Learn how to – Apple’s Right to Repair: Why It’s About More Than Fixing Gadgets

Learn how to – Apple’s Right to Repair: Why It’s About More Than Fixing Gadgets.

After years of pressure, Apple has finally relented by offering users the “right to repair”. In a nutshell, that means you can order the parts and fix that cracked screen on your out-of-warranty iPhone 11 or MacBook Air. Well, you will be able to do so eventually. Apple’s right to repair scheme will roll out in 2022, initially focusing on iPhone 13 and 12, and Macs with M1 chips, then expanding to other devices. Apple will provide a manual to help those of us without the know-how. 

But this is a much bigger story than it seems, for a number of reasons. For a start, it comes hot on the heels of a legal challenge – as well as a shareholder revolt – to Apple on the subject of the right to repair, which has now been dropped. Secondly, other Big Tech firms are making similar promises on making hardware easier and more affordable to fix. 

And yet, the bigger picture here is one that takes in both environmental issues and the concept of planned obsolescence. The latter is a well-known strategy from all types of manufacturers, but it simply does not get enough attention in the media. Apple has been guilty of planned obsolescence and still is, but it’s far from being the only culprit. And it’s not just traditional tech either: everyone from light bulb manufacturers to makers of pantyhose has bought into the strategy. 

Planned obsolescence is misunderstood

However, for our purposes here, let’s focus on the smartphone market. Planned obsolescence is sometimes misunderstood. While it’s widely held that it’s the practice of deliberately making products with a short shelf life, like putting batteries in a phone that are irreplaceable and won’t work after a few years, it’s also about the constant dangling of upgrades. And yes, making stuff difficult and expensive to repair is also linked to planned obsolescence.  

There’s nothing wrong with launching a new iPhone every year. But it is increasingly under scrutiny, particularly from those wondering why Big Tech’s impact on the environment isn’t being held in check. Die-hard Apple fans will want the latest device, but does the average consumer really need to move from the iPhone 12 to the 13? 

But it goes further. The annual smartphone release by Apple has become less of an occasion. This is understandable, as the company can’t reinvent the wheel every 12 months. Sure, they might stick a faster processor in there or add yet another camera lens, but many of us will watch these events and feel somewhat underwhelmed. The feeling today is nothing compared to the sense of seeing something revolutionary we had back in the early 2010s. 

Gaming is becoming more “democratic”

 The question of needing a new device is also changing due to the increasing consensus that connection is becoming more important than hardware. Cloud computing and 5G are among the technologies that help “democratise” the smartphone experience. The idea is that the device is only a means of receiving the experience. And while it can augment it, the amount it does it by is decreasing. 

The gaming industry is a good example to use to illustrate this point. Since the 2000s, we have long seen the casino sector focus on the gaming experience at the source. By that, we mean the delivery of games does not change whether it’s a mobile casino on smartphone, or desktop casino on a laptop. The device does not alter the way we play casino games, nor the outcome. Other sides of the gaming sector are catching up to this fact. Xbox, for example, admits that its consoles will probably be obsolete one day as the company focuses on cloud gaming. That will mean that games are just games, not specifically focused on working on Xbox Series X.

The upgrade is becoming more of an ethical question

Of course, we are not saying that the experience of playing online casino games or Halo Infinite cannot be augmented by a more powerful, more expensive device – they are. It’s more about saying the measurable difference is becoming more negligible. How much more benefit do you get from playing Call of Duty Mobile on iPhone 13 compared to iPhone 12 in reality? Slightly more? But is that enough to make you upgrade? 

The point, as such, is that an upgrade is a luxury. And it should increasingly be seen as such if we factor in the carbon footprint of buying a new smartphone. That’s why “right to repair” is important. It helps nudge us in the right direction when it comes to throwing away one device and buying another. Apple and Big Tech will have to do a lot more than this token gesture in future, of course. But it’s a step in the right direction.