Buy from China.

I took the gamble because I had the money to spare and never looked back again.

The money I would pay for a set of glasses in my country goes easily over €300. With that amount, I can pay an ophthalmologist appointment, have my eyes checked by a doctor, properly, get the prescription, order two sets of glasses (one as a backup) and still have money to spare.

Unless a lot as changed, they do care.

Every single laptop and any prebuilt computer I find in the market comes pre installed with a Windows.

A good friend approached me to install a Linux on a brand new machine and just to make sure we called the customer support line, informing there was interest to return the windows license, as the software would not be used.

The reply we got was that by removing the software the warranty of the equipment would be null and void. The option was to ship the computer to their maintenance provider and have it removed, with costs presented at end for labour.

How is that?

As it is, that same argument was used by Apple to try to dodge from complying with the demand for having an industry standard for data and charge port/cable - the USB-C.

Planned obsolescence is a thing. Having law put in place to curb it is a good thing.

If you know you can buy something and you know that something will be repairable at least for a decade, it passes confidence to the end user.

Competition is welcome. Innovation as well. Legislation like this just means companies need to share standards and cooperate more and not aim to skin the client in an endless cycle of replacing expensive items that get thrown out before they are worn out.

Considering the serious move EU as made regarding right to repair and imposing that any equipment must be repairable and have parts for it for at least 10 years, this ia going to be another serious pain for this brand.

I’ve also read an article recently where it was reported that all cell phones circulating in the EU must have replaceable batteries. And from what I took from the article it was meant replaceable by the end user.

Serious anti obsolescence legislation.

This will hurt Apple again.