
For each year since 2009, the costs of providing repair services has exceeded the revenue generated by repairs.
If Apple is making such a LOSS repairing, then why put restrictions to 3rd party repairs?
Cry me a river, will ya?
It can be tough in the repair industry, and no one knows that better than struggling corporation Apple. Cupertino has long been criticized for trying to control what its customers can do with their products, and especially so for charging what critics have said is an unjustifiable mark-up on repairing everything from iPhones …
Apple Store New York LLC pays Apple Spare Parts Cayman Islands Ltd $500 for a genuine Apple screen glass and does the repair, including the cost of wages etc, for $321. Thereby making a tax deductible loss.
Your local back street repair person buys the screen glass for about $5 including shipping from Ali Express and does the repair for $80. The $75 margin allows them to cover their costs and make a reasonable living out of it.
And don't forget Apple Genius(CI) Ltd. The NY store will be charged for the supply of labour at $5,000/hr or part thereof and licence fees for use of a 'bar', which is an iBar, quite unlike any other bar or workbench. Brimming with proprietary tools and technology. Genius indeed!
(TBH, I think Apple just copied large auto makers with some of this stuff.)
Your local back street repair person buys the screen glass for about $5 including shipping from Ali Express and does the repair for $80. The $75 margin allows them to cover their costs and make a reasonable living out of it.
<sarcasm - just in case> How dare you. Don't you realise that the fanbois doesn't just want a screen replacement, they demand a genuine Apple screen replacement. Yes they could replace the screen for $30 but it wouldn't then be an Apple iPhone - It would be a cheap knock off because it wasn't 100% Apple and they didn't need to give up their first born as part of the deal to get the new screen. A fanbois would prefer to be hanged, drawn and quartered than be accused of using non-genuine parts or not having a 100% genuine Apple product.</sarcasm>
Superb idea! I'm not trying to defend Apple, but try that with the IRS and you'll be in front of a grand jury in no time for tax evasion.
The flaw to the idea is that the IRS will not accept continued losses from an operation, and will automatically assume that you are engaging in tax evasion and will investigate. The rest of your operations will be red flagged.
As long as Apple Cayman Islands sells the parts to Apple New York at the same price that they sell them to independent third parties, then there is no problem.
If you did buy a genuine Apple screen glass, they would charge you something like $500 for it, so that is the market price, and therefore it is not transfer pricing tax evasion.
> Thank goodness those losses are tax deductible eh Tim?
If they are claiming a tax-deductible loss based on that financial logic then they are committing tax fraud.
(My new company, that I'm about to set up, will charge $1m for a plastic toy boat. But when I sell them on eBay the bidding will only get to $1 so I'm going to claim the $999,999 difference as a loss and try and claim back tax, that I haven't paid. Unlikely to work.)
Am I in lala land? You pay for an extended warranty, that is standard in 99% the rest of the world for free, and then PAY to also have the repairs done?
Like, I'ma gonna start an "Apple restaurant", where you pay for the food, but also have to pay separately me to buy, cook, and deliver it to you on a plate.
Extended warrantees are generally paid for everywhere - the clue is in the name!
I think you mean Apple (in the US) charge you for any costs outside of the 1st year.
Other countries may vary.
Here's an oldie but a goodie linky :
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/apple-eu-warranty
"Am I in lala land? You pay for an extended warranty, that is standard in 99% the rest of the world for free, and then PAY to also have the repairs done?"
AIUI from the article, Applecare[+] covers you for out of warranty repairs and you pay a small proportion of the repair cost, eg accidental damage such as a broken screen. Warranty repairs are still "free".
(Disclosure: I've never owned any Apple products)
Well there's that and piss-poor design choices which should not get to market, plus the dubious technical ability of some of the 'Genius Bar' staff who break your shit putting it back together wrongly then say you've broken it and must pay full price for repair - Louis Rossman has covered this in quite some depth.
But hey, it's 1.238% shinier than last years model and only 200 quid more so I just have to buy it. Don't want to be left behind!
This is the root of it. They're generally not "repairing" product. They're replacing in-store with refurbished models, using iCloud backups to transfer between the two devices. With this approach, they probably do lose money, but only because their devices are so difficult to actually repair.
Not necessarily - trade-ins also form part of it.
However the refurbishment usually involves stripping back to the component level, testing the heck out of each component individually, ditching the duff elements, and putting all the good ones back together again in a cannibalistic fashion. Not quite the same as "just swap the batter/screen over" approach.
I challenged a friend of mine about a recent, unnecessary purchase. I was informed "It was half off! I saved 50%." I answered "But you didn't need it. You could have not bought it and saved 100%." I just got a blank stare in return.
People seem to respond on an almost competitive level when something is marked down, as if they think they're getting "ahead" of the poor souls who paid full price for the same item last week.
We're veering off-topic, but Amazon definitely found the right triggers (besides having EVERYTHING available).
There was this documentary the other day about how Amazon is evil (to be fair it was a bit one-sided) (and I really dislike Amazon) showing a family unwrapping their latest purchase, and the missus doing some maths and saying "wow ! we've spent more than 1300€ in the last 3 months on Amazon ! Who knew !!".
And the husband (assembling his brand-new, "high-quality" workout bench), to the reporter, with a sorry/idiotic smile "Well, yeah, you know, it's the 24/48h delivery, you just feel compelled to buy, it's so easy, it's hard to resist...".
Say no more.
Back on topic, I've never owned anything Apple so I'm a bit flabbergasted at the fact that Apple makes you pay for anything during the warranty period. Isn't the purpose of the warranty having your device repaired at no cost (provided you didn't step on it, threw it out of a window, etc...) ??
I also don't get that "AppleCare covers you for one year". At least in the EU the legal warranty for consumer stuff is 2 years....
That is not a reason to buy, that is just an indication of how quick you will get the thing you bought.
I do use Amazon, but my buying criteria is whatever the hell I actually need, not how fast it is going to be delivered.
You really have to be a moron to go and buy something you don't need just because its delivery time is in hours and not days.
I buy things from Amazon sometimes because they can deliver it tomorrow (in some cases), when buying it from a company that's not totally morally bankrupt will take several days more.
Sure, if I get a change to plan ahead I'll take the slight price increase to give my money to a non-scummy company, but when your customer wants something fixed yesterday, you have to go with whatever source can get the item to you fastest.
"I do use Amazon, but my buying criteria is whatever the hell I actually need, not how fast it is going to be delivered."
This is me. I buy from Amazon if I can't find what I need anywhere else, but the speed of delivery is not (usually) an issue. I generally pick the "slow boat" delivery option.
Theres something to be said for ordering your desirable item and deliberately choosing the Donkey Express option with no tracking. You then get the days of anticipation and wating, building excitment, and watching the postie pass by each day hoping today will be the day.
This next day delivery with tracking ruins all that.
There was this documentary the other day about how Amazon is evil (to be fair it was a bit one-sided)...
Don't really agree with that take (don't start downvoting, please read on), but think that this recent article in the Guardian is more on the right track. Like every company/ sales person Amazon fuels a need that is already there (dormant). But... In the end it is you/ me/ the consumer who is the culprit. Sure, we all say we'll never [fill in what ever vice], but if it comes down to it, we all go for personal fulfilment, satisfaction, convenience, or 2 pence less every time.
It's based on FOMO (fear of missing out) and is a well-understood trigger that most of us of powerless to resist in many situations. Marketing types will using anything to make the decision more emotional. Some of this is regulated in some countries (loss-leaders but also increasingly 3 for 2 offers and upselling), but people have got so used to being ripped off that they expect it.
I think you broke it, not fixed it. FOMO is not a Millennial thing -- the effect has been around, and exploited, for as long as marketing has existed.
That said, I honestly never understood the effect personally. I just know it's effective from marketing classes as well as personal observation. I don't think I've ever experienced a fear of missing out. Either I want/need something or I don't -- whether others are getting the thing (or what kind of deal they're getting) doesn't enter into it.
But then, I've been in business a very long time, and have learned that if someone is pressuring me to "buy now!", either explicitly or implicitly, the thing that's being pitched is more than likely not a good deal for me.
Absolutely. I in no way meant to imply that I'm immune to marketing tactics, only that I don't seem to have the FOMO thing. Different people are receptive to different tactics. This is just one that I don't seem to be very receptive to, but there are others that are effective on me. This is why there isn't just a single tactic that is used all the time.
In fact, I am perfectly aware that people who think that they're immune to marketing tactics are not just wrong -- they're probably as susceptible as everyone else -- but they are more vulnerable than average to a specific subset of tactics.
Witness the long tradition of marketing that overtly pans marketing, for example.
I strongly recommend that people learn marketing -- not necessarily because you need to know how to market stuff, but because it's really eye-opening how easy it is to manipulate people (and occasionally useful to know how to do it yourself). But one of the thing I learned in marketing classes is that knowing the tricks in no way makes you resistant to them. In fact, it's well known that marketers tend to be more susceptible to marketing than others.
I challenged a friend of mine about a recent, unnecessary purchase. I was informed "It was half off! I saved 50%." I answered "But you didn't need it. You could have not bought it and saved 100%." I just got a blank stare in return.
Ha ha, your friend is dumb. If he were smarter he would have realised by that by following your advice he could have made two unnecessary purchases with the money he saved.
Even she realises this------>
In the meantime, Amazon pays AU$20 mil in taxes on >AU$1 BILLION in revenue.
"In the meantime, Amazon pays AU$20 mil in taxes on >AU$1 BILLION in revenue."
Perhaps, but at least companies like Amazon don't seem to treat their customers with the absolute contempt that Apple seems to.
They go back for more as well, my Dad did, I have no idea why. He went back to a certain emission-cheating car company as well, even after they treated him like absolute shit when he bought his last car from them.
I think companies like these employ clever psychological tricks to keep you going back.
"He went back to a certain emission-cheating car company as well, even after they treated him like absolute shit when he bought his last car from them."
I don't know your dad's situation, but this did remind me of an old marketing trick...
If you know that what you're selling is a piece of crap, a standard approach to selling it is to make it pretty, price it high, and market it as a luxury good. When people pay a premium price for something, they tend to be very reluctant to admit to themselves that they have been taken, and are even more reluctant to admit it to others -- so you get into a situation where customers will give you good reviews and talk up your product to their friends and family even when it's clearly garbage.
"I don't know your dad's situation, but this did remind me of an old marketing trick..."
The car in question was a nearly new Passat. It was a good car in general, but there were a number of issues with it that they refused to sort out. One was a buzzing in the roof at certain engine speeds, which seemed to be audible to all humans except ones that worked for the dealership. Another was the dual mass flywheel that kept overheating and failing. Another issue was trying to charge him for parts that didn't need replacing.
The best one was when he wanted cruise control retrofitting, which they told him was problematic as the computer was different so they'd have to replace that, at an absolutely ludicrous total cost. That was a big fat lie, the computers were actually all the same, and in the end an independent garage managed to do the work for a couple of hundred.
Stuff like that.
Ooh yes, I know someone who works at a BMW garage, and some of the things he told me are amazing:
Updating or reading out the computer, or doing anything else on a modern car? You need an internet connection to the factory. No internet? No work is getting done.
Have a problem with a certain electronic component? If it needs to be replaced, you might have to change out other electronics. So if one small part breaks, you might need to replace a few computer modules here and there. The factory software exactly tells you what to replace. The price of one of those computer modules? Not very cheap, obviously.
Accounting. "I do not think it means what you think it means"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting
The more big companies are exposed for their creative accounting practices, the more I wonder about the motivations of politicians chipping away at individual privacy and promoting ever-expanding surveillance.
The governments of "The West" are playing catch-up to China. The big, smart, corporates are level pegging with China.
Given that most everyone in politics, whether they be members of Congress, or Parliament, Presidents or Prime Ministers, have little grasp of technology makes it very hard to have anything explained to them. A few are somewhat savvy, but most are relying entirely on aides to brief them on the "issues" while they're on the way to vote on them. An understanding of complex and creative accounting? They've never grasped how it is that a movie studio that makes a movie for $120 million, which does $400 million in revenue on opening weekend, still only reports $2 million net profits on that movie, and lost money big time overall for the year, therefore, pay no taxes
That one is easy. Have you seen how many actor/director/CEO tickling movies have been made as flops/
"Why on earth did someone greenlight this movie to be made?" Easy, everyone involved got to hand out on a island resort, eating/drinking/unmentionables, and it all got charged to the loss leading tax deductible flop they released on DVD only. No to mention the advertising company, that somehow overcharged, underdelivered, is employing the CEOs nephew, and is in a tax free location.
Although in this case it would seem the primary requirement is for Congress to have some appreciation of Hollywood Accounting practices.
Wouldn't be surprised if Hollywood Accounting practises contributed to MS doing away with the traditional Windows delivery model (ie. include 10+ years of free fixes in product purchase Windows).
Perhaps accountants do.
Years ago I was doing a product profitability review and found a product that was about to be cancelled due to making a loss.
I discovered that the bean counter who had costed the BOM did not understand that the prices he was looking at for resistors and capacitors were per hundred. When I explained it to him he made it clear that the product would be scrapped rather than him admit to head office that he had made a mistake.
Dear Head Office
I have negotiated a special deal with another supplier at a 90% discount to previous price, with a couple of brown envelopes thrown in as an additional sweetener. This amazing deal will transform the profitability of the product. Please give me a very large bonus.
Rossman on Youtube uploaded the publicly available clip of the expert witness before the judges in the case.
Expert witness introduces themselves, gives credentials list, says "I see no problem/reason to stop little stores ding repairs", and asks "any questions".
Zero from the Judges. The good side of me would hope it's because the Judges already know everything there is to know. The bad side of me expects they just wanted to rush off for a coffee break and to check their emails on the next new shiny bling they could buy on sale.
Tim Cook-the-books is an accountant, it's not cluelessness, he knows very well what he's doing when his company produces glued-up devices which are practically unrepairable by third parties as they're locked out and cost about 80% of the price of a new device for Apple repair or replacement (by replacement they mean take the motherboard out of another returned device and put it in yours, i.e. the same as repair) and then come up with these nonsense figures to suggest that they're losing money on repairs.
To be fair, the glue is mostly because they want the latest iDevice to be as thin and small (and cheap to manufacture) as possible, and glue is cheaper and easier than designing a fixture that will fit in the same space.
That it locks out third party repairs is just icing on the cake.
The phones are easy to repair. I can do a screen or a battery in a few minutes on an iPhone. That's on my home desk with a light and the basic tools that come supplied with the replacement part from ebay for a few quid. This includes a battery that performs better than the Apple one.
I can't say the same for iPads they look like they are glued together though, and I don't have the right sort of heat gun.
If you have nerves of steel and a steady hand you can pick up a gas powered soldering iron with a 'heat blower' attachment for around £30.
Mine works a treat for replacing screen glass etc. It's not as good as my plug in one a it does not have tip temp control but when I don't have a plug socket handy it does the job admirably.
Hmm, just like wrapping your Xbox in towels.
The problem there is that, in all but anecdotal cases, heating your entire device to solder-melting temperatures results in a completely fucked device.
There's always one person who says it worked for them. I strongly suspect that they're all trolls trying to get sheep to brick their devices.
I'm not really disagreeing with your point here.
It can be effective to bake a PCB to fix a problem if that problem is cold solder joints (although that's the thermal equivalent of trying to fix something mechanical by randomly hitting it with a hammer). But it's not as simple as chucking it into an oven. You have to prepare the board (such as desoldering and removing components that will wilt in the heat), and be reasonably cautious about times and temperatures.
My experience is that you're better off finding and resoldering the specific cold solder joint. If the bad joint is a ball under a BGA chip, then using a hot air gun on that chip is a safer option than baking the entire board (although removing, reballing, and resoldering the entire chip is even better.)
On the other hand, as AvE likes to say, if it's already fucked, why not give it a go? It's not like it matters if you make it even more fucked.
If you're trying to fix a board by tossing it in an oven (which I don't recommend at all), you don't actually want to get it hot enough to melt the solder, for a number of reasons. You're just trying to get it hot enough to soften the solder, and that temperature is a fair bit lower than the melting point. Low enough that most domestic ovens can reach it.
They don't make or lose money from repairs because, if various videos and stings are to be beleived, they tell the customer that the unit can't be repaired and get them to buy a new one instead.
By forcing people to go to apple, they effectively rob actual repair people to ... actually repair things.
Obligatory video from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation about Apple repairs.
(P.S. Dear Reg, please enable an embed Youtube feature.)
"(P.S. Dear Reg, please enable an embed Youtube feature.)"
Oh! Yes! And GIFs! Reg conversations are so dull on account of being mostly boring old words instead of endless copies of michael jackson eating popcorn and the,"that's bait," thing with the odd youtube clip thrown in. Now *that's* conversation right there.
I'd like to see them try put a price on the data that has been 'lost' because of Apple's stance. Jessa Jones and Louis Rossman have repaired devices and recovered data in situations where Apple have lied out-right to say it wasn't possible and just tried to sell new devices.
Even if Apple refuse to/can't repair a device, the practice of going out of their way to prevent others from doing so is a shitty thing to do.
The difference between Jones/Rossman and Apple is the same as the difference between a motor engineer and most car dealers.
Jones/Rossman have expert skills in low-level hardware diagnostics/repairs. They understand the connectivity between the electrical components and have the tools needed to interrogate them for faults. They're able to quickly determine and resolve the cause of a hardware fault, usually right down to the faulty chip, IC or transistor. They'll then obtain replacement components, remove the faulty ones and solder the replacements onto the board.
Your average Apple store will probably just diagnose the fault down to the nearest board and replace that entire assembly, regardless of which chip on it failed.
The expert costs more in labour but less in materials used, Apple have probably worked out that it's cheaper to hire support staff of a lower expertise level and just to take the hit on the increased cost of replacement parts and lost data.
Still, there's no reason why they can't just use conventional connectors/form factors (PCIe storage for example) to allow for easy data recovery or repair, and still produce a thin, sleek device. RAM, storage and batteries are usually the three most common hardware failures you see in a laptop (hell, they're the most common failures in a standard PC too if you swap batteries for PSUs). It's price gouging/planned obscelescence and nothing more.
Cars nowadays have extensive built in diagnostics and dealer technicians can easily fix things. But that's because people won't accept glued-in parts.
Except - wasn't there a Porsche or a BMW that had a glued on inlet manifold, and when it heat cracks it can't be directly replaced because the head cannot be reglued? I believe there's an engineering company that modifies the head to take a metal manifold.
Perhaps gluing in is a sign that something is being sold to the kind of people who think "It's gone wrong, let's buy a new one."
Loud ringers, BIG keys, BIG type on screen, simple functions. Durable.
Dorophones are brilliant for elderly people who don't generally need to be playing Angry Birds at every opportunity...
I won't knock those types of devices, they have their place in the world.
They're not thinking logically - super-complex machinery that requires specialist and highly trained technicians to fix would suggest a similar requirement to build them in the first place, not a sweat shop factory that pumps out milllions a month for peanuts actual production cost just like any other phone.
They're just trying to maintain the cult status and incentive to spend real cash on a 'not much more to update' mentality.
The only super-complex bit is designing the thing and its PCB assembly process in the first place.
A very nice man from Aberdeen *came to our house* and fixed my daughters *in warranty* iPad for £45. Apple wouldn't cover the broken screen on warranty (which is fair enough - I didn't expect them to) but the cost of the 'repair' from Apple was just £50 less than buying a new iPad.
So I told them fuck off.
That people still love them and more angry that congress will end up believing all their bullshit. Considering Right To Repair appears to have struggled to get pasted in a lot of states means someone, somewhere must be doing some hard lobbying and the fuck whits are fulling for the bullshit.
"It goes on: “Repairs performed by untrained technicians might not follow proper safety and repair procedures and could result in improper function, product quality issues or safety events. Additionally, repairs that do not properly replace screws or cowlings might leave behind loose parts that could damage a component such as the battery, causing overheating or resulting in injury.”"
And Louis Rossman and Jessa Jones have proved that argument to be bullshit time and time again. With the "Genius Bar" fucking repairs up.
As a general rule, the total manufacturing cost of all smartphones has been around £50-£150 for 10 years now.
Looking at the major Asian manufacturers, you can get perfectly good LED displays (and spares) for £10-20 a unit. If you really need a 4K UHD with 90Hz it'll cost a heap more, but then Apple also need to pay £45 to apply the special Apple glue. But since Apple glue was formulated by geniuses, and you are really, super worth it, that's all great.
That's largely why Trump got annoyed with Huawei, you cannot have a phone with Apple-esque technical specs retailing for £250, when Apple want £1000.
I bought an iPhone XR from an Apple store for £749 cash. When the iPhone 11 was released, 3 months after this purchase, they offered me £250 as a trade in.
When they enquired about whether I wanted an extended warranty I said no. But then why would I on a product they value at £250? It's the last Apple product I'll buy.
I'd like to say this is sarcasm but it isn't.
...for choosing it, and you deserve to have your money parted from you.
I pity those that are locked into the ecosystem against their best judgment. For them, I hope the Right To Repair™ comes to fruition.
I will see myself out.
Downvotes below.
Surely in the accounts they can only record the actual cost of parts and labour involved for a repair. And the point of a warranty scheme is that it is a type of insurance where most people who buy one don't claim, so what they paid contributes to the cost of repairs of those who do claim. The warranty price will be set extremely carefully in order to ensure Apple don't make a loss from this, and the accountants will have spent a lot of time working this out carefully.
So I'm very dubious about the claim that you can record "the full price they would have paid if not covered by warranty" on your blanace sheets as an actual loss in this straightforward way. If it is allowed, then some accounting rules need changing rapidly, as it would be possible for any company to dream up similar types of "what-if losses" in order to avoid having to report any profits at all.
"So I'm very dubious about the claim that you can record "the full price they would have paid if not covered by warranty" on your blanace sheets as an actual loss in this straightforward way."
Imagine how rich Hollywood would be of nor for piracy? Because *every* pirate copy is a full price sale lost in their accounting system.
Honestly, I don't know why Congress is raking Apple over the coals. There's so many policies about Apple I do not like. I mean, the having their software intentionally lock out 3rd-party components: sleazy. Inflated repair prices: sleazy. Charging for a high-cost warranty then still charging a lot for repairs: sleazy. Essentially lying to Congress about this: sleazy (pretending the full retail price is Apple's price to repair in order to claim loss on every repair is basically lying.) Want a headphone jack? Want a replaceable battery? Want to be able to use standard cables (USB-C these days)? Want... well, the list could go on and on.
Apple is not some kind of monopoly, at any given point, there's dozens of excellent phones on the market, dozens more cheap and cheerful phones (and that's not counting the straight from China Alibaba models... I'm not counting them since relatively few support the USA cell phone bands.) Don't like Apple's policies? DON'T BUY APPLE PRODUCTS.
I used to work for an Apple reseller back in the early/mid 2000's. Just before the Apple-branded stores started appearing. Repairs were a nightmare even back then, a lot more fiddly than regular PCs. Lots of tiny screws of varying lengths, bizarre procedures and tools to take the things apart, I can sort of agree with them to a certain degree about restricting repairs to trained people.
They got a bit restrictive towards the end, wanting serial numbers, board IDs and all sorts of stuff to be exactly correct on the part we were sending back. Other times we'd have something with an intermittent fault that kept being rejected when we sent it back. Tesla coil fixed that lol
Profit margins on sales and repairs was pretty poor towards the end too, expecting repairs to be done in unrealistic times. Glad I got out when I did.
" I can sort of agree with them to a certain degree about restricting repairs to trained people."
I can't. Even if all third party repair shops were terrible (and they're clearly not), I'd still disagree. It's my device, and I should be able to get is repaired in any fashion that I wish, even if that's to take it to the slimiest, least qualified repair technician I can find.
They must be using the same accountants that Amtrak uses to "prove" that the Northeast Corridor is "profitable", while all other long distance and corridor trains are losing shitloads of money. (They do that by moving a handful of NEC costs to other long-distance trains; e.g. the cost of removing snow from platforms on NEC stations miraculously showsup as a cost for the trains gointg to or originating in ... wait for it ... Miami.)
Wow I'm in shock that you called apple out on the crap they pull..... I seen the apple math yeah i can see them crying. Poor poor us everyone is taking our money. If you let shops work on our crap then we will be holding a sighn up in street.
What it is people are seeing how apple is selling crap and putting it on the internet. Apple like no we must stop this we need to tell people that it's good and then you buy. It breaks we charge you arm and a leg..... then ur like I could buy a new one...... good boy that's what we wanted from the beginning.... here u want another icrap for your wife....
Nice sum up right there. Personally, I've never been a fan, despite having had 2 company iPhones and having been forced to support Apple laptops and desktops over the years. The company are difficult, obstructive, controlling, manipulative, and seem to make all their products as incompatible with anything else as possible. It wouldn't surprise me at all to hear that they actually design their products to make them more difficult to repair simply to boost sales of replacement items. I'm out and will remain out.
If they account for a portion of their overhead in the "cost", like any business would, that will add up pretty quickly since Apple stores - where most of these repairs are carried out - are some of the most expensive real estate in the world.
One of the reasons the little kiosk in the "bad mall people usually avoid" can charge so much less is because they pay about 0.01% of the cost Apple does for their presence. They likely pay their employees less too; even if the hourly rate was the same they probably don't get health care like the Apple Store employees do.
Even if the cost of the parts were the same, those ultra expensive glass palaces are going to account for a majority of the disparity in repair prices.
I don't get it. What's the issue, there are plenty of alternatives to Apple products.
I have never owned an apple product. Yet I have been computing since Commodore Pet, and using cell phones since Philips Philips, PRC30E I think, 1988 (still got it somewhere)
If you don't like the way Apple wrings money out of you, don't by their products.
I would say "and have enough money that Apple prices are small change."
I know someone like this who had a kid beginning violin. Spent £2500 on a violin for beginners. Kid sat on it. Only spent £1500 on the next one. For these people (the people who would think that guy on £80000 a year on QT was in the bottom half of earners), an iPhone is kid's toy price.
I admit it. I (still) own an iMac now out of AppleCare. Two months from the end of the 3 year warranty I had a problem with the screen which showed a single line of green pixels. I phoned Apple, who suggested that I took the iMac to the local retailer; I told them that I was a pensioner, so they arranged for an on-site repair the next day.
I might not be typical of the average Apple user, having been around software since 1971; but after writing software for many different OSs, including some Windows shrink-ware, the experience suits me. It allows me to still use the UNIX commands I learnt in the 70s when the (nice) GUI can’t do everything that I need.