It’s Time For People 'To Recognize The Right To Repair' Their Own Devices

Steve Wozniak
Co-Founder of Apple Inc.

An opinion from one person may differ from another opinion from a different person. But what is certain, everyone knows that Apple the tech giant, is up there in the food chain for a multitude of reasons.

One of which, is by selling hardware.

Steve Wozniak, was the tech mastermind who worked alongside Steve Jobs. As someone who built the first Apple device, Wozniak has something he has in his mind that is apparently different from the company he helped built.

Speaking candidly to right-to-repair campaigner Louis Rossmann on Cameo, a platform where people can ask influential people to speak, Wozniak said that he is against the power-driven monopolistic mindset that is keeping Apple from allowing repair technicians to tinker with its hardware.

Wozniak saw his company grow to one of the most powerful tech companies ever built. But his thoughts differ from it.

Wozniak once said that Apple should build Android, and this time, he is against Apple because Apple is making things difficult for owners to even repair their own devices.

Steve Wozniak

Apple devices are considered high-end devices. They are relatively expensive, and built to boast great design and great quality.

Wozniak here, shared how as a child, he grew up in a world where nearly all technology was extremely open-source and its engineering was accessible to even the most everyday consumer, should they care to learn how it works.

It was this exact thing that helped sparked Wozniak's deep passion for technology and engineering.

"We wouldn’t have an Apple had I not grown in an open technology world. An open electronics world."

"Back then, when you bought electronic things like TVs and radios, every bit of the circuits and designs were included on paper. Total open source."

"Someone with skill could get in and modify things to fix broken radios or televisions, or to improve them, or to even replace destroyed parts."

"If you know what you're doing ... you could repair a lot of things at low cost. But it's even more precious to know that you did it yourself."

"The Apple II shipped with full schematics, designs, and software [code listings]—totally open source. The Apple II was modifiable and extendable to the maximum; people figured out how to convert the early display into having lower-case characters [...] with their own hardware added."

"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. There were a lot of good things about that being so open that everyone could join the party."

This is true for Wozniak, who has dedicated all of his life as an engineer.

And this is why his past tinkering with electronics made him think that Apple should not be monopolistic.

"When companies co-operate together with others they can actually have better business than if they’re totally protective and monopolistic”, Wozniak said. “It’s time to recognise the right to repair more fully. I believe that companies inhibit it because it gives the companies power [and] control over everything. In a lot of people’s minds, power over others equates to money and profits.”

Apple has been accused of holding back efforts to make its devices more easy to repair. As such, the company has since become an enemy for the “right to repair” movement.

Apple however, argued that allowing people to open up and fix their own devices would pose a danger as well as hampering its own designs.

"Is it your computer, or is it some company’s computer? Think about that. It’s time to start doing the right things," the legendary co-founder concluded.