iPhone broken? Don’t call the repair shop

Did you hear the news? Microsoft decided that only repair shops it deemed suitable could repair any of its devices. If you choose to ignore these recommendations and stick with the local repair shop down the road, there is a risk your device will become an unusable brick. And it’s not a bug; it is, in fact, for your own good. For your own security, specifically. That’s okay, isn’t it?

Imagine the outrage.

But hang on; it wasn’t Microsoft, it was Apple. And instead of laptops and tablets, it’s your €700 iPhone or iPad that are at risk. Officially, Apple says it’s to stop people from removing the TouchID sensor – the one that holds your fingerprint information and is linked to Apple Pay, for those countries that currently support it – and gaining access to confidential information.

There has been quite a bit of outrage at the fact that the company could know about this – there are documented incidents on Apple’s support community dating back to 2014 – without it making clear to customers that this is a risk. And yet, there has also been some defence of Apple’s practices among die-hard Apple fans – leeway, one suspects, that Microsoft wouldn’t get.

While the argument that error 53 is appearing for security reasons does have some merit, rendering an entire phone useless is a bit like using a hammer to crack a walnut. There is no reason why TouchID could not be disabled as a security feature if interfered with while leaving iPhone users access to their phones via the backup passcode embedded in its software that Apple requires users to have when the phone reboots, for example.

That has led some to reach the conclusion that Apple is trying to push users away from independent repair shops and forcing all repairs through its own, more expensive network.It also discourages those with a bit of tech knowhow from repairing their own phones.

So what are users to do? At the moment, they have two choices: pay to have the official Apple repair carried out, or take the risk and avoid upgrading their device’s software in the hope that the current outcry will sway Apple to make a change.