13 ms·

I don't think they want to squeeze every cent. I think they just care about the brand. They want people who bought iphone to have the best experience they prepa

by comboy 9y ago

I don't think they want to squeeze every cent. I think they just care about the brand. They want people who bought iphone to have the best experience they prepared for them. Even if you buy some used iphone. If somebody buys some used iphone and it acts weird or the build quality seems imperfect because some parts were replaced, then this person may spread opinion that iphones suck. I'd guess that's their reasoning. But I'm not on their side here. I think they should be allowed to design products to make repairs as hard as possible if they want to, but once I buy it I should be able to do whatever I want with it. Plus there's not that much great experience to protect lately..

geezerjay 9y ago
> They want people who bought iphone to have the best experience they prepared for them. It's quite obvious that, to put it mildly, that's wishful thinking inspired by a heavily rose-tainted view of Apple. Meanwhile, Apple is known for their extreme price gouging complemented with extreme actions to stop even their very own customers from even repairing their broken products, let alone upgrade them to a usable state.
- rmev 9y ago
  >using meme arrows
  - Qub3d 9y ago
    The "greater than" or right bracket is used as a standard inline quote symbol and has been since before image boorus or chans existed.
    - rmev 9y ago
      yeh, sure newheck
    - greenyoda 9y ago
      Yeah, I was seeing them used in text-based email and Usenet clients in the 1980s, and they're probably even older than that.
- dijit 9y ago
  Apples 'price gouging' is just smart business. How do you get people in the low end to buy your product. But get the best margin on the high end? The base model of their products are perfectly servicable and price competitive for the quality. They just know what the wealthier consumers are willing to shell out for.
  - geezerjay 9y ago
    > Apples 'price gouging' is just smart business. Hooray Apple and its stockholders, but the consumer keeps on getting thoroughly screwed over and over again.
    - dijit 9y ago
      "dont hate the player, hate the game" Capitalistic tendencies in capitalist companies is not shocking.
      - dingaling 9y ago
        It's perfectly reasonable to hate the player for playing the game. Otherwise that's merely another form of 'just following orders'.
- jandrese 9y ago
  Apple basically doesn't compete on the low end for phones. The space is overwhelmingly dominated by Android devices. This also happens to be the largest segment by volume, which is a big factor in how Android devices sell in much greater numbers than iPhones.
  - blackflame7000 9y ago
    The margins are much better on a $1000 dollar phone than a $200 one
- snowwrestler 9y ago
  > complemented with extreme actions to stop even their very own customers from even repairing their broken products Like what kind of actions? I can go to ifixit.com right now, order parts for my iPhone, order tools to work on my iPhone, and watch detailed instructions about how to repair my iPhone. (or Mac, or iPad, etc.) The products are NOT easy to work on, but I am not aware of any action that Apple has taken against individual customers who want to repair their own products. > let alone upgrade them to a usable state. Personally speaking, I'm still using a 2008 Macbook Pro today because I was able to order and install more RAM (even above the recommended limit), a new SSD, and a new cooling fan.
  - atonse 9y ago
    You can't do that with a 2015 MacBook. Everything is soldered on. Are the iFixit parts genuine? I have no idea.
    - beenBoutIT 9y ago
      This is actually much better than their previous designs which had 'replaceable parts' that by design would generally destroy the motherboard when replaced by technically-inclined users or non-Apple repair people. Now there isn't an illusion of repairability bundled with a false sense of defeat upon encountering failure.
      - oarsinsync 9y ago
        I'm not sure it's better that GP wouldn't have been able to do what he did successfully, because other people might have failed thinking they could succeed. Just because some people might fail at certain tasks thinking they could perform aftermarket changes (so long my Palm IIIx and iPhone 3G) doesn't mean all people will fail at these things (wayhey hello new screen on my Thinkpad and significantly improved wifi on my XPS). Meanwhile my MacBook Air now gathers dust and I was forced to fork out significantly more money for a MacBook Pro just to double the RAM from 4GB to 8GB. There's only one winner there (well, arguably two, as I still got a new laptop out of it...)
inops 9y ago
Possibly, but there's an obvious planned obsolescence angle here for Apple too. Perhaps people wouldn't so readily buy new iPhones if they could replace their old phone's battery, screen, buttons, etc for a more reasonable price from a "non-authorised" repairer. Perhaps they wouldn't get a new one like clockwork every 1-3 years.
- DanBC 9y ago
  Or perhaps a robust second hand market for refurbished phones allows more people to afford to stay on the upgrade treadmill, increasing Apple's sales and bringing more people into the app-store system.
- colejohnson66 9y ago
  If any manufacturer of phones has planned obsolescence built in, it’s Android manufacturers. iOS devices receive updates for over 3 years, while you’re lucky to get updates to your Android phone after a year.
  - josteink 9y ago
    While the android update-situation is a real issue, not having the latest version of android installed on your phone does not make it obsolete. There’s almost no software that actually depends on you having the latest version. Bad battery life or flash storage used to beyond it’s reasonable lifetime is a much bigger problem, a problem that can be solved by replacement parts, or even better: user replaceable batteries or SD-cards.
- scottmf 9y ago
  Battery replacements are $29 at Apple stores
  - Karunamon 9y ago
    This year only.
vkou 9y ago
> They want people who bought iPhone to have the best experience they prepared for them. Since when is buying a deliberately un-maintainable device 'the best experience'? I would call that anti-user.
- comboy 9y ago
  It's the choice some people make. I think user experience is very subjective. I love the user experience that Gentoo provides me, but others will feel better with Windows 10. I didn't mean to say that it's objectively the best experience.
  - vkou 9y ago
    As a user, there is zero benefit to me when an Apple software update bricks my device because I replaced its screen at a third-party shop. This is not subjective, this is not an argument over whether or not their laptops should have a replaceable battery. This is a blatant cash grab by them, at my expense. I gain nothing from this decision. This practice may also be illegal in Europe.
  - musage 9y ago
    People making choices doesn't magically protect those choices from scrutiny.
- jandrese 9y ago
  That problem only comes up when you need to repair the phone. The out of box experience is more important to Apple.
yitchelle 9y ago
> They want people who bought iphone to have the best experience they prepared for them. Adding further to this, Apple also wants 100% control over that experience and how that experience is deployed, including how and what can be repaired.
- FireBeyond 9y ago
  > Apple also wants 100% control over that experience and how that experience is deployed, including how and what can be repaired. They can want it all they like, they just have no implicit right to it.
chris_wot 9y ago
If they cared about their brand, they would have considered what to do when you need to repair their product. If a good is faulty and get repaired, then it's not Apple who looks bad if the repair is bad. No, it's very clear they make their money by pushing new product.
PurpleBoxDragon 9y ago
The $300+ I had to pay to repair a phone because of a problem in their design leaves me extremely doubtful of this. I think it is all about money to them, and when they think they can win more money than it costs them in image, they will go after cases like this.
- saagarjha 9y ago
  > The $300+ I had to pay to repair a phone because of a problem in their design leaves me extremely doubtful of this. What problem in their design are you referring to?
  - StudentStuff 9y ago
    Likely touch disease or similar, Apple has had more than a few issues with bad solder joints in their products causing an untimely failure. The customer consistently gets blamed for these types of defects until it becomes a media issue for Apple.
IBM 9y ago
Well you have the right to do what you want with it. That's the thing about "Right To Repair", you already have the right to do it now. It's not illegal to open up your iPhone and replace a broken screen, Apple just doesn't support it by selling you genuine parts.
- cavanasm 9y ago
  And they'll sue you if you try to buy genuine parts that they rejected in QA that are not being advertised as genuine.
- alasdair_ 9y ago
  >That's the thing about "Right To Repair", you already have the right to do it now. Except that a lot of the times, you don't. The issue arises when the manufacturer adds some encryption to validate that a part is genuine (e.g. printer manufacturers using code signing to validate a printer cartridge is theirs) then suing people under the DMCA when they have to reverse-engineer the encryption just to repair their item. Take the John Deere case for example (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/mar/06/nebraska-farmers-right-to-repair-john-deere-apple https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/mar/06/nebraska...) - farmers bought tractors. The tractors needed to be repaired. To do this, the farmers needed to either break John Deere's copy protection mechanisms or use John Deere's own expensive repair services. Deere sued the farmers for trying to repair their own tractors.
squarefoot 9y ago
"I think they should be allowed to design products to make repairs as hard as possible if they want to" Not the 1st time they did that apparently. https://web.archive.org/web/20170103102649/blog.irepairnational.com/2014/09/30/iphone-5s-blue-screen-bootloop-restore-error-14-or-error-9/ https://web.archive.org/web/20170103102649/blog.irepairnatio...
eesmith 9y ago
At Ford™ we care about our brand. We want people who bought a Ford™ car to have the best experience we prepared for them. Other fuels may contain additives which make your Ford™ engine seem imperfect. A few misguided people are tempted by the siren call of the independent fuel suppliers to use something other than the Ford™ fuel specially made for your needs. When things go wrong, they spread rumors that Ford™ vehicles suck, when it was simply their misguided fault. And that's why, as the proud owner of a Ford™ vehicle, you must go to a Ford™ gasoline station to buy Ford™ fuel. That's Ford™ fuel, available from a Ford™ station somewhere in your state.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- Techowl 9y ago
  Wouldn't car parts be a much more accurate analogy, though? Apple isn't suing anyone for not using Apple-branded electricity to power their phone.
  - adrianN 9y ago
    Don't give them ideas.
    - beenBoutIT 9y ago
      I don't understand why the geniuses at Apple haven't seen the obvious flaws in our American/European/Asian/etc wall plugs and sockets and created Apple branded proprietary wall plugs and sockets that are totally incompatible with all current American/European/Asian/etc. plugs and sockets. Apple products would all use the proprietary plugs, while 'obsolete' devices with standard plugs would require a $40-100 Apple adapter. The Apple home isn't truly going to be an Apple Home until you can't plug a non-Apple device into a wall socket without forking over money to Apple for an unnecessary adapter.
      - Scooty 9y ago
        It's easier to just change the plug on the other end of the power cables every release.
rasz 9y ago
HAHAHA NO. The first thing you are being told when becoming Apple Authorized Service provider is UP-SELL. Your main function and profit source is telling people "cant be repaired/repair will cost as much as new one, would you like this new model?"
- FireBeyond 9y ago
  > The first thing you are being told when becoming Apple Authorized Service provider is UP-SELL. Your main function and profit source is telling people "cant be repaired/repair will cost as much as new one, would you like this new model?" I had water damage to a 2013 MBP, minor but nonetheless. It passed all diagnostics. Ran fine on AC power. Battery diagnostics were fine too. But it wouldn't charge. "Charge circuit error". No problem, I think. That's where the water damage was, no doubt. So I take it to Apple (in 2014, probably 18 months after purchase). I set my expectations, hmm, maybe $200-300? Let's go with $300, after labor, etc. Haha. "Sir, the charge circuitry is damaged and we need to replace that. You're looking at $899. Perhaps we should talk about you buying a new MacBook? Have you seen the latest?" So, there's labor, etc. But you're going to tell me that to repair something, that by your own diagnostics, is fine except for this one part costs 70% of the new purchase price? I paid $1300, if I recall for the MBP. Take away something for labor, etc, and apparently the charging circuit is worth more than the CPU, the memory, the SSD, the screen? No, now it serves as a driver for my step daughter's Garage Brand / Logic Pro setup with MIDI drums, keyboard, etc., remains on AC and has worked fine for several more years.
  - blattimwind 9y ago
    > So, there's labor, etc. But you're going to tell me that to repair something, that by your own diagnostics, is fine except for this one part costs 70% of the new purchase price? That's what a highly integrated machine gets you. Charge circuit defective => replace entire main board, including CPU, probably memory and storage too nowadays. No one is doing component-level repairs any more.
    - 15155 9y ago
conradev 9y ago
This has happened multiple times: 1. Users swap parts in a way Apple didn't account for in software 2. Something goes wrong, users blame Apple for intentionally breaking third party repairs 3. Apple deals with it Touch ID mismatch: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/feb/19/error-53-apple-issues-fix-bricked-iphones https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/feb/19/error-53-... Third party screens: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208067#1103 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208067#1103 Third party screens, again: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/apr/10/iphone-8-ios-113-breaks-smartphones-third-party-repaired-screens-apple https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/apr/10/iphone-8-...
- Y_Y 9y ago
  Of course the screens are non-genuine https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/16/23.24 https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/16/23.24
  - conradev 9y ago
    Updated
HammerJack 9y ago
Considering Apple intentionally slows older phones with firmware updates post new phone release, I think your argument that they're trying to protect the experience doesn't hold much weight.
- saagarjha 9y ago
  > Considering Apple intentionally slows older phones with firmware updates post new phone release Source, please?
  - vetinari 9y ago
    It's also my experience, upgrading iPhone 3G from iOS 3 to iOS 4. That thing was unusable afterwards. I'm sure there are examples with newer devices and iOS versions, but I wouldn't tell, because I didn't get any other afterwards.
  - coolio2657 9y ago
    If you pay attention to software and tech news, at all, you'd know this, or at least try to google it.
  - josteink 9y ago
    Here you go: https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/28/16827248/apple-iphone-battery-replacement-price-slow-down-apology https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/28/16827248/apple-iphone-ba... I’m sure they do it all the time, but this one incident actually caused worldwide news-coverage, even in tabloids read by normal people (that is, not just techies).
    - scottmf 9y ago
      That isn’t “intentionally slowing phones with new firmware releases”. That’s the phone slowing the CPU when the battery gets old to prevent unexpected shutdowns. If you think this is “planned obselence” you misunderstand the issue. iOS 11.3 now lets you disable this, so you can have full performance at the cost of unexpected shutdowns. Or you can just get an official battery replacement for $29 and your phone will be like new.
potta_coffee 9y ago
They altruistically try to shut down a business that provides a legitimate service to customers who want that service, out of the goodness of their hearts?
RivieraKid 9y ago
The "clean" solution would be a legal requirement that people buying used iPhones should have the knowledge that it contains unoriginal parts.
enlightenedfool 9y ago
"They want people who bought iphone to have the best experience they prepared for them". If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it...
Yetanfou 9y ago
> I think they just care about the brand. They want people who bought iphone to have the best experience they prepared for them. Ford motorcars just cares about the brand, that is why you're only allowed to run them on officially licensed Ford fuel. Philips lighting just cares about the brand, that is why you're only allowed to use Philips batteries. Keurig just cares about the brand, that is why you're only allowed to use officially licensed coffee cups. Miele just cares about the brand, that is why you're only allowed to use Miele dishwasher detergents. ... What a horrible world that would be, don't you agree? Sometimes regulation of business really is for the benefit of all, as Apple so vividly reminds us of time and time again. Designing their products to be basically irreparable should be allowed but it would be good if they were made to fess up to this before people forked over their earnings to buy one of those discard-a-phones. In Europe manufacturers of white goods have to put an energy label on their products to give prospective customers some idea of how much energy the device uses in comparison to other current devices in a scale from A to D (up to 2010: A-G [1]). This concept could be adapted to device maintenance as well, covering both repair as well as replacement of consumables. Apple products would score 'D' on availability of spare parts and 'D' on third-party service access. Such a scheme might help in convincing manufacturers that serviceability can be a selling point if done right. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_energy_label https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_energy_label
vbezhenar 9y ago
That's true. My friend bought "new" iPhone for half of price. It broke after few monthes of use. He know thinks that iPhone is just overpriced bad phone. Unfortunately it's a very big market here to sell phones which are built from old parts in China but very unreliable. People want iPhone but can't afford its price.

by comboy 9y ago

geezerjay 9y ago

> They want people who bought iphone to have the best experience they prepared for them. It's quite obvious that, to put it mildly, that's wishful thinking inspired by a heavily rose-tainted view of Apple. Meanwhile, Apple is known for their extreme price gouging complemented with extreme actions to stop even their very own customers from even repairing their broken products, let alone upgrade them to a usable state.

rmev 9y ago
>using meme arrows
- Qub3d 9y ago
  The "greater than" or right bracket is used as a standard inline quote symbol and has been since before image boorus or chans existed.
  - rmev 9y ago
    yeh, sure newheck
  - greenyoda 9y ago
    Yeah, I was seeing them used in text-based email and Usenet clients in the 1980s, and they're probably even older than that.
dijit 9y ago
Apples 'price gouging' is just smart business. How do you get people in the low end to buy your product. But get the best margin on the high end? The base model of their products are perfectly servicable and price competitive for the quality. They just know what the wealthier consumers are willing to shell out for.
- geezerjay 9y ago
  > Apples 'price gouging' is just smart business. Hooray Apple and its stockholders, but the consumer keeps on getting thoroughly screwed over and over again.
  - dijit 9y ago
    "dont hate the player, hate the game" Capitalistic tendencies in capitalist companies is not shocking.
    - dingaling 9y ago
      It's perfectly reasonable to hate the player for playing the game. Otherwise that's merely another form of 'just following orders'.
jandrese 9y ago
Apple basically doesn't compete on the low end for phones. The space is overwhelmingly dominated by Android devices. This also happens to be the largest segment by volume, which is a big factor in how Android devices sell in much greater numbers than iPhones.
- blackflame7000 9y ago
  The margins are much better on a $1000 dollar phone than a $200 one
snowwrestler 9y ago
> complemented with extreme actions to stop even their very own customers from even repairing their broken products Like what kind of actions? I can go to ifixit.com right now, order parts for my iPhone, order tools to work on my iPhone, and watch detailed instructions about how to repair my iPhone. (or Mac, or iPad, etc.) The products are NOT easy to work on, but I am not aware of any action that Apple has taken against individual customers who want to repair their own products. > let alone upgrade them to a usable state. Personally speaking, I'm still using a 2008 Macbook Pro today because I was able to order and install more RAM (even above the recommended limit), a new SSD, and a new cooling fan.
- atonse 9y ago
  You can't do that with a 2015 MacBook. Everything is soldered on. Are the iFixit parts genuine? I have no idea.
  - beenBoutIT 9y ago
    This is actually much better than their previous designs which had 'replaceable parts' that by design would generally destroy the motherboard when replaced by technically-inclined users or non-Apple repair people. Now there isn't an illusion of repairability bundled with a false sense of defeat upon encountering failure.
    - oarsinsync 9y ago
      I'm not sure it's better that GP wouldn't have been able to do what he did successfully, because other people might have failed thinking they could succeed. Just because some people might fail at certain tasks thinking they could perform aftermarket changes (so long my Palm IIIx and iPhone 3G) doesn't mean all people will fail at these things (wayhey hello new screen on my Thinkpad and significantly improved wifi on my XPS). Meanwhile my MacBook Air now gathers dust and I was forced to fork out significantly more money for a MacBook Pro just to double the RAM from 4GB to 8GB. There's only one winner there (well, arguably two, as I still got a new laptop out of it...)

inops 9y ago

Possibly, but there's an obvious planned obsolescence angle here for Apple too. Perhaps people wouldn't so readily buy new iPhones if they could replace their old phone's battery, screen, buttons, etc for a more reasonable price from a "non-authorised" repairer. Perhaps they wouldn't get a new one like clockwork every 1-3 years.

DanBC 9y ago
Or perhaps a robust second hand market for refurbished phones allows more people to afford to stay on the upgrade treadmill, increasing Apple's sales and bringing more people into the app-store system.
colejohnson66 9y ago
If any manufacturer of phones has planned obsolescence built in, it’s Android manufacturers. iOS devices receive updates for over 3 years, while you’re lucky to get updates to your Android phone after a year.
- josteink 9y ago
  While the android update-situation is a real issue, not having the latest version of android installed on your phone does not make it obsolete. There’s almost no software that actually depends on you having the latest version. Bad battery life or flash storage used to beyond it’s reasonable lifetime is a much bigger problem, a problem that can be solved by replacement parts, or even better: user replaceable batteries or SD-cards.
scottmf 9y ago
Battery replacements are $29 at Apple stores
- Karunamon 9y ago
  This year only.

vkou 9y ago

> They want people who bought iPhone to have the best experience they prepared for them. Since when is buying a deliberately un-maintainable device 'the best experience'? I would call that anti-user.

comboy 9y ago
It's the choice some people make. I think user experience is very subjective. I love the user experience that Gentoo provides me, but others will feel better with Windows 10. I didn't mean to say that it's objectively the best experience.
- vkou 9y ago
  As a user, there is zero benefit to me when an Apple software update bricks my device because I replaced its screen at a third-party shop. This is not subjective, this is not an argument over whether or not their laptops should have a replaceable battery. This is a blatant cash grab by them, at my expense. I gain nothing from this decision. This practice may also be illegal in Europe.
- musage 9y ago
  People making choices doesn't magically protect those choices from scrutiny.
jandrese 9y ago
That problem only comes up when you need to repair the phone. The out of box experience is more important to Apple.

yitchelle 9y ago

> They want people who bought iphone to have the best experience they prepared for them. Adding further to this, Apple also wants 100% control over that experience and how that experience is deployed, including how and what can be repaired.

FireBeyond 9y ago
> Apple also wants 100% control over that experience and how that experience is deployed, including how and what can be repaired. They can want it all they like, they just have no implicit right to it.

chris_wot 9y ago

If they cared about their brand, they would have considered what to do when you need to repair their product. If a good is faulty and get repaired, then it's not Apple who looks bad if the repair is bad. No, it's very clear they make their money by pushing new product.

PurpleBoxDragon 9y ago

The $300+ I had to pay to repair a phone because of a problem in their design leaves me extremely doubtful of this. I think it is all about money to them, and when they think they can win more money than it costs them in image, they will go after cases like this.

saagarjha 9y ago
> The $300+ I had to pay to repair a phone because of a problem in their design leaves me extremely doubtful of this. What problem in their design are you referring to?
- StudentStuff 9y ago
  Likely touch disease or similar, Apple has had more than a few issues with bad solder joints in their products causing an untimely failure. The customer consistently gets blamed for these types of defects until it becomes a media issue for Apple.

IBM 9y ago

Well you have the right to do what you want with it. That's the thing about "Right To Repair", you already have the right to do it now. It's not illegal to open up your iPhone and replace a broken screen, Apple just doesn't support it by selling you genuine parts.

cavanasm 9y ago
And they'll sue you if you try to buy genuine parts that they rejected in QA that are not being advertised as genuine.
alasdair_ 9y ago
>That's the thing about "Right To Repair", you already have the right to do it now. Except that a lot of the times, you don't. The issue arises when the manufacturer adds some encryption to validate that a part is genuine (e.g. printer manufacturers using code signing to validate a printer cartridge is theirs) then suing people under the DMCA when they have to reverse-engineer the encryption just to repair their item. Take the John Deere case for example (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/mar/06/nebraska-farmers-right-to-repair-john-deere-apple https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/mar/06/nebraska...) - farmers bought tractors. The tractors needed to be repaired. To do this, the farmers needed to either break John Deere's copy protection mechanisms or use John Deere's own expensive repair services. Deere sued the farmers for trying to repair their own tractors.

squarefoot 9y ago

"I think they should be allowed to design products to make repairs as hard as possible if they want to" Not the 1st time they did that apparently. https://web.archive.org/web/20170103102649/blog.irepairnational.com/2014/09/30/iphone-5s-blue-screen-bootloop-restore-error-14-or-error-9/ https://web.archive.org/web/20170103102649/blog.irepairnatio...

eesmith 9y ago

At Ford™ we care about our brand. We want people who bought a Ford™ car to have the best experience we prepared for them. Other fuels may contain additives which make your Ford™ engine seem imperfect. A few misguided people are tempted by the siren call of the independent fuel suppliers to use something other than the Ford™ fuel specially made for your needs. When things go wrong, they spread rumors that Ford™ vehicles suck, when it was simply their misguided fault. And that's why, as the proud owner of a Ford™ vehicle, you must go to a Ford™ gasoline station to buy Ford™ fuel. That's Ford™ fuel, available from a Ford™ station somewhere in your state.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
Techowl 9y ago
Wouldn't car parts be a much more accurate analogy, though? Apple isn't suing anyone for not using Apple-branded electricity to power their phone.
- adrianN 9y ago
  Don't give them ideas.
  - beenBoutIT 9y ago
    I don't understand why the geniuses at Apple haven't seen the obvious flaws in our American/European/Asian/etc wall plugs and sockets and created Apple branded proprietary wall plugs and sockets that are totally incompatible with all current American/European/Asian/etc. plugs and sockets. Apple products would all use the proprietary plugs, while 'obsolete' devices with standard plugs would require a $40-100 Apple adapter. The Apple home isn't truly going to be an Apple Home until you can't plug a non-Apple device into a wall socket without forking over money to Apple for an unnecessary adapter.
    - Scooty 9y ago
      It's easier to just change the plug on the other end of the power cables every release.

rasz 9y ago

HAHAHA NO. The first thing you are being told when becoming Apple Authorized Service provider is UP-SELL. Your main function and profit source is telling people "cant be repaired/repair will cost as much as new one, would you like this new model?"

FireBeyond 9y ago
> The first thing you are being told when becoming Apple Authorized Service provider is UP-SELL. Your main function and profit source is telling people "cant be repaired/repair will cost as much as new one, would you like this new model?" I had water damage to a 2013 MBP, minor but nonetheless. It passed all diagnostics. Ran fine on AC power. Battery diagnostics were fine too. But it wouldn't charge. "Charge circuit error". No problem, I think. That's where the water damage was, no doubt. So I take it to Apple (in 2014, probably 18 months after purchase). I set my expectations, hmm, maybe $200-300? Let's go with $300, after labor, etc. Haha. "Sir, the charge circuitry is damaged and we need to replace that. You're looking at $899. Perhaps we should talk about you buying a new MacBook? Have you seen the latest?" So, there's labor, etc. But you're going to tell me that to repair something, that by your own diagnostics, is fine except for this one part costs 70% of the new purchase price? I paid $1300, if I recall for the MBP. Take away something for labor, etc, and apparently the charging circuit is worth more than the CPU, the memory, the SSD, the screen? No, now it serves as a driver for my step daughter's Garage Brand / Logic Pro setup with MIDI drums, keyboard, etc., remains on AC and has worked fine for several more years.
- blattimwind 9y ago
  > So, there's labor, etc. But you're going to tell me that to repair something, that by your own diagnostics, is fine except for this one part costs 70% of the new purchase price? That's what a highly integrated machine gets you. Charge circuit defective => replace entire main board, including CPU, probably memory and storage too nowadays. No one is doing component-level repairs any more.
  - 15155 9y ago

conradev 9y ago

This has happened multiple times: 1. Users swap parts in a way Apple didn't account for in software 2. Something goes wrong, users blame Apple for intentionally breaking third party repairs 3. Apple deals with it Touch ID mismatch: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/feb/19/error-53-apple-issues-fix-bricked-iphones https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/feb/19/error-53-... Third party screens: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208067#1103 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208067#1103 Third party screens, again: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/apr/10/iphone-8-ios-113-breaks-smartphones-third-party-repaired-screens-apple https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/apr/10/iphone-8-...

Y_Y 9y ago
Of course the screens are non-genuine https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/16/23.24 https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/16/23.24
- conradev 9y ago
  Updated

HammerJack 9y ago

Considering Apple intentionally slows older phones with firmware updates post new phone release, I think your argument that they're trying to protect the experience doesn't hold much weight.

saagarjha 9y ago
> Considering Apple intentionally slows older phones with firmware updates post new phone release Source, please?
- vetinari 9y ago
  It's also my experience, upgrading iPhone 3G from iOS 3 to iOS 4. That thing was unusable afterwards. I'm sure there are examples with newer devices and iOS versions, but I wouldn't tell, because I didn't get any other afterwards.
- coolio2657 9y ago
  If you pay attention to software and tech news, at all, you'd know this, or at least try to google it.
- josteink 9y ago
  Here you go: https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/28/16827248/apple-iphone-battery-replacement-price-slow-down-apology https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/28/16827248/apple-iphone-ba... I’m sure they do it all the time, but this one incident actually caused worldwide news-coverage, even in tabloids read by normal people (that is, not just techies).
  - scottmf 9y ago
    That isn’t “intentionally slowing phones with new firmware releases”. That’s the phone slowing the CPU when the battery gets old to prevent unexpected shutdowns. If you think this is “planned obselence” you misunderstand the issue. iOS 11.3 now lets you disable this, so you can have full performance at the cost of unexpected shutdowns. Or you can just get an official battery replacement for $29 and your phone will be like new.

potta_coffee 9y ago

They altruistically try to shut down a business that provides a legitimate service to customers who want that service, out of the goodness of their hearts?

RivieraKid 9y ago

The "clean" solution would be a legal requirement that people buying used iPhones should have the knowledge that it contains unoriginal parts.

enlightenedfool 9y ago

"They want people who bought iphone to have the best experience they prepared for them". If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it...

Yetanfou 9y ago

> I think they just care about the brand. They want people who bought iphone to have the best experience they prepared for them. Ford motorcars just cares about the brand, that is why you're only allowed to run them on officially licensed Ford fuel. Philips lighting just cares about the brand, that is why you're only allowed to use Philips batteries. Keurig just cares about the brand, that is why you're only allowed to use officially licensed coffee cups. Miele just cares about the brand, that is why you're only allowed to use Miele dishwasher detergents. ... What a horrible world that would be, don't you agree? Sometimes regulation of business really is for the benefit of all, as Apple so vividly reminds us of time and time again. Designing their products to be basically irreparable should be allowed but it would be good if they were made to fess up to this before people forked over their earnings to buy one of those discard-a-phones. In Europe manufacturers of white goods have to put an energy label on their products to give prospective customers some idea of how much energy the device uses in comparison to other current devices in a scale from A to D (up to 2010: A-G [1]). This concept could be adapted to device maintenance as well, covering both repair as well as replacement of consumables. Apple products would score 'D' on availability of spare parts and 'D' on third-party service access. Such a scheme might help in convincing manufacturers that serviceability can be a selling point if done right. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_energy_label https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_energy_label

vbezhenar 9y ago

That's true. My friend bought "new" iPhone for half of price. It broke after few monthes of use. He know thinks that iPhone is just overpriced bad phone. Unfortunately it's a very big market here to sell phones which are built from old parts in China but very unreliable. People want iPhone but can't afford its price.