Barring impossible regulatory barriers, which isn't really a problem for smartphones, options appear when consumer sentiment is there. In fact, at one time smar

Barring impossible regulatory barriers, which isn't really a problem for smartphones, options appear when consumer sentiment is there. In fact, at one time smartphones didn't exist at all. They emerged as a viable product because the consumer saw value in them. Someone will try to build a repairable smartphone as soon as they believe that is what consumers want, and if they got that notion right, it will become the dominate smartphone and everyone else will quickly follow suit to maintain their own profitability. But so long as people don't truly value repairable smartphones (see the other comment about someone wanting a repairable smartphone for practically free – that's not valuing something), there is no realistic avenue for someone to create a repairable one, just as there would have been no realistic avenue to creating smartphones in the first place if the consumer did not see value in them.