Apple launches self-service repair in US

Drawing flak for its restricted ecosystem, Apple is finally making its genuine repair parts and tools available for purchase under the Self Service Repair initiative. The service is available in the US, to start with, and will expand to additional countries — in Europe — later this year. The company hasn’t released any timeline for the launch of the repair program for the Indian market.

Available through Apple Self Service Repair Store, this new online store will have more than 200 individual parts and tools. To begin with, Apple is enabling customers to complete repairs on the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 lineups and iPhone SE (3rd generation), such as the display, battery, and camera. Later this year the program will also include manuals, parts, and tools to perform repairs on Mac computers with Apple silicon. The pricing of the parts will be the same as those available to Apple’s network of authorized repair providers. For certain repairs, customers will even receive a credit when returning a replaced part for recycling.

Apple says, to commence the Self Service Repair process, a customer will first review the repair manual for the product they want to repair by visiting support.apple.com/self-service-repair

Then, they can visit the Apple Self Service Repair Store and order the necessary parts and tools.

Apple will offer tool rental kits for $49, so that customers who do not want to purchase tools for a single repair still have access to these professional repair tools. The weeklong rental kits will ship to customers for free.

Apple claims Self Service Repair is part of its efforts to further expand access to repairs. However, Right to Repair movement was an attempt to allow customers to repair electronics on their own, instead of depending upon the manufacturers who not just dictate from where the device can be repaired but the customer were charged significantly higher in comparison to the repairs available in the market. Due to high repair cost, a lot of products also used to end up as eWaste. While tech giants such Microsoft and Apple resisted Right to Repair for long, the companies later embraced the movement.  In July last year, the Ameican President’s executive order urged the Federal Trade Commission to look at unfair practices that stifle competition with regards to third-party and self-repairs.