Your new iPhone 13 doesn't belong to you
Think that the new iPhone 13 you've just paid hundreds of dollars for is yours?
It isn't.
In fact, it's quite disturbing the lengths that Apple has gone to in order to retain control over your iPhone.
It's become so bad that you can't swap genuine parts from one iPhone with parts out of another iPhone.
Here is 'Right to Repair" advocate Hugh Jeffreys taking a look at the iPhone 13. In fact, to film this video, Jeffreys took two iPhone 13 handsets and expertly took them apart to see how easy -- or hard -- it is to swap parts and repair them.
It's hard. In fact, Apple has made it such that if you break the display and don't get it repaired by Apple (or an Apple Authorized Repair Center), then you lose a bunch of features.
The iPhone 13 is about as close to being unrepairable by third-party repairers as it could be. In fact, given that the display and the battery are the two parts that are most likely to need attention, the iPhone 13 is functionally irreparable by third-party repair shops.
So, what's the reason behind this?
Is it that you can't trust third-party repairs? Or maybe you can't trust third-party repairers with your data (spoiler, you can't trust Apple to keep your data safe either)?
I don't buy this.
I've come across dozens, probably hundreds, of iPhones that third-party repairers have repaired, and apart from the odd occasion where poor parts were used (usually knock-off batteries), the quality of these repairs are normally acceptable.
And it seems that given that you can't swap genuine parts from one iPhone to another, Apple's war on repairs goes well beyond blocking non-genuine parts.
Apple wants to block all repairs that it doesn't get money from.
My feeling here is that Apple is pushing people to go in the direction of AppleCare warranties. Services -- which AppleCare is a part of -- is big money for Apple. Last quarter, this brought in $17.5 billion for Apple, up 33% from $13.2 billion for the year-ago quarter and up from $16.9 billion last quarter.
While Apple has claimed that it loses money on repairs, I find it hard to believe that Apple loses money on AppleCare.
When Apple talks about sustainability, it's hard not to think that Apple is talking about the sustainability of its profits rather than the environment. Time and time again, Apple has clearly put profits and control over the welfare of iPhone owners or the planet as a whole.
Got a new iPhone? Don't break it! Because if you don't have AppleCare, it's going to cost you.