We went wrong with Dormitory as a Service aka hotels.
| ceejayoz wrote:
| They didn't say they want _Nothing_ as a Service.
|
| Some things are certainly great as a service, but it's bad
| for _everything_ to go in that direction. I don 't want an
| oxygen subscription.
| Tao331 wrote:
| > don't want an oxygen subscription
|
| And that's fine! As long as you stay within the bounds of
| the free plan, you can have ad-supported oxygen! Terms &
| Conditions apply.
| Joeri wrote:
| Remember, you can always switch to an oxygen supplier of
| your choice. Atmosphere corp thanks you for your
| continued appreciation of its atmospheric oxygen
| technology.
| Werewolf255 wrote:
| NB: Change fees apply. There may be a transition period
| of 1-3 business days before your new oxygen supplier
| begins service. Atmosphere Corp, subsidiaries, and
| related companies are not responsible for lack of oxygen
| capacity planning. Early termination fees apply.
| abakker wrote:
| "The door refused to open. It said, "Five cents, please."
| He searched his pockets. No more coins; nothing. "I'll
| pay you tomorrow," he told the door. Again he tried the
| knob. Again it remained locked tight. "What I pay you,"
| he informed it, "is in the nature of a gratuity; I don't
| have to pay you." "I think otherwise," the door said.
| "Look in the purchase contract you signed when you bought
| this conapt." In his desk drawer he found the contract;
| since signing it he had found it necessary to refer to
| the document many times. Sure enough; payment to his door
| for opening and shutting constituted a mandatory fee. Not
| a tip. "You discover I'm right," the door said. It
| sounded smug. From the drawer beside the sink Joe Chip
| got a stainless steel knife; with it he began
| systematically to unscrew the bolt assembly of his apt's
| money-gulping door. "I'll sue you," the door said as the
| first screw fell out. Joe Chip said, "I've never been
| sued by a door. But I guess I can live through it." --
| Philip K. Dick, Ubik
| CamperBob2 wrote:
| If restaurants lobbied Congress to outlaw grocery stores,
| as Tim Cook is attempting to do at this very moment [1],
| then yes, it would be bad for society to allow them to
| succeed.
|
| 1: https://nypost.com/2022/04/13/apples-tim-cook-claims-
| anti-bi...
| dwaite wrote:
| He's lobbying to outlaw grocery stores?
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(page generated 2022-04-13 23:02 UTC)