After two years of trying – and some public pushing – iFixit ended its partnership with Samsung, citing the OEM’s lack of commitment.
“It’s with a heavy wrench that we have decided to end our partnership with Samsung,” iFixit said in a written statement. “Despite a huge amount of effort, Samsung’s approach to repairability does not align with our mission.”
Samsung didn’t return emailed requests for comment.
About two years ago, iFixit and Samsung announced they were partnering on a Repair Hub “with the goal of building an incredible, repair-friendly ecosystem,” iFixit’s statement said.
“We aimed to set the gold standard for repair documentation and empower local independent repair businesses with the tools and parts they needed to thrive, all while keeping Galaxy devices running,” the statement said. “Despite our best efforts, we have not been able to deliver on that promise.”
iFixit had called Samsung out a number of times over the years on other initiatives the two had partnered on. The repair advocacy organization said it has “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,” iFixit said. “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.”
The company acknowledged skepticism from the repair community when it announced the Samsung partnership, noting that “we’ve been through this with Samsung before.”
“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,” the organization said. “We won’t apologize for our initial optimism. Nor will we let one bad apple spoil the bunch.”
As of June 2024, iFixit will no longer be Samsung’s designated third-party parts and tools distributor. The organization said it will remove its current “miserly” quantity limit of seven Samsung parts per repair shop per quarter and will continue to sell parts and repair kits for Samsung devices, “sourcing OEM parts when available and clearly indicating whether parts are original or aftermarket,” as it does for other OEMs.
While no existing information will be removed from iFixit’s site, it will no longer collaborate with Samsung to develop new repair manuals.
“Though we are sad that Samsung isn’t coming along, we’re continuing our march into a more-repairable future,” the company statement said. “We’re shipping more parts to people all over the world, expanding awareness of third-party repair and proving to manufacturers of all stripes that repair is good business.”
Right-to-repair laws have passed in a handful of states, most recently in Colorado and Oregon, and iFixit said momentum is building even without OEM support.
“We’re pushing the envelope and pulling all the levers we can to make repair universal,” the statement concluded.
