Tim Cook to Investors: People Bought Fewer New iPhones Because They Repaired Their Old Ones (vice.com)

On Wednesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook issued a dire warning to his investors. Apple, the world's first trillion dollar company, lowered its revenue forecast for the first time since 2002, thanks primarily to China, he said. But there was at least one more issue at play.

Motherboard: The lengthy letter cites, specifically, that people are buying fewer iPhones because they are repairing their old ones. Apple has long fought efforts that would make iPhones easier to repair: It has lobbied against right to repair efforts in several states, doesn't sell iPhone replacement parts, sued an independent repair professional in Norway, worked with Amazon to get iPhone and MacBook refurbishers kicked off Amazon Marketplace, and has deals with electronics recyclers that require them to shred iPhones and MacBooks (as opposed to allowing them to be refurbished.) The Department of Homeland Security, meanwhile, has seized iPhone replacement parts from prominent right to repair activists in the United States.

[...] Apple has never clearly articulated why it doesn't want people to fix their own iPhones or to have independent experts repair them. It has previously said that iPhones are "too complex" for users to repair them, even though replacing a battery is pretty easy and is done by average users all the time. But the fact that repair hurts Apple's bottom line came out in Cook's official communication with shareholders, who he is legally obligated to tell the truth to.

Comments

Re: If this hurts Apple's bottom line, it should.

[Anonymous Coward]

You do NOT need a headphone jack PERIOD. Why is that so hard for you to grasp?

Re:Try making money by repairing iPhones

[AmiMoJo]

Apple does repair old phones but the repair prices are usually so ridiculous that you might as well buy a new one. When the repair cost is a significant proportion of the price of a new one people balk at getting a device a few years old fixed. That's just how consumers are.

Plus they can't really stop other people offering more reasonably priced repairs. They can try, but especially in China (where a lot of the expected sales were supposed to be) there is a huge, thriving market dealing in Apple repairs.

Re: Oh that's too bad

[pgmrdlm]

guess you don't have a 401 or retirement fund. You do know idiot that there are tons of investors that need a high return for retirement. Wait, you don't give a fuck about those people. Fucking asshole.

Oh, and asshole. I hate apple as much as I hate assholes like you

Re: If this hurts Apple's bottom line, it should.

[TheFakeTimCook]

So the option is to spend more money to occupy the sole charging port on an iPhone. Not good. And for Square, I get the 3.5mm jack readers for free; I guess I can spend $50 to buy the Bluetooth units, but I'd rather get the free ones and hand them out to my 4 employees so they can all sell product as needed. But again - best to give money to someone else to solve the problem that Apple created by eliminating the jack.

Here's a question for you: what problem did Apple solve by removing the 3.5mm jack? Other than consumers not giving them enough money?

Oh, I'm sorry; I thought you were MAKING MONEY on your tradeshow sales. If you have 4 employees, then you have enough income to expense-off the 4 Square readers. Or, better yet, just get their POS terminal. I'm pretty sure your 4 employees won't be selling your tradeshow trash at such a rate that having to share a cash-register is going to be a problem. And if it is, then you have the income to afford it. Not to mention that those readers or POS terminal(s) are a business expense, and therefore a tax write-off.

As I said, "Manufactured Objection". Next!