[shrew]

I thought it was a bit sketchy too and spoke to their support agent about it. It seems this site is run by a partner, SPOT or Service Parts or Tools. Their privacy policy lists servicepartsortools.com as a domain but visiting the domain shows a standard parked domain page. The domain is owned by CTDI[0] which does seem more legitimate. The response I got from the support agent after pressing the issue was:

"Apple has partnered with CTDI for the SSR store and the fulfillment of related parts and tools. CTDI will utilize its SPOT subsidiary, including SPOT customer service agents, in support of SSR store customers."

It makes sense that Apple would offload this to someone else, but I agree it's a rather jarring experience.

[0] https://www.ctdi.com

[danShumway]

> "Apple has partnered with CTDI for the SSR store and the fulfillment of related parts and tools. CTDI will utilize its SPOT subsidiary, including SPOT customer service agents, in support of SSR store customers."

It is certainly still a decision to do that. I would guess that for a launch they actually cared about, especially a consumer-facing one, they either would demand to build the website themselves or demand that CTDI follow some design guides. I can't imagine Apple launching their credit card and saying, "okay, Goldman Sachs, you handle everything about branding. The product page for this credit card doesn't need to have Apple in the URL, and doesn't need to follow Apple branding rules" -- because Apple actually cares about getting the word out about the existence of their card, and they actually care about encouraging people to use it.

I don't necessarily think it's some kind of conspiracy to trick people (see TurboTax's shenanigans), but it does speak a lot to their priorities that they do not care about this site looking good or even official, and that they don't think it's important for it to be a recognizable URL or for it to be obvious that it's an official Apple service. None of those things were apparently important enough to get marketing/branding departments involved in the launch.

[MikePlacid]

Kinda strange that Apple has not used the time-and-customers-tested (and with a nice website) ifixit.com for the task. I only hope that iFixit will not die as a result - it’s always nice to have an alternative.

[OxO4]

It seems that iFixit will officially be selling replacement parts for Google's Pixel phones [0] and Valve's Steam Deck [1], so hopefully, they are not going anywhere.

[0] https://www.blog.google/outreach-initiatives/sustainability/...

[1] https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1675180/view/4347665...

[edrxty]

ifixit is a somewhat political organization, they're pushing right to repair and grade products on repairability. I'd rather they stay independent from Apple.

[drewzero1]

I agree. At first I thought they would be uniquely positioned for this role, but it really does seem like they need to stay independent to stay objective. As a customer As a customer I appreciate that ifixit serves the customer's needs rather than Apple's agenda or overall bottom line, which might not have remained the case if they had some kind of partnership.

[RC_ITR]

“If you keep rating our phones as very difficult for user repair, then why are we allowing you to distribute parts?”

[webmobdev]

Why can't they stay independent and objective if they partner with Apple (or any other manufacturer) to sell their parts?

[Retric]

Independent is often used as a weasel word ie: independent franchises. So sure the could be an independent distributor or whatever but that’s not actually independent as they would have a financial connection.

Remaining objective is of course possible even with financial ties, but the suspicion is going to taint people’s perception.

[drewzero1]

If ifixit were to partner with a manufacturer (and especially one as large and influential as Apple), there might be a perception among consumers (whether true or not) that they were beholden to the manufacturer not to do anything that might hurt that manufacturer's revenue streams, like (for example) providing parts and information to extend the use of obsolete products or criticizing any of the manufacturer's design practices that might be hostile to repair.

On the flip side, it might be possible for a partnership to provide better first-party parts support and more complete sharing of information, but I'm just too jaded to believe it could happen that way.

[seltzered_]

Both companies are political. Many larger companies pay for lobbying via organizations like CTIA - https://www.ctia.org/about-ctia/our-members

[ClumsyPilot]

Doing your job with Honesty and Integrity is political now? We live in stange times. Decline of the West explained in one sentence.

[Spivak]

No, trying to influence governments to create a legal right to repair is literally politics. Take a step back and look at all the negative connotations you've apparently attached to the word "political." The FSF and EFF are also political organizations.

Partnering with Apple who is against right to repair creates a situation where they might have to choose the money from Apple or their right to repair aspirations.

[kube-system]

iFixit launched a lobbying organization. Political lobbying is political.

https://www.ifixit.com/News/7863/the-repair-association

[riffic]

this is the good kind of political, though.

[markdown]

If a company lobbying for change that would benefit them is political, almost all companies are political.

[colejohnson66]

Yes. That’s literally the definition of lobbying: getting involved in politics to get your way. It doesn’t have to mean corruption.

From Merriam-Webster[0]:

> lobby (v)

> to conduct activities aimed at influencing public officials and especially members of a legislative body on legislation

“Public officials” have another name: politicians.

[0]: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lobby

[NegativeLatency]

I agree that would be cool, and probably a better user experience but I’d suspect apple has large amounts of loathing for a company that criticizes their products.

[eyelidlessness]

I find iFixit’s repairability reviews incredibly objective, often more generously short on outright criticism than I’d expect given both their opinion and business incentive.

[sandworm101]

>> iFixit’s repairability reviews incredibly objective

Which is while Apple doesn't like them. If you care about sales, glowing reviews are always better than honest reviews. There are plenty of people willing to praise Apple and so there is no need to cater to objective reviewers.

[threeseed]

Apple is one of, if not the, most reviewed company in the world.

For every new product there are thousands of reviews for which iFixit is just one. And almost all of those reviews are overwhelmingly objective and honest as you can see for the lacklustre reviews of the Studio Display.

If I were Apple I wouldn't waste any time on iFixit either since they have limited traffic and limited social reach.

[ben1040]

On that front, Google and iFixit are partnering, with iFixit selling OEM Pixel repair parts.

https://www.ifixit.com/News/58542/working-with-google

[skhr0680]

iFixit with real QC approved Apple parts would be awesome. I had a bad experience with a laptop screen from iFixit, their support's options were to accept a partial refund or ship it internationally to them at my own expense. I cut my losses and took the cash. In the end I felt like I would have been no worse off rolling the dice on an eBay part.

[status200]

Unless Apple expands the options tremendously, iFixit will be around for a while, since the only parts available currently are for a limited range of the newer iPhones.

[overtonwhy]

They make excellent tool kits for working on electronics!

[treeman79]

In the past I’ve done third-party web work for Apple.

They were beyond demanding that everything had to be pixel perfect at all resolutions. Far more then any other client I’ve had.

Was good in that it upped my game, and attention to detail. So I’m grateful for that. But wow was it annoying at the time.

Surprised they let others get away with low quality.

[mattl]

Did your work end up on apple.com?

[b3morales]

I poked around to see whether Apple was mentioned at all. Interestingly, clicking quickly through the legal links at the bottom, Apple does at least put themselves forward as the provider of the warranty.