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The shareholder fight that forced Apple's hand on repair rights
Wednesday morning, Apple announced that the company will soon make parts and repair manuals available to the general public, reversing years of restrictive repair policies. The new policy represents a seismic shift for a company that has fought independent repair for years by restricting access to parts, manuals, and diagnostic tools, designing products that are difficult to fix, and lobbying against laws that would enshrine the right to repair.
But Apple didn't change its policy out of the goodness of its heart. The announcement follows months of growing pressure from repair activists and regulators — and its timing seems deliberate, considering a shareholder resolution environmental advocates filed with the company in September asking Apple to re-evaluate its stance on independent repair. Wednesday is a key deadline in the fight over the resolution, with advocates poised to bring the issue to the Securities and Exchange Commission to resolve.
Apple spokesperson Nick Leahy told The Verge that the program "has been in development for well over a year," describing it as "the next step in increasing customer access to Apple genuine parts, tools, and manuals." Leahy declined to say whether the timing of the announcement was influenced by shareholder pressure.
Apple makes parts and manuals available to all (15m35s Louis Rossmann video)
See also: Apple makes a concession to 'right to repair' movement, will let you repair your own iPhone
Opinion: Another Apple PR fail as company waits until forced to act over Right to Repair
Apple gives in on right-to-repair
Apple Folds to Right to Repair Movement – Will Allow Customers to Perform iPhone, Mac Repairs From 2022
Previously: Apple Sued an Independent iPhone Repair Shop Owner and Lost
Apple Exports Independent Repair Provider Program to Europe and Canada
Apple, Microsoft, and Google Team Up to Block Right to Repair Laws
Apple and John Deere Shareholder Resolutions Demand They Explain Their Bad Repair Policies
Leaked Apple Training Videos Show How it Undermines Third-Party Repair
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Thursday November 18 2021, @09:52PM
I don't know what a "reasonable" price is, with Apple. People routinely go to Apple's sales pages or shops, and start with a basic computer, for a slightly exorbitant price. Looking at MacBook Pro 16" right now - $2499 for the basic, 10 core Apple CPU, 16 G memory, 512 G storage, no software installed. Upgrade to the M1 CPU 10/32/16 costs another $400, upgrade to 32G RAM is another $400, 1 TB storage adds $200, or 2 TB for $600. Maxing out with the best CPU, 64 gig of memory, and 8TB of storage will cost $6,099. Ridunculous - you can buy comparable hardware for roughly 2/3 the price any day of the week, and if you wait for a sale, such as Black Friday, you'll get down to about 1/2 the price. NOTE: I am not comparing prices with the cheapest low budget laptops found in WalMart and similar stores, I'm talking about top-of-the-line offerings from any major vendor.
So, given that their storefront prices are ridiculous, how do you determine what a reasonable price is for repair parts? Are they seriously going to charge $200+ per TB for storage? Drop by Newegg, and Samsung NVME PCIe storage is available, 2TB for $229. 1 TB is only $119. That's roughly half of what Apple charges.
I can see Apple selling their storage at $200/TB, through their own laptop storefront, but doubling up on that price when selling to repair shops and/or consumers. "But, we're using all available production in our own products, if you really want this item, you're setting our production back, so you'll have to pay a premium!" Which will undoubtably lead to more court cases.
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