
EU plans 'right to repair' rules for phones and tablets - frereubu
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/11/eu-brings-in-right-to-repair-rules-for-phones-and-tablets
======
Silhouette
This looks like a positive step in a healthy direction. Attacking the garden
walls, upgrade ratchets and incompatible proprietary formats and protocols
would also be positive steps with related benefits. Locking customers into one
platform and then changing the software and protocols that form the
foundations of that platform in ways that break backward compatibility results
in a lot of unnecessary wastage in all of physical equipment, user data and
the financial costs paid by users.

------
ptah
they should focus on making rules around product obsolescence. phones and
computers should work with latest OS for 10 years or more

~~~
0-_-0
They should also have a replaceable battery if you want them to work for 10
years. And an SD card slot to keep up with storage requirements. Not many
decent phones like that in the last year:

[https://www.gsmarena.com/results.php3?nYearMin=2019&nDisplay...](https://www.gsmarena.com/results.php3?nYearMin=2019&nDisplayResMin=2073600&idCardslot=1&idBatRemovable=1)

(I also included at least FullHD resolution in the search)

~~~
chrismeller
You have to keep in mind that that removable battery has disappeared from
devices for a reason: it’s inefficient. Even having a case around it and
providing the connector and latch means you’re making the battery smaller and
the device bigger.

That said, I do feel like there’s a reasonable middle ground to be had: not a
swappable battery, but a very easily replaceable one. No special hex screws,
etc. Sure you can’t carry around six of them, but if you can replace it once a
year you probably won’t need to... and you can always carry a power bank with
you instead to recharge it on the go.

I think the SD card requirement is short sighted. As often as storage (and
cables, not to mention other things) change I think the added space
requirements in something like a phone, even for something as small as an SD
card (plus the adapter and the spring mechanism, housing, etc.) is a waste. In
a decade you may not be able to even find the same kind of storage anymore.
Even if you can it’s not like the latest game that rings in at a bazillion
gigathings that would so totally easily fit on your new SD card is actually
going to run on your 9.5 year old phone - the processor, memory, etc. simply
wont be up to the job.

~~~
0-_-0
I guess the SD card thing depends on your requirements, but I like carrying my
music library with me and a few movies, so I don't mind if the volume of my
phone is a few cubic millimeters more.

I would be fine with an easily replaceable battery though... but again, I
don't mind a little more volume.

------
himinlomax
I fear this will end up being big on inefficient recycling instead of reuse
and actual repair.

~~~
anoncake
Why?

~~~
chrismeller
Not OP, but I’m guessing they were referring to the drastically higher costs
involved in actually opening, diagnosing, and replacing a part in something as
complex and intricate as an iPhone.

Since it will be prohibitively expensive to take your phone to a store and
have someone actually do that (ie: repair it), instead the rule will amount to
some complex and less-than-ideal alternative where you can turn in your phone
and get a refurbished one instead...

They then “recycle” your old broken phone - ship it back somewhere with
significantly cheaper labor (and less strict disposal regulations) where they
do some very basic component harvesting (such as screens and storage for those
refurbs) and then melt down or simply trash the rest.

In the end you still can’t actually repair your old device (and really, that’s
often just an unrealistic expectation this day in time, they’re just too small
and complex) and we’ve just institutionalized a wasteful system to make
ourselves feel better.

~~~
anoncake
That's absurd. The plan is to _make_ devices repairable. Current devices not
being repairable is the problem being solved. What you've described is the
status quo.

~~~
0x4477
Instead of dictating an arbitrary and likely unrealistic featureset via
government force, we can all vote with our wallets and not buy phones that
aren't repairable.

Clearly, the demand for repairable phones is not sufficiently high to sway
people from buying ones that are not repairable, and, more importantly, it may
not be possible to make a phone meaningfully repairable with how small
delicate technology in phones is nowadays.

Not to mention, how do we determine what level of repairability is sufficient,
and by what metric? What parts should be interchangeable? Battery and camera?
Should we merely make the phone's case easy to open? Why is any one or a
combination of these things something that consumers are entitled to and need
to have protected by law?

~~~
anoncake
> Instead of dictating an arbitrary and likely unrealistic featureset via
> government force,

Strawman.

> we can all vote with our wallets and not buy phones that aren't repairable.

"Voting with one's wallet" just doesn't work.

> Clearly, the demand for repairable phones is not sufficiently high to sway
> people from buying ones that are not repairable,

Yes, that's the problem.

> and, more importantly, it may not be possible to make a phone meaningfully
> repairable with how small delicate technology in phones is nowadays.

Then the technology has to get bigger again. It's called a trade-off.

> Not to mention, how do we determine what level of repairability is
> sufficient, and by what metric? What parts should be interchangeable?
> Battery and camera? Should we merely make the phone's case easy to open?

It's almost as if making decisions involved making decisions. What's your
point?

> Why is any one or a combination of these things something that consumers are
> entitled to and need to have protected by law?

That's in the article. Besides, "because they (resp. their elected
representatives) want" is a perfectly valid and sufficient reason.

------
barlady
I guess this will had nothing to do within the availability to use good Nokia
Lumia Phones within them extraordinary 42Mp Carl Zeiss camera within a Linus'
based Operating System.

------
wdb
Wondering what Louis Rossmann thinks of this EU plan. He has been big on
promoting right to repair in the US.

