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So lets say Apple put up a store of spare parts and they charge $399 for a replacement screen. How does that look?

Wowfunhappy 6y ago
IMO, charging as much as a new iPhone SE for just the screen doesn't fit the definition of "making their parts accessible". :)
- theshrike79 6y ago
  Have you seen the markup on car spare parts? If you want to build a normal German family sedan from just the spare parts, you'll be paying 20x the cost of a full car easily. Not even speaking of the skullduggery the VAG consortium is doing, they use the exact same parts for a large portion of their cars, just with different serial numbers. A widget for Premium Car costs 1000, the EXACT SAME WIDGET for Budget Car costs 100. You just need to know the magic number or have a friendly salesperson behind the counter.
  - kakwa_ 6y ago
    There are abuses. But for cars, even with the insane markups, having car parts is still a win, specially compared to tech devices like iphones. Also, cars are 1) a bit more complex 2) a bit more granular in design, which leads to more swappable components. This result in needing to replace just a few relatively small components in case of breakdowns (a pump, a filter, etc), and even with the markup, repair is often a good solution financially vs replacing the car. By contrast, on a phone, the individually swappable components are much bigger (a whole screen, a logic board, etc), making repairs less viable. Last point is supplying spare parts is also quite complex logistically, which explains part of the markup. But not all of it, I agree, there has been numerous cases of price fixing/abuses, for example: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-autos-software-pricing-insight/software-and-stealth-how-carmakers-hike-spare-parts-prices-idUSKCN1IZ07L https://www.reuters.com/article/us-autos-software-pricing-in...
erichocean 6y ago
It looks like Apple is asking to be regulated.
- jacobush 6y ago
  Ah, thanks I had a good laugh! An honest loud laugh. Agree 100% though.

IMO, charging as much as a new iPhone SE for just the screen doesn't fit the definition of "making their parts accessible". :)

theshrike79 6y ago
Have you seen the markup on car spare parts? If you want to build a normal German family sedan from just the spare parts, you'll be paying 20x the cost of a full car easily. Not even speaking of the skullduggery the VAG consortium is doing, they use the exact same parts for a large portion of their cars, just with different serial numbers. A widget for Premium Car costs 1000, the EXACT SAME WIDGET for Budget Car costs 100. You just need to know the magic number or have a friendly salesperson behind the counter.
- kakwa_ 6y ago
  There are abuses. But for cars, even with the insane markups, having car parts is still a win, specially compared to tech devices like iphones. Also, cars are 1) a bit more complex 2) a bit more granular in design, which leads to more swappable components. This result in needing to replace just a few relatively small components in case of breakdowns (a pump, a filter, etc), and even with the markup, repair is often a good solution financially vs replacing the car. By contrast, on a phone, the individually swappable components are much bigger (a whole screen, a logic board, etc), making repairs less viable. Last point is supplying spare parts is also quite complex logistically, which explains part of the markup. But not all of it, I agree, there has been numerous cases of price fixing/abuses, for example: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-autos-software-pricing-insight/software-and-stealth-how-carmakers-hike-spare-parts-prices-idUSKCN1IZ07L https://www.reuters.com/article/us-autos-software-pricing-in...

erichocean 6y ago

It looks like Apple is asking to be regulated.

jacobush 6y ago
Ah, thanks I had a good laugh! An honest loud laugh. Agree 100% though.