(tractors, cars, laptops, phones...etc.) and to sell spare parts at a reasonable price.
Some legislation has been passed in 16 states of the USA, but most of them are incomplete and still let manufacturers off the hook, when they don't provide parts and repair manuals.
Apple makes all kinds of IT products, but most of its profit comes from the iPhones, consisting of a generous margin on the hardware product, services and a considerable margin on the Apple App Store... long story short, Apple is an extremely profitable company and it's buying back its shares, paying dividends ...etc... absolutely no losses in the recent years.
Add to these purely financial reasons the fact that iPhones are built using standard electronics components, just like any other smartphones, there is no real world obstacle for Apple to provide parts for everyone... they just don't want to. A positive example is Samsung, as they have a reasonably priced parts store, where anyone can order parts on-line for almost any Samsung product, nice and easy....
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| http://www.samsungparts.com/Default.aspx |
Tesla makes electric cars, solar panels and stationary energy storage products, with advanced electronics (most of them unique) inside. Almost none of their parts are standard.
Tesla is also in startup mode, financially speaking, as they are still ramping up production. It seems the Model S and X production has stabilized at about 100.000 units per year, but they have about 600.000 preorders for the Model 3, out of which they delivered about 70-100K units... they currently make ~5000units/week, but they have to reach 10K/week by the end of the year.
They have at least 4 new exciting products to manufacture, Tesla Semi, Pickup, Model Y and Roadster, which will require some more serious investment ... long story short, until 2018Q3 they've been investing everything they could ... but they promised they'll be profitable by the end of the year.
So comparing Tesla to Apple, especially in financial terms (with Apples' estimated 300 billion dollars in cash) makes no sense at all. Apple is a mature company sitting on a huge cash pile and no upcoming revolutionary products, so they should definitely be forced to provide parts for their products, which fail quite frequently.
Tesla needs more time. In my opinion Tesla should be forced to provide most parts for the Model S and X, with certain exceptions of course, which can't be replaced by just anybody off the street (ex: battery pack, falcon wing doors, cameras and sensors...etc.). BUT for the Model 3 and upcoming Semi, Pickup, Model Y and Roadster they should be allowed to "do the best they can", as every manufactured part needs to go into new products, to do right by all the people on the list who preordered. When the preordered list gets shorter, 1-2 years after start of production, then they should in fact provide service manuals and (most) parts for any Tesla owner and repair shop.