It’s Like I’m Dying Inside →

Thomas Brand:

The era of Genius turning screws is coming to an end. Macs are becoming harder to get into, and instead of being repaired at the Apple Store most of the computers Apple sells these days are being refurbished at a central repair facility. Faulty iPhones, iPods, and iPads are replaced at the Genius bar, and shipped off to be disassembled and remade into refurbished devices with new cases and batteries. These refurbished computers return to the Apple Store to be used as iPhone, iPod, and iPad replacements. The cycle of replace, repair, refurbish, and replace is made easier by services like iCloud that keep all of a user’s data safety backed up. Customers have no qualms about receiving a device many of them think is new, just as long as they get to keep all of their personal data, songs, movies, and apps. It may be some time until all of Apple’s machines are replaced this way, but the new 21.5 inch iMac shows that Apple is moving in that direction.