“It’s proof that it can be done—if companies wanted to make eminently fixable modular products, they could,” Proctor says. “There’s no technological reason why they can’t do it; it really is what they’ve decided to produce. It does raise the question: Why isn’t more of our technology easy to fix? … People are going to start thinking about smartphones as longer-term investments, especially as prices have gone up for these phones.”
This Wired piece is about a repairable phone from a Dutch company called Fairphone.
It looks like a really nice device with 12 replaceable, inexpensive, parts. The only downside I see is, it doesn’t run iOS, and there’s the rub.
Apple owns me. I’m locked into their beautiful hardware because I want the OS and the experience it brings.
It would be lovely if Apple could find a way to give us a low end iPhone that is fully repairable, like the Fairphone, for a price comparable to Fairphone. Of course they won’t but it would be lovely.
If it wasn’t too dumbed down, like missing OS features, I’d buy a low end repairable iPhone, for sure! Even if it had only a single low end camera and a battery with a lower overall lifespan, that’s fine, if I could buy one for $90 and install it myself.
You say “Yeah, but it’s not as water resistant!” True. I’ll accept the risk since I can, more than likely, replace enough parts to fix it.
It’s a pipe dream. Apple is a “premium brand” and premium brands don’t do products you can repair yourself.
Too bad I can’t buy iOS separate of their hardware.😃 Of course I don’t think they should do that. Their stuff works so well because they have full control over the hardware and software and I wouldn’t want to break that.
I wouldn’t be surprised if someone inside Apple has put together a prototype phone like the Fairphone and I’d love to see it. 😃