Generally I support this but Apple is a strange target.<p>Many Android devices are supported for timeframes practically measured in months. Meanwhile my iPhone 6 from 2014 still gets updates…
No-one is bringing up one of the reasons for serialization of parts.<p>Apple put security into iPhones to make them much harder to sell after they have been stolen. iCloud Activation Lock makes it very hard for a thief to resell a stolen phone, thereby making it less attractive to steal in the first place.<p>So, the thieves that I was in jail with told me they continued to steal the phones then just took them all to the phone repair stores who would break them all down for the spare parts and give them cash. They would then use all the stolen spares to repair other people's phones.<p>Now that the parts are serialized this channel is closed and it again makes it less attractive to steal the phones.<p>So, I for one am OK with the serialization, BUT there needs to be a balance. I realize Apple now hands out repair tools and instructions, with a system to reserialize your authentic parts, but what to do with a mountain of half-broken phones that could be legitimately cannibalized for their working parts?
My first and only iPhone became unusably slow with a major OS upgrade about 2 years into its life. I haven't bought an Apple product since.<p>I don't like Google either, but I've had several Galaxy phones since then and every one has lasted until I was ready to replace it on my own schedule. My current one is 2.5 years old and feels no worse off than the day I bought it.
I mean, ok, but I get 3 years out of an iPhone most of the time now, and by then I'm pretty okay getting a new one because of the accumulated incremental improvements, especially with the camera.
I rather have a competitor outcompete them with a repairable product rather than forcing Apple to make better phones, or that Apple is forced to add repairability in order to compete.<p>That is not to say regulation is unimportant, but that I rather that regulations tilt the playing field toward more consumer friendly companies.
Apple is indirectly nudging you to get rid of your older Apple products and buy their new ones. For example, let's use a high level example. When you buy an iPhone, the camera will never change. The camera features and picture quality will be the exact same on day 365 as on day 1.<p>Apple as a company is set up to only build and focus on software for newer hardware. They don't spend one minute extra to optimize for older hardware.