Apple’s longevity by design

Although most of us who use Macs acknowledge that they tend to last longer than product of most of their competitors, we also have common concerns about their longevity. macOS upgrades and updates may be free, but they’re also time-limited such that each version is only fully supported for one year, then provided with security updates for a further two years. There are also concerns over the related question of upgradability, in that most modern Macs are stuck with the same memory and internal storage from the day they’re manufactured until they go for recycling. Some see these combine to result in built-in obsolescence.

Apple has just broken its long silence on these matters, in a white paper titled Longevity by Design, where it argues its case mainly about iPhones, of which it claims there now “hundreds of millions” that have been in use for more than five years. Although I suspect its estimates for older Macs are less precise, it’s a shame that it gives no comparable figures.

In many respects, Apple presents a compelling case, illustrated by its approach to liquid ingress in iPhones. Early models incorporated little to prevent this, and repairs as a result of liquid ingress were common. Apple’s engineers set out to make iPhones resistant, came up with solutions involving changed components, sealing gaskets, and more, and tested them extensively. The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus were the first models to incorporate full liquid ingress protection, and as a result repairs for liquid damage fell 75%. This protection remains a high priority in iPhone design and testing, although curiously no comparable effort has been put into protecting iPads.

Where Apple’s case is weaker is with macOS support. Although the white paper states that “a key pillar of product longevity is software support, especially security updates and bug fixes,” it avoids stating Apple’s longstanding macOS support policy of 1 + 2 years. This is strange, as this policy is well-known, but has (as far as I’m aware) never been articulated in writing.

The paper then boldly goes where macOS doesn’t, in claiming that “macOS Sonoma is compatible starting with Mac computers introduced in 2017. But even after an Apple product can no longer be updated with Apple’s newest OS, we strive to provide our customers with critical security updates”.

What it doesn’t say is that the sole Mac from 2017 that’s still supported by Sonoma is the iMac Pro, then top of the range, and the only Mac released that year that is still supported, and will be by Sequoia. The situation changes again this autumn/fall with macOS 15, which is dropping support for two more recent MacBook Air models.

Apple’s pioneering work in repairability is seriously understated. Going back to the Macintosh II of 1987, it was one of the first personal computers to feature modular design, so dealers didn’t have to wield soldering irons to fix hardware problems. Instead, their service engineers exchanged a modular component such as a power supply, and returned the failed module to Apple for testing and possible remanufacture.

There are valuable insights into how Apple is changing repair of its products, and over the last five years has doubled the size of its service and repair network. The end result is impressive: it’s claimed that “85% of the US population is within a 30 minute drive of an Apple
Store, Apple Authorized Service Provider (AASP) location, or Independent Repair Provider (IRP). In the United Kingdom, that’s true for 82% of the population, and in Italy and Germany, it’s 89%.”

There have long been rumours about Apple discouraging third-parties supplying parts, tools or repair services. One way that some manufacturers achieve this is by voiding their warranties when third-parties have been involved. Apple makes its policy clear:
“Apple warranties are not impacted by repair outside of Apple’s authorized network or through the use of third-party parts or third-party tools, unless the product is damaged during the course of the repair. We will not actively disable a third-party part designed to be manufactured to the same specifications of our products unless it impacts customer security and privacy, which is currently limited to biometric parts.”

The paper later clarifies the latter: “there is only one scenario whereby Apple will disable a third-party part: when a third-party Face ID or Touch ID sensor is installed, we will disable authentication to ensure security and privacy.”

You may want to keep a copy of this white paper in case you ever need to establish Apple’s policy.

There’s important insight into one previously murky area: service/repair and the privacy of data on a Mac or device. Since 2018, Apple has been using a suite of remote software tools to diagnose hardware problems without the need for service engineers to ask for passwords or passcodes, and so gain access to your encrypted data on a sick Mac or device.

Finally, Apple gives details of two important changes for iPhones at least. The first is the addition of a Parts and Service History section in Settings > General > About, for all devices that have undergone repair of a major component. When performed using genuine Apple parts, that is recorded there and informs future owners of the provenance of that iPhone’s components. This is, of course, a good way of encouraging owners to get their iPhones repaired through Apple’s authorised network, using official Apple parts.

The other glimpse into the future concerns Activation Lock for iPhone, which will in the future cover individual parts, to help deter device theft. “During a repair, if a device detects that a supported part came from another iPhone with Activation Lock or Lost Mode enabled, we will restrict calibration for that part”, and that will be recorded in the Parts and Service History.

Although Apple isn’t perfect by any means, this white paper makes it clear that Apple does care about the longevity of its products, more so than its competitors. It also ends with an explicit and emphatic denial of the idea of built-in obsolescence.