Got To Glow

Updated September 2026: the original version said genuine Apple parts are impossible to get outside Apple. That was already wrong when I wrote it, and it is corrected below.

Most advice about buying an Apple device is about the buying. Which model, how much storage, is this the year to upgrade. That part is easy and everyone covers it.

The part that decides what the device really costs you is what happens the day it breaks. That is where an iPhone or a MacBook is genuinely different from the alternatives, and it is worth understanding before you pay rather than after.

Accidental damage is not a warranty matter

Apple's standard one-year limited warranty covers manufacturing defects. It does not cover a cracked screen, a drop, or liquid. Neither does Indian consumer law, which protects you against goods that are faulty, not against goods you dropped.

So a cracked display is an out-of-warranty repair at out-of-warranty prices, and on recent iPhones and MacBooks that price is a meaningful fraction of the device. Check the figure for the exact model you are considering on Apple's own service pages before you buy. Apple publishes them, they change by model and region, and a number from a blog post is a number you should not trust.

AppleCare+ is insurance, so treat it like insurance

AppleCare+ extends the cover and adds accidental damage repairs for a service fee per incident. Whether it is worth it is not a matter of opinion, it is a sum.

Compare the plan cost plus the likely service fee against the out-of-warranty repair price for the screen, which is the thing that actually breaks. If you have cracked a phone before, buy it. If you have carried the same phone for four years without a mark and it lives in a case, you are probably better off keeping the money.

One thing people miss. AppleCare+ has to be bought within a limited window after the device, so the decision is made at purchase whether you think about it or not.

The correction: genuine parts are available to independent shops

I originally wrote that Apple keeps genuine parts out of the open market, so any third-party repair means counterfeit components. The first half is roughly true of walk-in spare part shops. The second half is not true, and repeating it does readers a disservice.

Apple runs an Independent Repair Provider programme, which it expanded globally in 2021, India included. A shop in the programme buys the same genuine parts, tools and diagnostics that Apple Authorised Service Providers use. It is not an Apple store and it does not have to price like one.

So there are three tiers, not two. Apple and authorised providers, independent repair providers with genuine parts, and everyone else. The third tier is where the salvaged displays and mystery batteries live.

Before handing over a device, ask the shop directly whether they are in Apple's Independent Repair Provider or Authorised Service Provider programme, and check the result against Apple's own verification page. It takes two minutes and it is the whole difference between a repair that holds its value and one that quietly doesn't.

What India still does not get

Apple's Self Service Repair programme, which sells parts, manuals and tool rental directly to owners who want to do the work themselves, runs in a few dozen countries. India is not one of them, several years after launch and despite India being one of Apple's growth markets and a place with a deep repair culture.

That matters more here than it would elsewhere. The practical effect is that the DIY tier available to an owner in Germany is not available to an owner in Chennai, so your options are an authorised repair, an independent one, or an unauthorised one.

Parts pairing, and why it is the thing to watch

Modern Apple devices check which parts are fitted. Swap a screen or a battery for a genuine one that came from another device and the phone may warn you about it, or a feature tied to that part may stop working. Apple has loosened this over time and added a repair assistant flow for calibrating used genuine parts, which is real progress.

Still, the direction of travel is that the device has an opinion about who repaired it. When you buy, you are buying into that. Some people are fine with it because it stops counterfeit parts being passed off as genuine. Others find it unreasonable on hardware they own outright. Both positions are defensible. Mine is that the verification is fair and the lack of a Self Service Repair option in India is not.

What I would do

Decide at purchase how you will handle a broken screen, because that decision is cheapest to make before it happens. Either buy AppleCare+, or accept the out-of-warranty price and put it aside mentally.

Find your nearest genuine-parts repair option before you need it. Verify it. Keep the name somewhere you will find it when the phone is in two pieces and you are not thinking clearly.

And keep your data somewhere that survives the device, which is a separate discipline entirely and is covered in this post on backups. A phone repair is an inconvenience. A phone repair with no backup is a loss. My own experience of an ageing Mac giving up is in this account.