5 ms·

No they won't. Apple made specific choices NOT to do what the whole industry had already been doing: making repairable systems.

mbreese 8y ago
The whole industry has been moving towards smaller, lighter, machines for a while. You don't get smaller and lighter without sacrificing repairability. Screws add weight and size, whereas glue is just as good at holding components in place and adds no extra thickness. I'm sure there is an inflection point in terms of thickness where you have to switch from screws to glue. And I'm sure there are some laptops that straddle that line and are quite repairable. But it's not correct to say that Apple moving counter to the rest of the industry with respect to repairability. More consumers have decided to value light and thin over repairable and upgradable.
- tmd83 8y ago
  But I think it's fair to say that Apple is the first one to sell mainstream high volume machines like that and use their reputation to make it standard making it both much easier for others to follow without backlash or even forced to follow in search for ever slimmer device.
- ethbro 8y ago
  Logistics at Apple scale is underappreciated too. I wouldn't be surprised if it's almost cheaper to stock/ship whole motherboard units than individual parts. And much easier to guarantee a tighter repair SLA. Inventory tracking, storing, shipping, and training don't come free. Especially if, as Apple, they can likely financially push back on their suppliers for some flaws.
- blattimwind 8y ago
  > More consumers have decided to value light and thin over repairable and upgradable. Turns out many people really like to fuck their children and grandchildren over (and when you can even extract some shareholder value from catering to that demand, then why not?)
- nickflood 8y ago
  Both Dell XPS 13 (and 15) and Lenovo X1 Carbon are super repairable with screwed in batteries, standard SSDs and easy to remove and cheap to replace keyboards and touchpads. You are really wrong to assume that thin and light can not be repairable. It's what Apple wants you to believe, but this is just not true.

mbreese 8y ago

The whole industry has been moving towards smaller, lighter, machines for a while. You don't get smaller and lighter without sacrificing repairability. Screws add weight and size, whereas glue is just as good at holding components in place and adds no extra thickness. I'm sure there is an inflection point in terms of thickness where you have to switch from screws to glue. And I'm sure there are some laptops that straddle that line and are quite repairable. But it's not correct to say that Apple moving counter to the rest of the industry with respect to repairability. More consumers have decided to value light and thin over repairable and upgradable.

tmd83 8y ago
But I think it's fair to say that Apple is the first one to sell mainstream high volume machines like that and use their reputation to make it standard making it both much easier for others to follow without backlash or even forced to follow in search for ever slimmer device.
ethbro 8y ago
Logistics at Apple scale is underappreciated too. I wouldn't be surprised if it's almost cheaper to stock/ship whole motherboard units than individual parts. And much easier to guarantee a tighter repair SLA. Inventory tracking, storing, shipping, and training don't come free. Especially if, as Apple, they can likely financially push back on their suppliers for some flaws.
blattimwind 8y ago
> More consumers have decided to value light and thin over repairable and upgradable. Turns out many people really like to fuck their children and grandchildren over (and when you can even extract some shareholder value from catering to that demand, then why not?)
nickflood 8y ago
Both Dell XPS 13 (and 15) and Lenovo X1 Carbon are super repairable with screwed in batteries, standard SSDs and easy to remove and cheap to replace keyboards and touchpads. You are really wrong to assume that thin and light can not be repairable. It's what Apple wants you to believe, but this is just not true.