It wasn’t that long ago that Apple products routinely drew the ire of repair advocates. The iPhone maker has more fully embraced user-repairability in recent years, in part due to sustainability concerns and the growing right to repair. Actions like pairing parts continue to anger critics, including iFixit, which retrospectively dropped iPhone 14 repairability score late last year on politics.
In the simplest terms, component pairing requires a specific (in this case, first-party) component in order for a device to function as intended. ONE new white paper released Wednesday offers the most detailed look yet at Apple’s current repair policy. Entitled ‘Longevity by Design’, the study highlights the priority of durability over repairability.
“Repairability of a device and access to repair services are important considerations when designing long-life products,” Apple’s vice president of hardware engineering John Ternus says in the study. “However, optimizing for repair alone may not yield the best outcome for our customers or the environment.”
Ideally, the concepts of repairability and durability should not conflict. The perfect device is one that never breaks in the first place, while still allowing the user easy repair access when needed.
Apple notes that subsequent generations of iPhones have increasingly focused on device repairability. This was certainly evident with the 2023 iPhone 15. Unsurprisingly, iFixit’s subsequent teardown was a mixed bag, once again pointing to component pairing as a major concern. The website finally awarded the device 4/10 repairability score.
Meanwhile, Apple continued to expand its user repair service. On Wednesday, the company announced that Diagnostics for Self Service Repair is now available in 32 European countries. The list includes the UK, France, Germany and the Netherlands. It was introduced in Decemberthe feature provides diagnostics to users that were previously only available to Apple Authorized Service Providers and independent repair providers.
Self Service Repair has also received mixed reviews from critics. In April, Apple announced that iPhone customers and stores would be able to access used parts for repairs. The company also notes that it does not prevent the use of third-party components, but in some cases those non-Apple components will not have the same access to the system.
“‘Part Pair’ is used a lot out there and has this negative connotation,” Ternus told me at the time. “I think it’s led people to believe that we somehow prevent third-party components from working, which we don’t. As we see it, we need to know which component is on the device for a few reasons. First, we need to verify that it’s a real Apple biometric device and that it hasn’t been spoofed or something. … Calibration is the other.”
Apple’s stance on the matter is that using third-party biometrics could compromise security, while improperly calibrated components such as displays can lead to an inferior experience.
In the new paper, the company argues that prioritizing longevity over repairability is ultimately the best move for sustainability. It is fair to assess individual impact based on concrete evidence. Furthermore, longevity, reliability, and user serviceability are not consistent across components.
Here Apple explains that screens and batteries are more likely than other components to require repair. Until the day the indestructible screen arrives, then, it makes sense to make these components among the easiest to repair for users. In contrast, Apple points to more complex carbon math around charging ports.
Apple writes:
[P]Repositioning repairability can be a misnomer when the need for service is infrequent—an internal case study on the iPhone’s charging port helps prove that. The iPhone’s charging port is part of a heavy-duty unit that includes microphones and other components that can be repaired as a unit, but rarely needs to be replaced. Individually replacing the charging port would require additional components, including its own flexible printed circuit board, socket and connectors that increase the carbon emissions required to manufacture each device. Higher carbon emissions from manufacturing are only justified if the charging port requires replacement in at least 10% of devices. In fact, the actual service rate was below 0.1%, meaning that Apple’s existing design approach yields lower carbon emissions over the lifetime of the device.
Apple is also using the new white paper to push back longstanding accusations of planned obsolescence with iPhones and other devices.
“There are hundreds of millions of iPhones in use for more than five years — and that number is still growing,” Apple writes. “And while some of our competitors are just beginning to promise multi-year operating system updates for their products, Apple pioneered the practice of providing free updates to our consumers a decade ago to preserve products that last longer.”
The “competitors” part is a bit of a jab at companies like Google, which introduced five-year Android security patches for Pixel 6 and 7 devices in 2021. Ultimately, though, any policy that allows users to continue to safely use older devices is a net positive.
