This post is a continuation of the blog from last week, in a series on the Right to Repair movement from (STORE).

 

In the past several years, a few manufacturers in the consumer electronics industry have taken steps to make repairs on their products difficult for consumers. The summation of these actions have given rise to a new term in the industry: the dramatically named 'war on repair'. The most egregious and notable offender by a long shot is the beloved maker of the iPhone, iPad, and Macbook, Apple Inc.（Toronto-phone- repair,tablet-repair）

 

Beginning with the iPhone 5S and its new home button with integrated TouchID, Apple locked the component to the mainboard of the device, a decision that was marketed as a feature for better security.

 

This trend had continued for every iPhone ever since, up to and including the iPhone X and XS with their FaceID sensors. Serializing these components means that if they break, which happen quite often during drops or water damage, no one except Apple can replace the component and re-serialize it to restore the TouchID/FaceID functionality（Toronto-phone- repair,tablet-repair）.

 

While this is inconvenient for both consumers and repair shops, it is at least understandable that the components responsible for registering a user's biometrics should be the most secure. Even though this line of reasoning falls apart upon closer inspection, it is only the beginning of Apple's efforts to prevent third party repair.

 

The follow-up blog next week will discuss the subsequent actions of Apple and other device manufacturers, as well as what this means for you today（Toronto-phone- repair,tablet-repair）.