Apple now lets independent repair businesses fix your iPhone
The company is giving businesses access to parts and training.
Apple is giving us more options for fixing our iPhones.
Weeks after defending its iPhone battery certification warning, Apple on Thursday said it'll give more independent repair businesses the same "genuine parts, tools, training, repair manuals and diagnostics" that its Authorized Service Providers have access to, so they can handle common out-of-warranty repairs.
"When a repair is needed, a customer should have confidence the repair is done right," Jeff Williams, Apple's chief operating officer, said in a release. "We believe the safest and most reliable repair is one handled by a trained technician using genuine parts that have been properly engineered and rigorously tested."
The program will start in the US and roll out to other countries later. It's free to join, as long as the business has an Apple-certified technician to do the repairs, and individuals can get certified for free too.
The Cupertino, California, company's guidelines note that applicants have to be established businesses -- you can't just get the training to start repairing iPhones at home.
