[terhechte]

The reason they do the serial coding is to reduce the incentive for stealing iPhones. Due to locking, you can't really sell a stolen iPhone. Instead, thieves break it apart and sell the parts. Serial coding disincentives this. I know many people that had their iPhone stolen and it is an awful experience.

I'm a simple man, I'd never have the ability to solder and fix my own phone. Instead of repairing it myself, I'd always go to an official repair shop. I'm not benefitting from non-coded parts. On the other hand, reducing the likelihood of people stealing my phone is a huge upside for me. So for me, and people like me, these measures that Apple takes are a net benefit. I understand that for tinkerers it is a different equation - but you have to agree that for the majority of iPhone owners the equation might also tip in favour of not having to worry about stolen phones instead of being able to fix their own hardware (which most normal people also would never do).

[ActorNightly]

>As for the serial numbering and activation of replacement parts: that also has a simple explanation that doesn't involve a nefarious lock-in plot.

People really need to use their brain more.

If parts pairing was to deter theft, then it would work like this - any time a stolen part is detected in a non paired phone, it would notify the user and Apple, and allow that part to be tracked down. Or, just make the phone completely inoperable.

It doesn't work like this. Swapping to a unpaired display makes the display still work plenty fine with some limitations.

EVERY SINGLE DECISION that Apple makes is for revenue gathering, and keeping their devices in the status of high end tech jewelry. They will never be a company that gives a fuck about things like right to repair, or offering more features to consumers for free.

[audunw]

> People really need to use their brain more.

You included, perhaps

> Swapping to a unpaired display makes the display still work plenty fine with some limitations.

Apple has to walk a tight rope here. Every change they make is risky and you could end up bricking legitimate devices.

It's undeniable that the limitation they've applied makes stealing the parts less desirable. You can't easily pass off a device made with stolen parts as completely genuine which reduces the resale value in the most lucrative second hand markets. Every generation they're slowly moving more in this direction, while also balancing these restrictions against repair-ability and risk of unintended bricking.

This effort is creating a lot of work for Apple. I seriously doubt it's worth the trouble just to make repairing the devices harder. The money they make from that is peanuts. What they gain from customers being happy that their phones are less worth stealing, and the price they get for a fully genuine phone in the second hand market when they upgrade, is probably much more important for driving the sale of new phones.

> EVERY SINGLE DECISION that Apple makes is for revenue gathering

Of course. Why do you say that as if it's news, or as if it's something not every single person here knows already?

Yet the fact is that sometimes these decisions overlap with the genuine interests of the customers, either because of customer feedback, increase/decrease in sales, or from competition, or due to regulations.

And I personally think this effort is something that heavily overlaps with consumer interests. Especially now that they're putting more effort into making pairing/calibration of swapped parts easier.

[cromulent]

You are yelling about Apple making every single decision about revenue. This is demonstrably and famously not true - not every decision.

Apple was challenged by shareholders to only commit to environmental or accessibility projects if they increased ROI. Tim Cook rejected that out of hand [1].

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/mar/03/tim-cook...

[spookie]

I see this argument constantly, but how many times have people had their phone stolen?

Isn't it a better option to just have the phone have proper robust security preventing people without proper permissions to access personal data?

It just seems a bit much just to prevent an unlikely scenario. I think that its purpose is for Apple to control who repairs and gain revenue from it.

[dagmx]

Theft isn’t about the data protection. It’s about the parts scavenging.

The data security part is on the flip side when someone might receive a phone with a counterfeit part that may reduce security (faking authentication etc).

Parts pairing solves for both, but the two aren’t related beyond that.

[Rinzler89]

Wait, how is this a benefit for you or a deterent for thieves? iPhones get stolen all the time. Leave your iPhone unattended in a public space and I guarantee it will disappear in no time. Where do you see the reduction in iPhone thefts? This feels like a myth that keeps being spread around HN.

[dagmx]

Down by 25-50% within the first year after introduction

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/iphone-thefts-down-thanks-to-ap...

There’ll always be theft but the incentive has been greatly reduced.

[jocaal]

This would be a valid response if first party parts were easily available to be bought directly from manufacturers.

[argsnd]

They are, https://selfservicerepair.com/home

[jocaal]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qV4_mLw2BGM&t=270

TLDW Apple has slow response times. Not all parts are available. Parts are super expensive. Liability with heavy NDA's.

[argsnd]

I’m sure Rossman has legitimate complaints that he can’t order thunderbolt controllers or whatever in bulk from Apple to conduct complex main board repairs in his repair shop, but the fact is that any repair that Apple themselves will perform at an Apple Store or service centre is performable at home with official Apple parts often with significant discounts over getting it done by Apple.

I recently replaced an iPhone 12 Pro Max battery myself at home for £44 rather than the £85 Apple charges to do it for me. All I had to do was send them my old battery. No NDAs or sketchy agreements.

[threeseed]

Maybe you can talk about which parts are not available and/or are unreasonably expensive.

Because looking at the repair site it looks pretty comprehensive and you can even hire everything you need for $49 a week.