Apple announces self-service repair scheme in win for campaigners

The image is from the same source.

Customers who are comfortable will be able to fix their own devices through the self-service repair programme.

It will cover replacing the batteries, screens, and cameras of recent iPhones when it launches in the US in early 2022.

Apple's new repair store will sell more than 200 parts and tools.

It comes after months of increasing pressure on Apple from the grassroots right-to-repair movement, which wants individuals and independent repair shops to be able to fix electronics.

Apple said that self service repair is for individual technicians with the knowledge and experience to repair electronic devices.

For the vast majority of customers, visiting a certified professional repair shop is a better option.

Jeff Williams, Apple's chief operating officer, said, "Creating greater access to Apple genuine parts gives our customers even more choice if a repair is needed."

The company said that customers enjoy a long- lasting product that holds its value for years.

Apple has been held up as an opponent of the right to repair because of safety issues.

iFixit, which recently took Apple to task for making it much harder to repair iPhone screens, said on its website that they never thought they'd see the day.

iFixit said in a statement to media that Apple has long claimed that letting consumers fix their own stuff would be dangerous.

Soon after the bad press, there was renewed governmental interest in repair markets. Apple is interested in letting people fix things they own.

The Canadian reviewers of computer hardware said that it was a huge win for the right-to-repair movement.

Apple said that the Self Service Repair programme would allow individual customers to join more than 5,000 Apple authorised service providers and 2,800 independent repair providers who have access to these parts, tools, and manuals.

The access to official parts has nearly doubled in the past three years, it said.

Apple's repair schemes have long been criticized for having strict terms and restrictions on where the replacement parts come from, making it unlikely that a random component from a broken phone could be used for repair.

The company has tight controls on the pricing of those components.

Several US states are considering "fair repair" legislation, which has attracted much attention in recent years.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak came out in favor of the movement earlier this year, after building the first Apple computers in a garage with Steve Jobs.

He said in July that we wouldn't have had an Apple if he hadn't grown up in an open technology world.