But Wiens says the deals are not over yet. “More are coming,” he says, just a few months from now. (No, it’s not Apple.) Motorola was actually the first to sign up almost four years ago. And if Apple is actually involved in offering spare parts to consumers – as it promised to do by early 2022 – the era of repairing your own phone may be over. Last October, the United States effectively legalized the opening of many devices for repair with the exception of the Digital Copyright Act in the digital age. Now, the essentials are here. What changed; Didn’t these companies fight with their nails and teeth to keep the right to repair off the table, sometimes secretly stopping accounts at the last minute? Sure. But some legislation ends anyway … and a French law in particular may have been the turning point. 80 percent said they would choose a more repairable device “What changes the game more than anything else is the French repairability card,” says Wiens, citing a 2021 law requiring tech companies to disclose how repairable their phones are – on a scale of 0.0 to 10. , 0 – right next to their price. Even Apple has had to add repairability ratings – but Wiens suggests this Samsung press release. When Samsung commissioned a study to test whether French repair ratings made sense, it did not just find rating cards useful – it found that a staggering 80 percent of respondents would be willing to give up their favorite brand for a product that had the highest score. The repairability rating is shown at the bottom right of the product page. Screenshot: Apple.com “Extensive scoreboard studies have been done and it works,” says Wiens. “It’s driving behavior, it is changing consumer market patterns.” Stick, get to know the carrot. Seeing an opportunity, Wiens suggests, prompted these companies to take over iFixit in the deal. Nathan Proctor, director of the Right to Repair Campaign at the US Public Interest Research Group (US PIRG), still believes the stick is primarily to be thanked. “I feel arrogant to say 100 percent … but none of this happens unless there is a threat of legislation.” “These companies knew they were issues for a long time and until we organized enough influence to make it seem inevitable, none of the big ones had particularly good repair plans and now they are all announcing them,” Proctor notes. It draws my attention to the fact that the European Parliament has just voted 509-3 in favor of the EU forcing manufacturers to make the devices more repairable. “None of this happens unless there is a threat of legislation.” “I think there is a growing awareness and resignation that phones will last longer and there is nothing they can do about it,” says Wiens. Google may also have a financial incentive, Proctor admits. “Google is a huge, huge company, but sales of Pixel phones are not a big part of the market, right? “One of the carrots is that they can do something about a really popular antitrust issue in an area where they are not the dominant player.” What about the practical reasons why tech companies have restricted the right to repair in the past, concerns that consumers accidentally punctured their batteries or broke their phones, and forcing companies like Google or Samsung to handle more calls? support? Wiens says it’s a little too much. However, he also claims that this is why these companies chose iFixit, because its website provides repair guides and specially designed tools that make people less likely to get involved. Samsung, Google, and even Valve do not necessarily open the gates for any kind of repair, beware. Wiens says iFixit will not sell any chip boards, so if your Pixel shows you the infamous bootloop problem that plagued many Nexus phones, you’ll still need Google to fix it. “[Boards are] “Definitely something we need to see, but there are challenges in the supply chain around their construction,” he says. Google Pixels with iFixit tools. Image: iFixit Importantly, the most common components should indeed be included in the cache of new iFixit parts, such as official screens and batteries, and iFixit says it is committed to supporting phones even if it has to store “last-minute” components when factories stop producing them. While it is difficult to predict how many of these components will be needed, manufacturers are helping some by sharing data with iFixit, such as how many phones they have sold. Wiens says iFixit already has hundreds of thousands of spare parts in an off-site warehouse and is currently expanding as a result of those deals. Wiens will not say if tech companies subsidize spare parts or how much you will pay, but iFixit says it should buy and sell them with a label. While you may not need officially approved spare parts for any kind of repair, there do seem to be some advantages: iFixit repair kits will come with the same kind of advanced sealing gaskets used by Google and Samsung to seal properly. their own phones. “If you do it right, take the seal to the end, then you’re fine again,” says Wiens. He says it’s something most people should probably do once a year or two anyway – as the glue used by manufacturers to waterproof their gadgets tends to wear out over time. “You do your first test in the shower and you are happy with it, that does not mean that three months later it will still work in the shower,” he adds. Regardless of whether these companies are pushed or guided, the result can be the same: an era where your old and pretty good phone can stay good enough for much longer than it could otherwise. Politicians, governments, regulators, shareholders and advocacy groups such as the US PIRG are under pressure and opportunities can also open up. “If the market changed and people kept their phones much longer; eventually companies would change and find a way to make more money in this environment, right?” says Proctor, pointing out that a phone call that lasts may be another way to get customers to stay. “It just encourages me that these motivations are now a little more in line with the best for people on the planet.” I fully expect technology companies to continue to resist the right to repair in some way, even while pretending to embrace it. (We’ve seen this from Apple in the past, and Apple did not respond to a request for comment this week about the Self-Service Schedule.) There are many ways companies can do this, such as overcharging spare parts or throwing scary warnings – to its credit, Apple seems to be back at it. And of course, they will continue to tempt you to quickly upgrade to new phones, such as how providers reinstated the subsidy model last year to boost sales while society was still stuck at home, and how Apple reportedly wants to sell the iPhone. as a subscription service now. But it sounds like when my iPhone mini battery runs out and there is no new mini to replace it, I will be able to change the battery myself. And if not? I can get a hint and switch to a repairable Pixel recently.
