I think the problem is that how the upgrade to ios9 has rendered previously working devices into a brick without warning. Having had a quick scan on their forums there are some claiming never to have had any repairs, or those who have replaced cracked screens.
I know my SIL has had a few cracked phone screens in her time, and I know that my bro has had them repaired elsewhere. Despite the fact that he lives in near locality to an Apple store. There are many who dont. For me it would be the best part of a day to visit an Apple store to get a cracked screen repair. I can understand why people opt for a much cheaper and quicker local solution.
I'm not sure about the car analogy as I thought car manufacturers could not insist that repairs and servicing were carried out by them. If someone bumped into your car and you had the bonnet or windscreen replaced elsewhere, then that does not later make the whole car impossible to drive and render it an expensive decoration to sit on your driveway.
I can see exactly why they have done so. Their customers could be exposed to all sorts of fraud if a 'malicious' home button were substituted for the real item. But worth being aware, you must now resist the temptation for cheap repairs if you drop your phone.
Yes fair enough, but it appears to be affecting not just the home button repair. Apple should perhaps give people an option to back out. As you know the enforced upgrades with no going back is one reason why I am unhappy with Apple due to what it did to my ipad. The other moan I have about Apple is the silly stupid prices they do charge for repairs and addons. There should be some sort of backup for those who have already undertaken an unauthorised repair, and not leaving them with a paperweight unable to access data.
What about those who havent had any repairs and also found themselves with a totally useless phone with all your data gone -
link.
The iPhone 6 Plus in question had never been taken apart, damaged, or otherwise compromised, and the mystery surrounding why it and others like it had been hit with Error 53 remains.
Tough luck if your phone is over a year old and you have no option but to buy another phone, its particularly not good when most phone contracts are for 2 years. Its fair enough if you drop it and break the screen, then that is your fault.. but disabling a phone through an iOS upgrade is not on.