The future of board repair?

[G.Beard]

Hi.

I just got off the phone to a trade customer who is of the opinion that due to Apple (and others) now soldering more and more to the board, there is a fork in the road coming for repair stores.

With MacBook repairs in mind, it will not be long before RAM and SSD / HDD replacement are off the menu for the average repair store.
This leads me to wonder if board repair will become a more readily available service with more techs picking up the irons, or if the consumer feeding machine will fill a void and churn out more and more planed obsolescence, fashion accessory gadgets. With the "thin client" utility based computing model apparently being the future, I wonder where electronic repair will be in ten years....

Any thoughts?

 

[dukefawks]

I can tell you 1 thing and that is in 10 years board repair will be dead and sooner than that too.

I can already tell you that you will not be able to swap a board/touchpad on the newest gen MacBooks. The new force touchpad needs to be calibrated/mated to the motherboard and that can only be done in AST. The writing is on the wall...I give it 5 years.

 

[larossmann]

Either mostly data recovery for careless people, or dead, unless another device comes along whose inflated market value makes board repair viable. For PCs this is just not a viable business with so many machines costing $200-$400, them all being made of different parts, and consumers demanding instant turnaround. What makes this worthwhile is the inflated retail of Apple devices and their very streamlined product line which makes stocking everything necessary simpler to do. You never know what may come along as a trend that everyone owns ten years from now, but I would side with duke that this printing money on liquid damaged macbooks is not something I see being around past 10 years. It is an excellent way to make money now, it's up to you to take that money and pack it away towards the next thing you do in life.

 

[leonattpcs]

I agree with repair ending, 5-10 years is probably about right as has been mentioned already. As you say with more and more major parts being soldered to the board inside a MacBook air/pro so it makes it more difficult for repairers to do anything, I would say this is to make the things better/thinner etc... i know others will say it is Apple making sure less and less can be repaired and that is probably right and in the end, not matter how long it takes, they will get their way. It is a watch this space type of thing for now and then just get out at the right time maybe.

 

[Modder1]

I almost think despite all the crap we deal with as Louis and Duke mention that we also are fighting against the desire for people to repair, especially when they get burned at a shop with little or no values. Not to mention all the ill communication that goes on with our biz.

 

[larossmann]

I almost think despite all the crap we deal with as Louis and Duke mention that we also are fighting against the desire for people to repair, especially when they get burned at a shop with little or no values. Not to mention all the ill communication that goes on with our biz.

I agree.

Apple fixes the iPhone 6 for $109. Every customer that goes to an independent store that didn't tell the customer they can get it done at Apple for $109 while charging $125 for a crappy refurb screen that falls apart in a month is a customer who will never go to independent repair again.

​​​​​There's also price. My Dell laptop does everything I need it do when I am traveling. It cost $479... I would never pay to fix that if it broke.

The key is some other new device coming out that is worthwhile to repair for a different set of reasons.

 

[TCRScircuit]

I agree that Apple Macbook board repair will be dead in 5 to 10 years...... BUT... Logic board repair will not be dead... When I can't make money off of fixing laptop boards, I will move on to fixing boards for more expensive things.

 

[smiba]

By the time macbook board repair is dead there is something else to fix. Maybe a different device, maybe something totally different then we're doing right now. I believe as long as you are willing to learn new skills and explore new markets you're never out of a job

Also I doubt it will ever fully die, unless apple is able to make resistors and capacitors which are linked to the motherboard like some parts are

 

[G.Beard]

By the time macbook board repair is dead there is something else to fix. Maybe a different device, maybe something totally different then we're doing right now. I believe as long as you are willing to learn new skills and explore new markets you're never out of a job

Also I doubt it will ever fully die, unless apple is able to make resistors and capacitors which are linked to the motherboard like some parts are

Well if it comes to it we could all just work for Apple. As far as I see it, if you can quote a repair for $850 you're in!..... Oh thank you Sir Mr Tim Cook Sir, thank you for my $16 an hour.

 

[Sykulski]

♬
Big wheel keep on turning
Logic Boards keep on burning
Rolling... Rolling...
♪ ♪

...for now at least

 

[macitech]

Yes what is next for us? Work for Apple. Yuk but...