Last week Apple announced that they will let consumers repair their devices but there are things which we need to be aware of about Apple as a corporation.
Apple announces Self Service Repair — Apple
The main problem is not Apple making products not repairable and very much restricted. The main problem is that they are making technology so Apple-centric that there is no room for third-party.
I am from the era when we used to have phones from Samsung, earphones from Sony, the PC from HCL, a keyboard from Zebronics, storage from Transcend, a mouse from Logitech. Everything used to be assembled by choosing the best in the segment.
Whenever I faced any problem, I would walk down to a local electronics store. If I didn’t find what I was looking for or prices seemed incorrect, I would move to another one. Less convenient for an individual but good for the economy.
Apple changed that and it was rewarded as a dominant technology company. It enriched consumer experience and its business scaled which in turn fueled its own growth. Consumers got everything under one roof conveniently.
This led to Apple selling products at unacceptable premiums with little control over devices and customers compromising because of the seamless ecosystem experience & privacy.
Consumers are driven by the narrative of what media feeds them. People believe Apple gives privacy because Apple says so. Apple’s privacy features are meant to block third party advertisers so Apple can advertise to you without any competition.
Now, whatever Apple is doing, it is only making the majority of the money for the corporation and shareholders; nobody other benefits.
They reduce waste by reducing packaging, removing chargers, asking consumers to return products for recycling? Sounds a lot more like a capitalistic benefit than an environmental benefit.
However good products for an individual, Apple doesn’t offer respect to the consumer, to the creators, to the developers. Neither do they respect the environment. The only thing that matters is market capitalisation i.e. money.
Apple has a lot of potentials but it is doing more harm than good and it works because nobody has incentives against it. I am not subject to consumerism therefore I will always try to buy products which offer value for money.
You can read the unrolled version of this thread here: https://typefully.app/u/ashtamkarj/t/XOyosntCP33h
