Not trying to be cynical here because I also would prefer a MBP that was more serviceable/repairable, but all these discussions about how repairability impacts the environmental cost of these devices are IMO extremely contrived.
How many (in percentage terms) of laptops will ever need repairs, how many of those will actually be repaired (as opposed to consumers just deciding to buy something new, even if repair would be relatively easy and cheap), and then finally, what percentage of these defective laptops will actually been thrown away without any form of recycling? I'm pretty sure that if you do the math, in the grand scheme of things, these numbers will be utterly irrelevant except for HN talking points.
I would recommend spending public outrage about environmental concerns on areas where it really matters instead, such as e.g. food waste, plastic bags, energy efficiency etc. I'm pretty sure that even a tiny, tiny fraction improvement there would offset the environmental impact of the worldwide total of laptops that cannot or will not be repaired after they break down.
> How many (in percentage terms) of laptops will ever need repairs, how many of those will actually be repaired (as opposed to consumers just deciding to buy something new, even if repair would be relatively easy and cheap)
Whether end-users try to repair their laptops depends in part on their expectations; and their expectations depend a lot on how repair-able laptops are in general. My second-to-last laptop, a Dell, lasted me nearly a decade. I upgraded the hard disk, upgraded the memory, and replaced the inverter in the display twice. I mainly replaced it because it was about 4x the weight of newer laptops, and had started eating batteries. There's no reason more laptops couldn't last as long.
On average, a sealed no-moving-parts laptop like the MacBook(Pro/Air) line lasts 10 years due to resistance to the elements, excellent thermals/fans, and forward-looking connectivity compatibility. Every day people buy 2011 Macs online for the same $400 price as new non-Macs with similar specs.
Yes I get it, that's what I try to do as well. Just recently I went through the hassle of repairing my moms 5-year old Asus Zenbook, which had a broken SSD that was also a lot more effort to repair than necessary because of the non-standard M2 slot Asus used for the sole purpose of discouraging home repair (there literally is no other explanation for this slot besides trying to get you to pay Asus for the repair or -even better- a new device). She was already planning to throw it a way and get a new one.
The point is, that if it weren't for the fact that I explicitly asked her to let me have a look to see if I could repair it, she would have thrown it out even though it was perfectly possible to repair it (it's working 100% fine again now). My mother is not the exception, she's the rule. I would guess over 90% of people don't bother to repair 5-year old laptops, under any circumstance. They just write it off and get a new one.
That's why I was saying all these discussions about how repairability of laptops impacts the environment are largely moot. Probably better incentives to promote proper recycling (e.g. a tax on electronics that gets re-imbursed when you properly dispose them) would have much more positive effect compared to improved repairability.
Laptops that are decided by their owners are beyond economic repair when something fails don't just get whisked away to landfill, but actually (in many geographic locations) go through actual computer recycling centres, where they are triaged, repaired where possible and re-used in lower socio-economic areas such as low income area training projects etc. Often people "throw away" a laptop just because it's "slow" which usually means malware infested and low tier spinning rust drive, low end CPU, not enough RAM. The CPU has generally been soldered since 5th gen intel core series but upgrades and repairs to the rest can yield perfectly usable machines for some considerable more time. In my region there are numerous recycling projects that do this and one of their sources is the local municipal recycling centre (aka the dump or tip to the locals) where E-Waste is specifically segregated for licenced recyclers to handle.
If you have devices that have "simple" faults (bad RAM,storage,wifi card etc) that would normally be a simple swap out, but now can only be repaired with a high degree of skill (micro soldering) and access to a parts supply which is intentionally restricted and knowledge which intentionally obfuscated (take you pick of Louis Rossman repair videos on youtube)then those products will skip this second life and head straight to material recovery rather than re-use.
so
>How many (in percentage terms) of laptops will ever need repairs
as long as it's non zero then it's irrelevant
>how many of those will actually be repaired
For apple products this is rapidly approaching actual zero while for others it's non-zero
That reuse used to be through but nowadays we are absolutely drowning in computing hardware. Look at all the dealers in old used business computers, selling $200 machines. That's paying for the time of the person turning over the machine, with no premium for scarcity. Shipping and handling costs more than the non-consumable portion of old computer hardware.
I would counter that the reason laptops don't get repaired has a lot to do with mindsets and habits. It feels easier to just get a new one. I'd say the availability of repairable laptops is a prerequisite to change.
Basically Apple need to want this change. They need to... be brave? To... think different?
How many (in percentage terms) of laptops will ever need repairs, how many of those will actually be repaired (as opposed to consumers just deciding to buy something new, even if repair would be relatively easy and cheap), and then finally, what percentage of these defective laptops will actually been thrown away without any form of recycling? I'm pretty sure that if you do the math, in the grand scheme of things, these numbers will be utterly irrelevant except for HN talking points.
I would recommend spending public outrage about environmental concerns on areas where it really matters instead, such as e.g. food waste, plastic bags, energy efficiency etc. I'm pretty sure that even a tiny, tiny fraction improvement there would offset the environmental impact of the worldwide total of laptops that cannot or will not be repaired after they break down.