Want To Skip The Genius Bar? Apple Plans To Offer Independent Repair Shops iPhone Parts

Apple said it plans to provide supply parts to independent repair shops in an effort to ease pressure on its stores to fix millions of out-of-warranty iPhones in a Thursday statement.

The tech giant announced the plan after nearly a decade of officially allowing only its Genius Bar experts to repair products as part of its Apple Authorized Service Providers network.

“Apple will provide more independent repair businesses — large or small — with the same genuine parts, tools, training, repair manuals and diagnostics as its Apple Authorized Service Providers (AASP). The program is launching in the U.S. with plans to expand to other countries,” the statement reads.

The company also spent years lobbying legislation in several U.S. states, including New York and California, that would give iPhone owners and independent repair shops the right to buy supplies and repair information from Apple itself, Reuters reported.

Apple Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams said to meet customers’ needs, the company is “making it easier for independent providers across the US to tap into the same resources as our [AASP] network.”

“When a repair is needed, a customer should have confidence the repair is done right. We believe the safest and most reliable repair is one handled by a trained technician using genuine parts that have been properly engineered and rigorously tested,” he continued.

Creative Strategies analyst Ben Bajarin told Reuters the move will help the tech giant sell more parts and services if more iPhone owners start giving old iPhones to others once they’re done using them.

“That helps them get the product more affordably into the hands of more customers and increases the base,” he said. “Every data point seems to say, if you get someone into the Apple ecosystem, they generally don’t leave.”