iFixit has announced they are ending their collaboration with Samsung.
The program was launched 2 years ago, and according to the post on their website (link at end), they have not been able to deliver on the promise of “building an incredible, repair-friendly ecosystem.”
Apparently, Samsung was not on-board with making repair more accessible:
As we tried to build this ecosystem we consistently faced obstacles that made us doubt Samsung’s commitment to making repair more accessible. 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.
As such, starting in June the following will take effect:
- iFixit will no longer be Samsung’s designated third-party parts and tools distributor.
- they will no longer have a quantity limit of seven Samsung parts per repair shop per quarter.
- No existing information will be removed from iFixit, but we will not collaborate directly with Samsung to develop new manuals.
- they will continue to sell parts and repair fix kits for Samsung devices, sourcing OEM parts when available and clearly indicating whether parts are original or aftermarket. Just like they do for Apple repair parts.
Despite skepticism from the repair community, we tried to work with Samsung to create repair documentation for a few initial devices. However, flashy press releases and ambitious initiatives don’t mean much without follow-through. We’ve been through this with Samsung before with Galaxy Upcycling, the amazing device reuse idea that we helped them announce. Then they ghosted us and never released it. We clearly didn’t learn our lesson the first time, and two years ago we let them convince us they were serious about embracing repair.
