Apple has a reputation for imposing strict repair restrictions on its products, but its co-founder has gone in the opposite direction and thrown his support behind the "Right to Repair" movement.
“It’s time to recognize the Right to Repair more fully,” Steve Wozniak said in a Wednesday video.
Wozniak made the statement through Cameo, which lets you pay a celebrity to make a personalized video. Independent repair expert Louis Rossman put in a request in the hopes Wozniak would publicly support the Right to Repair movement—and he did.
“I am so busy with so many other things in my life that I haven’t really gotten involved in that area. But I’m always totally supportive and I totally think the people behind it (the Right to Repair) are doing the right thing,” Wozniak says.
In the video, the Apple co-founder also gives a frank assessment on why manufacturers oppose the Right to Repair movement. “I believe the companies inhibit it because it gives the companies power, control, over everything. And I guess in a lot of people’s minds, power over others equates to money and profits,” he said.
But according to Wozniak, the same repair restrictions are not just bad for consumers, they can also stifle innovation.
“We wouldn’t have an Apple had I not grown in an open technology world. An open electronics world,” he said. “Back then, when you bought electronic things, like TVs and radios, every bit of the circuits and designs were included on paper.”
Rossman requested the Cameo video as he’s trying to rally support for Right to Repair legislation, which would make it easier for consumers and independent repair shops to source the tools and information needed to fix the products. A potential funding source said he’d back Rossman’s activities “with a few million dollars,” but only if he first secured Wozniak’s support.
Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. But in the past, the company has justified its strict repair restrictions, citing consumer safety and the need to protect Apple’s intellectual property.
However, Wozniak says Apple should consider opening up its products, which will help make them even more popular among customers and developers.
“Look at the Apple II. It shipped with full schematics, designs,” Wozniak says. “This product was the only source of profits for Apple for the first 10 years of the company. This was not a minor product and it was not that successful on pure luck. Sometimes when companies cooperate together with others, they can actually have better business than if they are totally protective and monopolistic, and not working with others."
The video comes as the Biden administration preps a right-to-repair executive order, and a New York congressman had introduced federal right-to-repair legislation.