Instead of just selling you a new phone, Apple is now doing in-store screen repairs on broken iPhones… and this is the monster machine doing the repairs.
A picture of the photo popped up on 512 Pixels, along with this helpful explanatory text:
“From what I’ve heard, Apple Stores have been instructed that the iPhone is the “top priority” for the Genius Bar, and this new repair — and crazy machine — surely reflects that. In addition to the program changes, many stores have Geniuses that are dedicated to iPhone repairs for sections of their shifts. In short, Apple is pouring resources in to in-store iPhone repairs.”
“We’re bringing China to the Genius Room,” one employee said.
From the photograph, it looks like Apple Store Geniuses aren’t repairing iPhone screens manually, but using a machine to guarantee a near industrial-level precision in the finish product.
That’s great news, but according to our own Genius Bar sources, early trials of the machine aren’t going particularly well, with some iPhones being broken during the screen replacement surgery so totally that they require a costly replacement, which Apple expects the user to pay for. You only pay $149 if you get lucky.
Still, fingers crossed that the kinks get worked out. This isn’t just a win for customers, who can theoretically get their screen fixed for much less money than it would have cost them before, but this machine is set to save Apple up to $1 billion a year in the cost of replacement devices. That’s a lot of money, even to Apple.
Source: 512 Pixels
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
5 responses to “Check Out The Insane Frankenstein Machine Apple Stores Are Now Using To Fix iPhone Screens [Image]”
Uhhhh, If Apple broke my iPhone trying to fix the screen and expected me to pay for a replacement, I would be throwing a fit. And the rest of the store would know about it.
Are you from Evergreen, Colorado?
Not a new gig. I’ve had 4 company phones repaired in the last 2 months. Three drops and one with a possibly faulty prox sensor.
And as you have zero fact about what the machine does perhaps you could refrain from comment. Cause I asked one of the guys and he said that they hand replace the display and then use a machine to verify the sensors, touch work before giving it back. This is likely the machine he’s talking about.
Oh and you might want to consider that this photo is of a back room (per my personal experiences and simple logic) and given Apple’s secrecy hard on probably not a place that can be ‘legally’ photographed so you are risking someone’s job publishing and republishing this.
That bit is likely bull. If you walked in with a busted up screen and the phone wasn’t functioning after they replaced it they would likely make you pay for the busted screen which puts your iPhone 5 back into warranty status and then swap it on their dime as it was their fault
Any idea when this fix will apply to the 5s. Yes i cracked my screen already….dummy!