Apple says iPhones can now be repaired at any Best Buy store in the United States.

(Reuters) – Apple Inc. and Best Buy Co Inc. announced on Wednesday the creation of a partnership that will allow technicians from the Minneapolis-based retailer to repair iPhones in all US Best Buy stores.

The agreement between the two companies will cover all 992 Best Buy stores in the United States, compared to about 225 previously. In addition, 7,600 Best Buy Geek Squad technicians are now licensed to perform repairs and use parts directly from Apple.

Apple is also repairing its stores, but there are several US states – including Vermont, West Virginia, Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming – without an Apple Store.

Apple has indicated that its US network has 1,800 third-party repair service providers, three times more than three years ago and enough to place eight of its ten customers in the US within 20 minutes. car of a repair authorized. center.

In the past, Apple has been criticized by groups who claim that the iPhone maker has made its devices too difficult to repair by refusing to make Apple parts available to independent repair shops.

Apple has also lobbied against a number of attempts to enact the right to repair laws in several states, which would force the company to provide the necessary parts and information for that purpose.

Apple executives told Reuters that the company was seeking to guarantee the quality of the repairs.

"We strive to meet the same standard as when the customer bought the product," Brian Naumann, senior director of service operations at Apple, told Reuters in 2017, when Apple made Best Buy the first entity outside Apple to receive a secret machine to repair cracked iPhone screens.

Keeping the 900 million iPhones in the world in service has become more important than ever for Apple, which is now switching to a service company that is trying to persuade its customers to subscribe to paid offers such as Apple Music and iCloud.

The updates of the operating system of the iPhone for two years aim to make it faster on older devices. Last February, CEO Tim Cook surprised Wall Street analysts by stating that he viewed the booming iPhone resale market as "incredibly positive".