This petition seeks to help Apple customers.

Apple has waged a war on independent repair providers and are now purposely restricting parts and supply access so independent repair providers cannot repair your device. 

This is particularly important in the case of newer machines (2016- Present) in which the storage chips are soldered to the motherboard. If your motherboard fails, and you visit Apple to have it fixed, Apple will replace your motherboard and you will lose all information stored on it (as the storage chips are soldered to the board.) 

If you logic board fails, your data is stuck on the failed board. There is no removable storage device on the new machines. This makes data recovery impossible for the end user as well as 95% of repair shops, including Apple Inc. There is zero reason to solder the storage devices to the main logic board. A removable storage device can easily be added without comprising device thickness, reliability, or data security. 

Apple has recently started restricting parts availability for these machines. 99% of the chips and components on the motherboards used in Apple products are manufactured by 3rd party companies such as Texas Instruments, Intersil, and fairchild semiconductor. Now however, Apple making it so the third party companies cannot supply chips used in their machine to the public. This was not the case in prior generations. Let's say you liquid damage your device and cause damage to the motherboard and need critical files off of it such as irreplaceable pictures, tax documents or other important records. Apple does not do data recovery nor do they perform motherboard repair, so your only option is to seek out a third party repair specialist that can repair your board, and ultimately save your data, however such specialists can no longer get critical parts to repair your device, due to Apple's unfair restrictions. 

Let's get this clear. These parts hold no advantages over chips that are freely available on the market. None of these chips we are asking to be available will compromise the customers security in any way, shape or form.  

Without access to these parts, we will not be able to recover your data or repair your $1000-5000 device in many cases.  

Apple is also seizing (via ICE) many genuine parts such as batteries, screens, keyboards and trackpads imported from legally purchased devices that are stripped down for parts in China and calling them counterfeit. This is not the case in most cases. We aren't saying that counterfeit parts don't exist, but what we are saying is that most parts that are being seized at the border are genuine, new parts pulled from a legally purchased Apple device. 

Apple, We aren't asking for much. We just ask that the manufacture and independent repair community can coexist.  

For this to happen, we need the following changes to be made. 

• We need Apple to make the chips they are using on new machines (Such as the ISL9239, ISL9240, CD3215 and CD3217) available. This can be done by allowing Intersil and Texas Instruments to sell them to the general public, or by Apple themselves selling the parts at fair market value.
• We need Apple to make genuine parts used for repair available. Not all imported parts are counterfeit. Genuine parts need to be let in. Apple should make parts used for repair available themselves as well again at fair market value. For example, Contact Dell, Lenovo or HP. If you need a part, you can buy it. 
• We need Apple to redesign their MacBook laptops to incorporate removable storage for data security reasons. If Apple does not wish to do this, we would like to see the Lifeboat port re added to new machines, and we would like to see the tool used to read the storage devices via the lifeboat port available for purchase from Apple. 

Apple users,  please help us. We are here to help you. Please sign this petition and tell a friend. What Apple is doing to the both the independent repair community and you is wrong, and if they keep this up, we may not be here to help you when you need help.