[AnthonyMouse]

> But it still makes me feel better a thief will get $30, not $300, for my phone -- that's often enough of a difference between it being worth it or not.

Typically the value of a computer is about the same as the sum of its parts, because otherwise plenty of people would be up for a $270 profit by buying $30 worth of parts and assembling them to sell as a $300 computer.

> And if people are dropping these off for recycling, isn't the expectation that they're being used for parts at best anyways? If they're high enough value to actually be refurbished and resold, then it's worth putting the recycling bins behind cashiers or similar, who are trained to first verify they're unlocked before accepting them.

It's generally the other way around. The less a computer is worth (and so the less the parts are worth), the more you want to try to sell it as a whole unit to minimize transaction overhead because the fixed overhead is a larger percentage of the sale price on less expensive hardware.

[llampx]

> Typically the value of a computer is about the same as the sum of its parts, because otherwise plenty of people would be up for a $270 profit by buying $30 worth of parts and assembling them to sell as a $300 computer.

From another comment: My understanding is in the current design certain expensive things, like the SoC+Security-Enclave are certed/secure-booted, and I imagine other parts are just generic / "off the shelf" plug in and power up and go.

[lonelappde]

Assembling a phone is a lot harder than assembling a tower PC.

[AnthonyMouse]

Not really. The parts are smaller and less standardized but generally speaking you put the screws in the holes and it turns into a phone.

Moreover, isn't this article about Macs anyway?