Apple makes iPhone screen fixes easier

San Francisco (Reuters): Hey Siri, where can I get my cracked iPhone screen fixed?

Apple Inc customers will soon have more choices as the company looks to reduce long wait times for iPhone repairs at its retail stores.

By the end of 2017, Apple will to put its proprietary machines for mending cracked iPhone glass in about 400 authorized third-party repair centers in 25 countries, company executives told Reuters.

Among the first recipients is Minneapolis-based Best Buy, which has long sold and serviced Apple products. The electronics retailer already has one of the screen-repair machines at a Miami-area store and one coming soon to an outlet in Sunnyvale, California.

Fixing cracked screens may seem like small potatoes, but it’s a multi-billion-dollar global business. The move is also a major shift for Apple. The company had previously restricted use of its so-called Horizon Machine to its nearly 500 retail stores and mail-in repair centers; and it has guarded its design closely.

The change also comes as eight US states have launched “right to repair” bills aimed at prying open the tightly controlled repair networks of Apple and other high-tech manufacturers.

Apple said legislative pressure was not a factor in its decision to share its technology. It allowed Reuters to view and photograph the machines in action at a lab near its Cupertino, California headquarters. Until now, Apple had never formally acknowledged the Horizon Machine’s existence.

The initial rollout aims to put machines in 200, or about 4%, of Apple’s 4,800 authorised service providers worldwide over the next few months. The company plans to double that figure by the end of the year.

Apple has sold more than 1 billion iPhones worldwide, many to customers who don’t live near an Apple Store or an authorized third-party repair center.

Apple got into the screen-fixing business just three years ago with the introduction of the iPhone 5. Up until then, customers whose phones were out of warranty paid a “repair” fee, but Apple simply replaced the entire phone.