Like its competitors, Samsung is following the movement and contributing to the right to repair products… by their users themselves. We learn from Vice that the Korean giant is taking over Apple’s recent initiative to sell its customers the spare parts needed to repair their devices without going through a repairer. A measure also announced by Microsoft, recalls the American media. In the case of Samsung, this project will mainly concern the parts of certain models of smartphones, we read in a communicated.
This announcement is perhaps even more important when it comes from Samsung: the brand is indeed the number 1 seller of smartphones in the world (20% of mobiles in circulation across the globe are thus stamped Samsung, against 17% worldwide for Apple). Its decision could therefore strongly influence the market… and encourage other manufacturers (Chinese in particular) to enter the dance.
A first face-to-face plenary for the France Hub of Gaia-X
The right to reparation is progressing (and should continue to progress)
In detail, we learn that Samsung will join forces with the American iFixit – known for its electronic device repair tutorials, its product-by-product repairability indexes, and the sale of both tools and parts. spare parts –, to offer its customers parts for its most popular smartphones. The brand explains that it will however focus, at least initially, on the sale of spare screens, glass back plates, and on the sale of batteries. Clearly, the most frequently replaced parts on a smartphone.
” Galaxy device owners will be able to get started repairing Samsung’s most popular models, the Galaxy S20 and S21 product families, and the Galaxy Tab S7+, starting this summer “, indicates the brand in its press release. Samsung undertakes to provide “genuine parts, repair tools and intuitive, visual, step-by-step repair guides to make it easier for budding repairers.
As Vice reminds us, the concept of the right to repair, supported for years by certain independent players and by a few brands (Framework for laptops and Fairphone for smartphones, for example), is becoming increasingly important. Including at a political level. US President Joe Biden, for example, has made the right to reparation one of the priorities of his administration.
In the United States, the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) has also been consecutively responsible for evaluating whether or not the repair policies of the major manufacturers of electronic and agricultural products are really respectful of American law.