In a letter from its lobbyist, Apple 'urges' California lawmakers to pass the strongest right-to-repair law in the country.
I believe this is genuine support of the bill from Apple. Between Right to Repair winning in Massachusetts and the EU demanding compliance, I think Apple decided to flip the script. They would want to continue the illusion of customer friendly tech.
Either that, or it’s become clear they can’t win, and they’re trying to look good and gaslight people into believing they were always on the right side of this.
But they’ll have a much harder time with it in the EU where they cannot as easily buy people off. Plus it’s actually a crime in the EU, so if they get caught trying they’ll be in trouble, so perhaps they’ve concluded it isn’t worth the risk.
IMO, they have realised they cannot win - so have now switched sides for the PR boost and so they have more sway over the bills that get passed. This way they can look like they support the right to repair while knocking the teeth off the bills proposed under the argument of safety and security.
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: !technology@beehaw.org
A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.
Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.
There must be a loophole in the bill. Hopefully people find it and sound the alarm before the bill passes.
Either that, or it’s become clear they can’t win, and they’re trying to look good and gaslight people into believing they were always on the right side of this.
Pretty hard to imagine a megacorporation not winning.
In the US sure, with all its legalised bribery.
But they’ll have a much harder time with it in the EU where they cannot as easily buy people off. Plus it’s actually a crime in the EU, so if they get caught trying they’ll be in trouble, so perhaps they’ve concluded it isn’t worth the risk.
IMO, they have realised they cannot win - so have now switched sides for the PR boost and so they have more sway over the bills that get passed. This way they can look like they support the right to repair while knocking the teeth off the bills proposed under the argument of safety and security.
This is what I was thinking. Seems to be the simplest answer as well.
The law only says they have to sell replacement pieces, they are still going to make a killing selling stuff.
Oh you lost a screw … Let me see … That will be $3k for the screw but we do have a cool new iPhone too you know!