The really amazing thing is that they don't distribute all these videos themselves. The effect on revenue would be a blip.
(or maybe it's still a problem and my peers are just more responsible/willing to pay for repairs?)
Oh your 2 year old laptop is broken? That's old tech anyway, you should buy a new one!
Virtually nobody pays much attention to how other peoples phone functions and if they say a dim display they would probably assume their battery was dying not that apple sucks.
If we go back to the auto industry I seem to recall them wanting to force people to get oem service/parts to maintain their warranty not to "protect their brand", a phrase which almost always precedes nonsense, but out of simple greed.
Greed is always always the simple answer in life. People that think their position is strong are always more willing to grasp at a few more pennies.
It's the same reason Kleenex sues when people use their brand for generic products, or Disney forces daycares to take down murals of Mickey, or Burberry burns unsold products. It's a slipper slope away from quality, and while no one thing is a huge deal, the culmination is.
I agree at the end of the day it's about making money, but that's just what being a business is. For certain brands, they want their products to be meticulous. It's not the only way to build a product (see Android), however it is the reason Apple products are so beloved by the people who buy them.
Are you sure? People love to blame problems on the last person that touched a thing, even when they are unrelated.
Apple does allow 3rd parties into their ecosystem (app developers), but they lock that process down to specifically retain control of the experience that customers have
You may not want that, and your company may not make the same choice, it Apple’s approach works pretty well for them.
Companies seem to have a worse idea of this is yours and that is mine than 2 year olds.
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/a3yadk/apple-sued...
It looks like the Apple authorized service program may be dead, or at least on it's last legs. Their website makes it hard to find these companies, I couldn't figure out how to get a list.
The writing was on the wall when Apple stores started opening up. In my city there was a decades-old independent Apple-focused computer store/repair shop. They were one of those places where you could buy a Mac or get it fixed, even when Apple was at the very bottom of its popularity. It didn't last long after Apple opened a store down the street.
It seems at some point Apple decided they wanted to bring everything in house, and that’s when these started drying up. Now it’s hard to get anything other than basic repairs done, and if it’s a phone, not come back with a replacement refurbished phone which is almost certainly in worse shape than the phone you took in.
This makes me sadder than it should. The days where you could modify your own devices are starting to fade away.
Which is not exactly the tale of plucky indie DIY repair hero people wanted it to be, and probably quite close to the "illegal importer trying to spin his way out of it" Apple accused him of being.
If they're stolen, that's bad, sure. But that's only one possibility for where they came from.
> the guy's defense was "there's no way I could be infringing on their trademarks because the Apple logos are all inked over to make sure nobody sees them before I put them on the phones, and once they're installed you don't see them either!"
When someone accuses you of infringing a trademark, pointing out that you don't use the trademark is a completely legitimate defense. I honestly don't understand why you imply that's a bad argument.
> Which is not exactly the tale of plucky indie DIY repair hero people wanted it to be, and probably quite close to the "illegal importer trying to spin his way out of it" Apple accused him of being.
What is an "illegal importer"? You shouldn't need Apple's permission to import anything.
If I steal something from you, can I then run around declaring I shouldn't need your permission to use it or to take it where I like?
Or -- since it's legally yours -- should you have some say in that and the opportunity to get it back?
At best the stuff he was importing was in the realm of really good counterfeits, and included trademark-violating logos that he or his accomplices did a bad job of covering up. At worst (and seemingly pretty likely) the stuff he was importing was legally Apple's property and had been stolen from them.
There is no chain of argument here that turns this guy into the narrative you want him to be.
He did not violate trademarks. You don't violate a trademark by having a secret hidden logo. That's not even close to how trademarks work.
Either the components were counterfeit, and bore hastily-covered-up trademark-infringing logos, and thus shouldn't have been legally importable. Or they were genuine but stolen, and thus shouldn't have been legally importable.
No amount of narrative spin can change that.
Not sure what the problem is for you - I literally clicked on that link, answered a few questions and in a matter of seconds had a list of 2 dozen + repair centers that could replace a cracked screen within 30 miles of me, the vast majority of which are 3rd party.
There's a fair bit of danger of reputational damage from unauthorised repairers.
DIY community - yes, but they are not a target market for apple at all.
Think about this what brands of car are there that aren't sold to DIYers. Tesla? We are in a long term trend whereby more and more things are non repairable trash that last less and less for no real good reason. Its irresponsible, hostile, and stupid. Can you imagine if we had cars that after 3-5 years died and had to be scrapped and we dismissed the matter as foo brand isn't for DIYERS that think you ought to be able to fix your car.