If it was opened in Europe, this possibility could reconcile Apple with the French “right to repair”.
Le Monde
Will it soon be possible to repair your own iPhone with spare parts purchased from Apple, as for many years demanded consumer associations? It is in any case now a reality in the United States, announced the manufacturer on Wednesday April 27 .
The brand’s customers of the brand can now order a new screen, battery or photo lens, as well as the necessary tools, to repair a defective phone. The models concerned are the ranges marketed since the end of 2020, that is to say the different iPhone 12, iPhone 13 and iPhone SE of third generation.
The replacement of defective parts, warns Apple, remains a delicate operation, reserved for “customers who have the experience of complex repairs of this type”. “For the vast majority of customers who do not have [this experience], adds the brand in a press release, the simplest and safest way remains to go to a certified technician”. Since 2019, Apple has thus developed a network of more than 5,000 officially approved repairers.
The brand specifies, however, that the parts are not only identical to those used by approved repairers, but also, sold at the same price. Thus, the operation is not necessarily very advantageous for the customer, as the specialized site The Verge .
Thus, sending a repair kit for an iPhone 12 or 13 battery thus returns to the same price as replacing your battery directly by Apple, while having the spare parts sent to replace you- Even an iPhone 12 screen would save 12 dollars, or 4 % of the price of a repair made by Apple. A sum to which, if necessary, add the price of the rental of the tools, billed 49 dollars. It is however possible to return the used parts to the firm after having repaired to benefit from a discount.
If Apple has not yet mentioned the implementation of an equivalent program in Europe and France, it could reconcile Apple with the French “right to repair”. The repairability index has provided since January 2021 about the ease with which one can repair or have an electronic device repaired: one in 10 note which so far is not flattering for Apple, with for example an iPhone 12 which caps at 6/10 .
In the same way, the American technology giant had been pinned, at the beginning of November 2021, for the difficulty of troubleshooting the screen of its iPhone 13, the breakage of a screen being however the breakdown The most common of current smartphones.