Do it Yourself?

Partially in reaction to the growing “right to repair” movement, Apple announced this week that they will provide parts, tools and guidelines for repair of iPhone 12 and 13.  The initial repairs will be for the most commonly serviced parts such as the display, battery and camera. Apple will be setting up an on-line ordering site to acquire the parts and tools.  This is a welcome development by Apple even though it may create some decrease in repair business for Apple Authorized Service Providers such as Small Dog.  This is not a big concern for us as we already take measures to limit the number of repairs so as to prevent service tech overload and poor customer service.

Taking a step backwards, it is a good move and I think Apple’s opposition to “right to repair” was misguided and it appears Apple has seen the light.  Apple was right in a couple things, though.  One, not everyone, in fact few, people will really want to start disassembling their iPhones with the tiny screws and potential to seriously damage the iPhone. Secondly, a customer’s peace of mind may be much better served by having a trained technician do the repair.  I remember way back when we started Small Dog, I decided that I could fix an ImageWriter printer.  I got out all my tools and when I was done the printer worked but I had a small box of left-over parts that I sheepishly showed to Hapy who then forbid me from making any more repairs.

Apple states in their news release “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.”  I have not seen the pricing yet but my guess is that buying the parts and tools will be an important part of your decision matrix.

Apple has expanded access to Apple parts to independent repair shops since 2019 and says they have about 2800 independent shops in addition to the more that 5000 AASPs that provide in and out of warranty service for Apple products.

Apple has indicated that this program which starts with the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 will be expanded to Macs with the M1 chip in 2022.

Our advice is that unless you are VERY comfortable with tiny components that you leave iPhone repairs to us! This is certainly not the same as changing the oil in your car or the belt on your vacuum cleaner.  On the other hand, this will open the repair process to more independent repair technicians and allow them access to genuine Apple parts instead of the cheap knock-offs that sometimes just do not make the grade.