Apple Expanding Independent Repair Provider Program Worldwide

"Apple says that the certification process is "simple" and free of charge"

So now any nobody with little to no experience or training can become a "certified Apple repair technician"

The techs need to take and pass the same training that Apple-certified shops and Apple Store staff take. The certification process involves a test. If the test is passed there are no extra hoops to jump through in order to obtain the certification.

There is no prior experience required in any of these cases. Experience is gained hands-on, and inevitably results in a certain number of botched repairs that the shop or technician must make good on.

Employers hope to hire staffs that cost them a minimum in either wasted time or damaged products/parts, so they have an incentive to hire people with previous experience doing similar repairs. That's the way life works. Nobody is born with these skills. If there's a surplus of workers with a particular skill set then experienced workers can be hired on the cheap. If the skills are harder to acquire, then experienced workers have an improved bargaining position and employers have some incentive to hire the less-skilled and train them up.

All Apple is really saying here is, "There's all sorts of pressure on us to open the repair process to more participants. To shut down those efforts, we'll make it easier for more repair shops to do that." In the end, "Right to Repair" is only successful politically because small businesses have banded together to lobby for easier entry into Apple's repair business. The vast majority of smartphone owners will never want to do their own repairs, but they do want to find a shop in their hometown that is able to competently perform those repairs instead of driving long distances or mailing the phone off to a repair facility. If Apple gives those small repair shops what they want, then most of the political pressure that's been brought to bear on Apple will disappear. The "handymen" with the desire and competence to fix their own phones is far too small a group to mount any kind of political pressure.

As to warranty? That's basic common sense. A warranty is a company's promise to stand by its product - to correct "defects in workmanship and materials." How can Apple guarantee workmanship when it's in no position to supervise that workmanship? The difference between an independent shop that becomes Apple-certified and one that is not is the degree of control and supervision Apple can provide. "Hire a tech who has passed our test and we'll sell you parts" isn't enough supervision to justify Apple standing financially behind that repair.

While it seems like this is the right thing to do, I'm afraid they're just doing this to shut people up about "actively doing everything they possibly can to make their extremely expensive and irreparable devices even less repairable".

For example, do they still require you to have their certified, needlessly expensive iPhone opener machine? Do they still require you to replace half of the computer for a simple battery replacement? Because I highly doubt they're going to sell batteries separately. They're going to sell top cases with the battery glued in, and you bet they're going to charge for the top case even though you don't need it.

I hope they make all their products more repairable instead of doings something like gluing their MacBooks closed since they aren't too dissimilar from iPads anymore. It was lame when they did that to iMacs.

I'm would be interested in signing up for this. I run a small computer repair company in the UK as the sole trader. I work from home so I'm not sure if they would be happy with that!

Look at the fine print. They basically own your company if you do this.

This is limited to out of warranty repairs. And repairs completed by IRPs will not have Apple’s 90 day repeat repair warranty coverage. This is great for people who want to pay $300 for a genuine display, but maybe not the expensive labor at an AASP. To be honest, I'm not sure how many customers are like that.

That's my iPhone SE1 in rose gold!