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Apple moves to DIY repairs

By Derek Sooman

On October 28, 2004, 7:24 PM

"We've demystified computers for a whole generation. It’s about customer satisfaction. People love it. It's quick. It's easy. It's painless." - Jim Kemp, HP's director of Americas Consumer Support, Planning and Infrastructure.

A growing number of PC manufacturers are moving to do-it-yourself repairs. Almost a third of the repairs to Hewlett-Packard's desktop computers are performed by HP's customers, and that figure is expected to rise to 65 percent in due course.

Apple seems to think the idea is great as well. Apparently, the iMac G5 is completely user serviceable, with a simplified interior, and easy to replace parts. Should a customer's machine go wrong, rather than an automatic recall, dispatches a spare part, and the owner performs the do-it-yourself repair. DIY repairs could include replacing RAM, or the HDD, or the display. Already a standard in the upper sectors of the computer market, it looks like self service is trickling down to the desktop PC.

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  1. October 30, 2004 11:39 PM
    Rick said:
    "We've demystified computers for a whole generation. It’s about customer satisfaction. People love it. It's quick. It's easy. It's painless."After replacing another hard drive on an eMac today, I come home from work to read this! Hehe. Irony. You have to disassemble the eMac completely just to access the hard drive, for those of you who haven't had the joyful experience.The iMac is no jewel either, but the regular Apple desktops have always (past few years) been fairly user-serviceable. Glad to see the new line of G5s are easy to DIY. I have a feeling in the coming years though, user servicing might be impossible considering how small electronics are getting these days. It might be 10, 20 or more years down the road, but its something to think about. Tiny little cup-sized computers that are improbable to disassemble, impossible to upgrade and hopeless to repair.
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