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Comment by theluketaylor | Hacker News Reader

I’m not sure Apple is purposefully making things unrepairable. It’s just they have several priorities ahead of repairability like size and packaging, water and dust intrusion, and anti-theft. It does functionally mean Apple devices are very unrepairable, but I don’t think in most cases Apple engineers are sitting around trying to make something hard to repair, it’s just a natural consequence of the choices management directs them to make.

That’s not to excuse Apple; if they want to claim green bonafides they need to make repair and reuse a higher priority.

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> I’m not sure Apple is purposefully making things unrepairable.

The purpose of a system is what it does.

Apple obviously has a perverse incentive here. If people can't repair it then they buy a new one. They can always come up with an excuse but it doesn't carry much weight when they're so weak. You can't replace the SSD or easily replace the battery in a Macbook Pro on the theory that it would make it heavier or thicker. Framework proves this is bullocks by making laptops where you can and they aren't meaningfully heavier or thicker.

They make them unrepairable because they intend to.

> If people can't repair it then they buy a new one

If apple has sinister intentions why are iphones supported by software updates much longer than any equivalent android device from the same era?

Not everything is a conspiracy. Sometimes it's just different priorities.

> If apple has sinister intentions why are iphones supported by software updates much longer than any equivalent android device from the same era?

Apple supports iPhones for seven years. For Google and Samsung, by contrast, it's... seven years.

You're also implying that these are contradictory rather than complementary. They get to sell you a phone you think you'll get seven years out of by advertising seven years of support, rationalizing the premium price with that, and then the warranty expires after one and if it breaks and you can't fix it you have to buy another one. Even if that happens in year two.

> Sometimes it's just different priorities.

The underlying premise is that it's a trade off. Then we see evidence that others can do it without any meaningful sacrifice, implying that it isn't.

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