“Right to repair” movement for your devices is start to looking more promising and how this affects you

Apple has recently announced details about its Self-Service Repair. This a big step in the move to give customers more control over their devices

While you may never have heard about “right to repair” before; it is something that you’ve most likely thought about. How annoying is it when your mobile device needs repairs, but your only option is to send back to Apple or Samsung? It has become increasingly difficult to fix your own devices, or to find local businesses that can fix your devices.

Parts, schematics, instructions, everything that one would need to fix the product they’ve bought have become scarcer, which in turn has led to customers fighting back for their right to repair the electronics they’ve bought.

In a surprising turn of events, Apple has opened a pathway for customers to repair their own devices. They will give customers who have the knowledge to repair their own devices access to genuine Apple tools and parts, starting in 2022. Starting with the iPhone 12 and 13, with Mac computers with M1 chips coming soon after. It will start with common fixes such as the iPhone camera and battery – then will expand out later.

Apple is planning to start this early next year in North America and expanding out to additional countries over the rest of the year. Australia is most likely going to be included in this rollout. This will see the small fix-it shops expanding their services and technology-savvy product owners buying parts to fix their old devices.

This is a particularly good push for consumer rights, hopefully paving the way for other companies to do the same.