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by jen729w 2818 days ago
FWIW, I upgraded a 5+ year old MacBook Air to the new MacBook Pro basically because I wanted to. I think the screen was the main driver, but really there was nothing wrong with that Air; as evidenced by the fact that a good friend is now using it as her primary computer.

Planned obsolence is another meme that needs to die.

Regarding the cost of screens for a phone, what, you wish they were lower? Me too! But they aren’t, if you want an original Apple screen. They cost a bunch to source ($110) [0], they cost a bunch for Apple to train up techs, and to have the systems and procedures and checklists such that every time you get an Apple replacement, it’s like new.

Would everyone who dropped their phone wish for a $20 replacement? Of course. Tough luck.

I’m not suggesting that non-Apple repair is different, but you have to admit that a knock-off 3rd party screen is probably not going to be as reliable. And who wears the pain and anger when that screen doesn’t work? Apple.

You can’t fault them for wanting to control this stuff. If it was my company, I would.

[0]: https://www.businessinsider.com.au/iphone-x-teardown-parts-c...

1 comments

>I’m not suggesting that non-Apple repair is different, but you have to admit that a knock-off 3rd party screen is probably not going to be as reliable. And who wears the pain and anger when that screen doesn’t work? Apple.

>You can’t fault them for wanting to control this stuff. If it was my company, I would.

Your example with the screen would be similar to changing say a car part you are forced to go to the manufacturer to get the original part, the fun part is that the windscreen is half the price of a new car so you now start considering buying a new car or gluing your windscreen.

So Apple does not sell parts, forces you to use their repair shops and tax you tons for simple repairs, PLUS they make you pay for their own faults until some class action forces them to admit the hardware faults.

I never seen companies suffer PR impact because someone repaired their old phone/laptop/computer/electronic at a third party.

My points stand for products that are out of warranty, if products are in warranty then the laws apply.

A car doesn’t store all your personal private data, so your analogy doesn’t fit.
Neither a laptop, the data is in the harddrive, you can protect the drive encryption without putting software checks so if I put a "unauthorized" component the thing won't work anymore.
A car also starts at $15k, so a windshield being half the cost of a car is not reasonable, whereas a new screen plus labor being 1/5th the cost of a phone is.
A simple example, there are 2 old Macbooks, no warrenty, one has the screen broken one the motherboard, Apple will not sell me a screen, maybe there are no more screens or if they want to sell me the screen and replace it, it could cost me half of a new laptop .

I could use the good screen from the broken laptop and give a few more years to this old laptop instead of throwing the good components to the bin. Third party repair shops have salvaged this components and they will install them to the customers, everyone wins except Apple who is not selling a new laptop or a new screen+services.

This issue happened with iPhones where changing a button bricked the phone a few months later when Apple did an update, the excuse was security but it was only an excuse, you could keep the security too, worse case scenario wipe the data but don't force people to throw old hardware because is too expensive or impossible to repair.