Here’s what I can think of. Not saying it’s valid, just justifications past “we love money”.
You can’t have an easy to repair iPhone 14. It is what it is. It can be redesigned to be easier to repair, with less glue and more screws and such.
But then it won’t be an iPhone 14 as we know it today. It would probably have to be thicker, etc. And what if customers don’t like those changes?
There are actual repair issues too. Right now there is a simple rule: we (or somewhere authorized) repairs it, or it’s not our problem. How do you adjudicate what’s a problem with the device and what a user broke trying to repair it for warranty purposes? They don’t have to today.
How much does it cost to keep making those parts as required? Do we need to raise prices to cover that? What if the prices of the components are too high and people sue saying we’re trying to discourage them?
If we have to keep making them should we redesign the phones less to keep down our legal supply requirements by reusing parts longer?
What if they go through with all this and almost no one does? Redesigns, new parts, guides, all that stuff. And 0.2% of people do it. That feels like a waste.
What if an Apple goes through all this. Do they make a “NY” version? Again maybe many people don’t buy it. Or do do what people probably want and make the NY the US or world version? All of those have different costs. Should NY be able to dictate a specific path? Is that fair?
What if someone owns the non-NY version but tries to repair their phone with official parts? Is it covered or not? What if they were in NY at the time?
What if CA passes a different, or worse incompatible, right to repair law? Then what?
What if NY required changes make the device unsuitable to some other country due to some odd law, but Apple only wants to make one phone (they do).
What if Google does it and Samsung says “screw that, drive to NJ”? But now Google’s phones are at a disadvantage because they’re thicker/more expensive/whatever?
I think that would be a lot easier on companies if it was a federal law. Obviously that won’t happen first, a state law is much more likely.
There are a lot of possible details. They’re not insurmountable. The answer to some may be “too bad”. But it’s not “there’s no downsides”.
Comments
Here’s what I can think of. Not saying it’s valid, just justifications past “we love money”.
You can’t have an easy to repair iPhone 14. It is what it is. It can be redesigned to be easier to repair, with less glue and more screws and such.
But then it won’t be an iPhone 14 as we know it today. It would probably have to be thicker, etc. And what if customers don’t like those changes?
There are actual repair issues too. Right now there is a simple rule: we (or somewhere authorized) repairs it, or it’s not our problem. How do you adjudicate what’s a problem with the device and what a user broke trying to repair it for warranty purposes? They don’t have to today.
How much does it cost to keep making those parts as required? Do we need to raise prices to cover that? What if the prices of the components are too high and people sue saying we’re trying to discourage them?
If we have to keep making them should we redesign the phones less to keep down our legal supply requirements by reusing parts longer?
What if they go through with all this and almost no one does? Redesigns, new parts, guides, all that stuff. And 0.2% of people do it. That feels like a waste.
What if an Apple goes through all this. Do they make a “NY” version? Again maybe many people don’t buy it. Or do do what people probably want and make the NY the US or world version? All of those have different costs. Should NY be able to dictate a specific path? Is that fair?
What if someone owns the non-NY version but tries to repair their phone with official parts? Is it covered or not? What if they were in NY at the time?
What if CA passes a different, or worse incompatible, right to repair law? Then what?
What if NY required changes make the device unsuitable to some other country due to some odd law, but Apple only wants to make one phone (they do).
What if Google does it and Samsung says “screw that, drive to NJ”? But now Google’s phones are at a disadvantage because they’re thicker/more expensive/whatever?
I think that would be a lot easier on companies if it was a federal law. Obviously that won’t happen first, a state law is much more likely.
There are a lot of possible details. They’re not insurmountable. The answer to some may be “too bad”. But it’s not “there’s no downsides”.