A tiny chip makes third party iPhone 13 screen repairs nearly impossible
Screen repairs by third parties on the iPhone 13 lineup are more difficult because of a tiny chip pairing an handset to its screen, and there is concern that it could permanently damage the repair industry.
Credit: Apple
On the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro, screen repairs lead to a loss of Face ID functionality. In a blog post Thursday, iFixit has tracked down the apparent culprit of the change.
Specifically, it's a microcontroller chip about the size of a Tic-Tac tucked into the bottom of the screen. The chip pairs -- or "serializes" -- an iPhone to its display, which causes Face ID to become disabled if a third-party screen is installed.
Apple Authorized Service Providers are able to get around this serialization by using proprietary Apple software to log a repair and sync the new display serial number to the microcontroller. As iFixit notes, this allows Apple to approve or deny repairs.
There's a workaround that could allow non-authorized repair shops to perform screen replacements, but it isn't an easy one. It involves removing a soldered chip from an original screen onto a replacement screen.
According to iFixit interviews with some in the repair industry, there's a sense of "trepidation" among technicians at the change. The only options they appear to have are to buy new equipment for the workaround, join Apple's authorized repair network, or quit.
That's because screen repairs are a bedrock of the smartphone repair industry. One repair instructor told iFixit that the industry "was built on iPhone screens."
However, it isn't clear if the change is intentional. In iOS 15, a third-party screen repair would quietly disable Face ID. In later versions of the operating system, it displays an error message.
A source close to Apple told iFixit that the behavior would be fixed in a future update, but whether that will happen remains to be seen.
Read on AppleInsider
Credit: Apple
On the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro, screen repairs lead to a loss of Face ID functionality. In a blog post Thursday, iFixit has tracked down the apparent culprit of the change.
Specifically, it's a microcontroller chip about the size of a Tic-Tac tucked into the bottom of the screen. The chip pairs -- or "serializes" -- an iPhone to its display, which causes Face ID to become disabled if a third-party screen is installed.
Apple Authorized Service Providers are able to get around this serialization by using proprietary Apple software to log a repair and sync the new display serial number to the microcontroller. As iFixit notes, this allows Apple to approve or deny repairs.
There's a workaround that could allow non-authorized repair shops to perform screen replacements, but it isn't an easy one. It involves removing a soldered chip from an original screen onto a replacement screen.
According to iFixit interviews with some in the repair industry, there's a sense of "trepidation" among technicians at the change. The only options they appear to have are to buy new equipment for the workaround, join Apple's authorized repair network, or quit.
That's because screen repairs are a bedrock of the smartphone repair industry. One repair instructor told iFixit that the industry "was built on iPhone screens."
However, it isn't clear if the change is intentional. In iOS 15, a third-party screen repair would quietly disable Face ID. In later versions of the operating system, it displays an error message.
A source close to Apple told iFixit that the behavior would be fixed in a future update, but whether that will happen remains to be seen.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
I disagree. As an Apple user and stockholder, it is not Apple’s responsibility to design their products so that other people can make money from repairing them. That’s total nonsense. They don’t need to “justify” how or why they design and build products. It’s amazing the number of people who think that Apple should be forced to help them make money, like that fool at Epic.
I completely agree with the second part of your post - iPhones are expensive as it is, and so people keep them longer, therefore they're more likely to need repair. Then when they do need screen repair, it's $269 at Apple vs $69 from Amazon. Whereas an Android phone can be had for the same price as *just* the screen repair from Apple. It's absurd.
Cook is so absolutely obsessed with increasing profit he'll draw unwanted attention to Apple's practises just so he can pocket a few more dollars. It's very short term thinking. The more Apple pulls this shit the more seriously I'm thinking of leaving the Apple ecosystem. Cook is gradually pushing the company back to the ideology of 90's Apple, and we all know how well that went.
So much for being "green" when they do everything they can to encourage you to buy a new phone over fixing an existing one. That's the definition of talking out both sides of their mouth.
All you people who try and compare Android phones to Apple phones need to open your eyes. The majority of Android phones are designed to be dumped after a few months of use. They are cheap without any reason to repair. I just saw a non-Apple phone screen on the sidewalk totally smashed. I could tell it wasn't from Apple because of the display connector. I don't know why any phone repair shop would even want to repair these phones, no money in it for them.
Also, having recently had my iPhone screen repaired... Authorized shop (Best Buy): $280. Third-party shops: $480. Not seeing the argument for why consumers should want to bring it to a strip mall repair shop...
Shops can get authorized, and IMO they're less expensive than the non.
You don't like devices that're so hard to repair that it needs a "large" third party repair company, but you are fine with the massive Apple doing the repairs instead? If you don't like "designed to fail", why has Apple had to issue numerous repair extensions for various things such as butterfly keyboards and crackling Airpods? Airpods I might add which are literally designed to fail because eventually the non-replaceable battery will wear out. Excepting Samsung, Android phones have pretty comparable failure rates to iPhones. Awkward.
Who is Apple to stop me doing repairs and modifications on my own device? Do we actually rent these devices from Apple for a one-time fee?
How is the apparent fact that Android phones are "designed to be dumped" in any way relevant to repairing them? Apart from the fact they are in many cases designed as cheaply and assembled as cheaply as possible, they're still usually easier to repair than iPhones. Surely they should be all glue and rivets, but they aren't.
You recognised a "non-iPhone" screen by its display connector, and yet you find taking an iPhone apart hard. But despite this somehow you know all iPhone display connectors. Impressive.
This year, for the first time ever, I have forked out for Apple Care + with theft loss with my iPhone 13 Pro Max for £239. If I need a new display it will be £25. This is cheaper than a display repair of £316.44.
You are going to the wrong third party shops. I replaced my own iPhone X display with one from Amazon for $69. Works great. Cracked Apple's stupid anti-consumer disabling of TrueTone, and it's as good as new. And saved $200 to boot.
https://news.softpedia.com/news/korea-s-ftc-investigated-apple-for-being-too-bossy-in-repair-policies-503265.shtml
What Apple is doing is protecting their average consumers. The vast majority of consumers that purchase Apple products are not like you. They do not repair their own iDevices with parts from eBay or look for the cheapest repair service on Amazon or eBay. They will bring their broken iDevice to have it repaired at a local repair shop. Be it an Apple Authorized repair shop or not.
So when these consumers bring their iDevice to a repair shop (even an Apple Authorized repair shop) for probably the most common repair, a cracked screen and pay to have it repaired with Apple OEM parts, how would they know they actually got Apple OEM parts? How would these consumers know that the repair shop didn't send their iDevice to have it repaired at Amazon for $69 but charged them $300? They would know because their iDevice would display an error message stating that its not an Apple OEM screen or certain functions would no longer work.
What Apple is doing is making it difficult for repair shops to rip off the average iDevice owners. Even Apple Authorized repair shops might be prone to ripping off unsuspecting customers, by using non-Apple OEM parts but charging their customers for them. These are probably a much bigger problem that consumers like you, that want to repair their iDevices the cheapest way possible, using the cheapest parts. You at least know what you're paying for and willing to accept the trade off.
So you thinking that Apple is screwing Apple iDevice users like you, by making it harder to repair their iDevices, is not the way to look at it. Apple is looking at the bigger picture and trying to prevent the vast majority of iDevice consumers from being ripped off by repair services, that might charge them for Apple OEM parts but are actually using parts bought off eBay. These consumers wouldn't know that, unless Apple some how implement a method to warn them that they might not have gotten what they paid for.
Plus when you're paying less that $60 for a used iPhone 6 or less than $150 for a used iPhone 7 or 8, it doesn't really matter if it has an original Apple screen. But when you're paying over $500 for a used iPhone 11 or newer, it matters if the screen is original. And Apple is making it harder for sellers to duped buyers in to thinking that they are getting an iPhone with an original screen. Instead of one from a $69 repair service from Amazon. Consumers buying and trading in used Apple iDevices is probably a way bigger market than consumers that wants to repair their iDevices themselves or the cheapest way possible.
Product design involves many trade offs and considerations for several quality attributes like performance, security, energy efficiency, reliability, compatibility, ease of assembly, and now, ease of repair by third party repair shops. As totally new products hit the market they will do a better job of balancing all of the quality attributes they try to build into their product, but for existing products it will be much more incremental.
We really need to get away from the notion that everything we don’t like about someone or a company like Apple is the result of intentional nefarious behaviors directed towards exploiting us. The product release cycles may seen slow to us as consumers, but I guarantee you that inside a company like Apple every team is always under a lot of pressure to release and the pace of work is anything but slow.