You can no longer repair 2018 Macs outside of Apple
Apple’s protectionism apparently knows no bounds. After they have already been tackled quiteearly (in Australia) because they installed special chips in their phones that ensured that an independent repairer who could not repair them, they now have done it again with the new Mac and MacBook Pros.
These new computers have the ‘security chip’ T2 on board. Which ensures that a Mac no longer works if an important part such as the Touch ID sensor, but also things like the display, keyboard, touchpad, housing or circuit board is replaced by someone outside the Apple repair service. In fact, you can not repair anything anymore without Apple. How did they do that?
Software blockade
In order to get the business going again, the configuration software ‘Apple Service Toolkit 2’ has to be run and that is only available for employees of Apple or one of the authorized service providers. If that diagnostic software (which must connect to a cloud server from Apple itself and you need a login) is not run, then the repair according to a leaked service manual from Apple “is not complete and results in a non-functioning device”. Well great.
This is pure protectionism and not only does this put all third parties offside, it deprives us as consumers the choice of where we have our Macs repaired. An additional consequence is that Apple will soon determine when your MacBook Pro from 2018 is outdated, and presumably that is not the same as with the older Macs only after ten years, if you yourself have decided that it is time for a new one.
Right to repair
This is undoubtedly going to bring all kinds of lawsuits and in the US there has been a debate about the ” right to repair ” legislation that companies such as Apple and John Deere ( that of the tractors) prohibits these kinds of software-based and therefore arbitrary blockades for consumers to the devices that they have bought with their hard-earned money – especially when it comes to Apple material. That just is not true and hopefully Apple and the rest of the industry in Europe very quickly counter-gas.