Wouldn't it be rather easy to make phones servicable?

[desura]

I've been repairing an old iphone 5 lately.

It has occurred to me that it would have been relatively simple to make the phone user servicable, without compromising thinness. All they'd have to do is put four little screw holes in the corners and have the backplate screwed on, and it wouldn't affect aesthetics that much at all.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

No, aside from batteries and then , only in some cases, replacing parts require donor phones.

 

[JeffMD]

desura, actually it does affect aesthetics a lot. No one WANTS to see those screws.

Anyways there are a few things that drive the way phones are currently made, and you will be happy to note that they do get better serviceability from that point on. When I did a iphone 6 and S6 compare, the seasoned premium phone Apple was able to move a lot of components to screws, and less glue. The S6, being samsung's first premium case, features a lot of glue.

As the premium designs get refreshed, they get better at being able to place screws. Also components like motherboards are getting smaller too, and more use of friction contact points are used to break them up.

The only thing that still isn't service friendly is the lcd, you still pretty much replace the front of the device.

 

[StrangerGuy]

desura, actually it does affect aesthetics a lot. No one WANTS to see those screws.

Anyways there are a few things that drive the way phones are currently made, and you will be happy to note that they do get better serviceability from that point on. When I did a iphone 6 and S6 compare, the seasoned premium phone Apple was able to move a lot of components to screws, and less glue. The S6, being samsung's first premium case, features a lot of glue.

As the premium designs get refreshed, they get better at being able to place screws. Also components like motherboards are getting smaller too, and more use of friction contact points are used to break them up.

The only thing that still isn't service friendly is the lcd, you still pretty much replace the front of the device.

Funny, because replacing the LCD of iPhones is trivial since the 5, and parts availability and prices for iPhones are unmatched among major phone OEMs.

Repairability is actually a key issue to me, I wouldn't want to sign a next to unrepairable S6/S7 on a 2 year contract that becomes disposable garbage if they go under after the one year warranty or if the screen shatters in an accident.

 

[tidy]

.

 

[Red Squirrel]

The main reason they're not is because they bank on people throwing them out and buying new ones. Sickening and wasteful but that's what the industry has been pushing for. It's nice to see lot of repair shops sprouting up though, it makes people realize they ARE repairable, just that it's not that easy, but these shops have the process and tools down path so it's not as hard for them. A few of my co-workers do it as well on their own time.

People put a case over their phones anyway, so screws don't really matter as they'll be hidden.

 

[luv2liv]

apple doesnt want anyone to open up idevices or macs. they went the extra mile to develop special tools so people cant go in and muck around. thats what i read from Steve's bio.
it makes sense from a business perspective. my samsung s4 battery was dying. i ordered the battery from amazon for $10 and easily swapped out the old one. if it was an iphone, most normal people would take it to the apple store. im pretty sure it would cost more than $10 there!
there's a lot of money to be made AFTER selling you a phone.

 

[gorcorps]

Alright OP, I need to break something to you. Apple does not make the device non-serviceable because they haven't figured out a better way, they do that on purpose. You did not stumble on a revelation that they've been trying to solve... if they wanted you to service it they'd already make it easy.

They have a service called Apple Care for a reason. They're banking on most people not being to perform their own service.

 

[deathBOB]

Even if phones were more easily accessible, no one would repair them. Pretty much no one fixes electronics.

 

[Commodus]

I don't think Apple is involved in a sinister conspiracy to prevent you from repairing its products in the name of raising AppleCare attach rates. It just designs products to achieve certain goals, and doesn't really consider repairability in the process. The end result is the same, of course, but I wouldn't chalk this up to malice.

And what deathBOB said is largely true... most people just don't repair electronics. It's the same reason Linux is unlikely to ever catch on with the mainstream PC market: most people either aren't that technically inclined, or don't have hours to spend on troubleshooting. They'd rather go to their kid's baseball game than perform surgery on their phone.

 

[WelshBloke]

I've been repairing an old iphone 5 lately.

It has occurred to me that it would have been relatively simple to make the phone user servicable, without compromising thinness. All they'd have to do is put four little screw holes in the corners and have the backplate screwed on, and it wouldn't affect aesthetics that much at all.

I'm going to say that you could easily make them repairable but it would make them thicker and bulkier.

You could put screws in each corner but you'd have to reinforce the corners where the screws are and make the back thicker.

Also the components are "layered", if you make it easy to get to all of them that's going to make the phone generally thicker.

 

[Midwayman]

iphones are actually trivial to service. 2 screws and a suction cup to help pull the LCD out.