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To be fair the mobile device iteration of the repairability movement has always been laden with irony. It's a user empowerment movement solving a problem users

To be fair the mobile device iteration of the repairability movement has always been laden with irony. It's a user empowerment movement solving a problem users didn't care about or want to deal with, championed mainly by middle and upper income individuals in tandem with politicians looking for easy karma (bonus points if they're European because it makes them look tough against the big corporate Americans plus Samsung), all under the guise of helping users who want to save money (poor people) even though this category lacks the skills and the interest to repair their devices anyway outside of a rare few exceptions. At this point a model being easily repairable is like "GMO Free" labels on food, a thing you advertise because it'll bring in money from the activists while every other consumer ignores it and focuses on a combination of performamce and price. In short, as long as the device can be advertised based on its repairability I don't think the company cares much since the objective is already complete.

britzkopf 4y ago
> ...helping users who want to save money (poor people) even though this category lacks the skills and the interest to repair their devices anyway... Sorry, but can you explain this a little more. It's coming off as pretty offensive.
quicklime 4y ago
> even though this category lacks the skills and the interest to repair their devices anyway outside of a rare few exceptions Most poor people do have the skills to take their device into a repair shop to have it repaired? It makes a big difference to the price of the repair if the device is designed to be repairable. Even better if it’s something a user can do themselves, such as replace the battery in a Nokia 3310.
hezag 4y ago
> all under the guise of helping users who want to save money (poor people) even though this category lacks the skills and the interest to repair their devices anyway outside of a rare few exceptions This is simply not true. At least in my country, poor people generally have interest and the skills to repair their devices (or to pay someone to do so, as it's cheaper than buying a new one)
cubefox 4y ago
Indeed. Some things (GMO free, renewable, partly recycled back cover, repairable) sound good to customers, while being at best of marginal importance compared to other factors.
HenriTEL 4y ago
No, it's an ecological movement. The goal is not to help the poor but to fight climate change. I agree with the second part tho. This phone is still pretty complicated to repair. It's much easier than for the average smartphone but still simple things like changing the battery involve tricky steps like disconnecting the fingerprint reader and motherboard cache. And yeah the real obsolescence issue is on the software side.

britzkopf 4y ago

> ...helping users who want to save money (poor people) even though this category lacks the skills and the interest to repair their devices anyway... Sorry, but can you explain this a little more. It's coming off as pretty offensive.

quicklime 4y ago

> even though this category lacks the skills and the interest to repair their devices anyway outside of a rare few exceptions Most poor people do have the skills to take their device into a repair shop to have it repaired? It makes a big difference to the price of the repair if the device is designed to be repairable. Even better if it’s something a user can do themselves, such as replace the battery in a Nokia 3310.

hezag 4y ago

> all under the guise of helping users who want to save money (poor people) even though this category lacks the skills and the interest to repair their devices anyway outside of a rare few exceptions This is simply not true. At least in my country, poor people generally have interest and the skills to repair their devices (or to pay someone to do so, as it's cheaper than buying a new one)

cubefox 4y ago

Indeed. Some things (GMO free, renewable, partly recycled back cover, repairable) sound good to customers, while being at best of marginal importance compared to other factors.

HenriTEL 4y ago

No, it's an ecological movement. The goal is not to help the poor but to fight climate change. I agree with the second part tho. This phone is still pretty complicated to repair. It's much easier than for the average smartphone but still simple things like changing the battery involve tricky steps like disconnecting the fingerprint reader and motherboard cache. And yeah the real obsolescence issue is on the software side.