Apple announces Self Service Repair with customer access to parts, tools, and manuals

In an unexpected announcement, Apple is making it easier to get original parts to repair your own iPhone. The iPhone maker is announcing “Self Service Repair” in which knowledgeable customers can complete their own repairs with access to original parts and tools.

This is not a typical move for Apple. Making its original parts and tools available to anyone is a big deal, especially for Apple.

To start, Apple will focus on more common repairs from frequently serviced modules- this includes screen repairs, battery replacements, and camera modules for both iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 lineups. After that, Apple will add its M1 Mac computers to the Self Repair program.

Customers will be able to place orders for these genuine parts, and will receive a credit towards their purchase if the used part is returned. Apple’s “new store will offer more than 200 individual parts and tools”. In addition to OEM parts and tools, Apple will also provide manuals for these common repair procedures. We figure Apple would prefer that its customers buy parts directly from Apple to perform these repairs.

Despite the announcement of this program, Apple still recommends that most customers should still visit a professional repair provider, and that certified technicians who use genuine Apple parts are the “safest and most reliable way to get a repair”.

Self Service Repair will be available in the US in early 2022, and will eventually expand to more countries later in the year. We are curious to know how much Apple is going to charge to buy replacement parts for DIY repairs and we wonder how much cheaper it will be to do so versus taking the device into an Apple Store.

Apple has often been criticized for making it very difficult for customers to repair an Apple device outside of Apple’s network of authorized service centers. It has even gone as far as disabling Face ID when the screen is replaced on an iPhone 13, with the culprit being a microcontroller chip that’s attached to the display panel assembly. Another report clarified that Apple was working to reverse this, and the launching of its Self Service Repair program seems to be a step in the right direction and a win for Right To Repair advocates everywhere.

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