Third-party repair company iFixit announced an abrupt end to its collaboration with Galaxy smartphone maker Samsung last week.
When the partnership was announced two years ago, iFixit said its goal was to build “an incredible, repair-friendly ecosystem.”
“We aimed to set the gold standard for repair documentation and empower local independent repair businesses with the tools and parts they needed to thrive, all while keeping Galaxy devices running,” iFixit said in its release announcing the dissolution of the partnership.
The company expanded on the news and blamed obstacles from Samsung leading to the end of the partnership.
“As we tried to build this ecosystem we consistently faced obstacles that made us doubt Samsung’s commitment to making repair more accessible,” iFixit explains. “We couldn’t get parts to local repair shops at prices and quantities that made business sense. The part prices were so costly that many consumers opted to replace their devices rather than repair them. And the design of Samsung’s Galaxy devices remained frustratingly glued together, forcing us to sell batteries and screens in pre-glued bundles that increased the cost.”
And so comes the end of an era.
“It’s with a heavy wrench that we have decided to end our partnership with Samsung. Despite a huge amount of effort, Samsung’s approach to repairability does not align with our mission,” iFixit concludes.
This means iFixit will no longer serve as Samsung’s designated third-party parts and tools distributor as of June 2024. But it also means the company won’t be beholden to a quantity limit of seven Samsung parts per repair shop per quarter. And even though iFixit won’t collaborate with Samsung on future manuals, existing information will remain available to users.
Further, the repair company will continue to sell parts and repair fix kits for Samsung devices, source OEM (original equipment manufacturer) parts when available, and indicate whether parts are original or aftermarket. iFixit has done this for Samsung devices since before the partnership and it does the same for Apple repair parts, for context.
“Though we are sad that Samsung isn’t coming along, we’re continuing our march into a more-repairable future,” iFixit says. “We’re shipping more parts to people all over the world, expanding awareness of third-party repair, and proving to manufacturers of all stripes that repair is good business.”
Image credits: Header photo courtesy of iFixit.
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