New Delhi, Apr 11 (IANS): Apple on Thursday announced an enhancement to repair processes that will enable customers and independent repair providers to utilise “used Apple parts in repairs” for select iPhone models.

The new process, beginning this fall, is designed to maintain an iPhone user’s privacy, security, and safety, while offering consumers more options, increasing product longevity.

Apple said in a statement that used genuine parts will now benefit from the full functionality and security afforded by the original factory calibration, just like new genuine Apple parts.

“For the last two years, teams across Apple have been innovating on product design and manufacturing to support repairs with used Apple parts that won’t compromise users’ safety, security, or privacy,” said John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering.

Apple teams have been at work over the last two years to enable the reuse of parts such as biometric sensors used for Face ID or Touch ID.

Beginning this fall, calibration for genuine Apple parts, new or used, will happen on device after the part is installed, said the company.

Apple said it will also extend its popular Activation Lock feature to iPhone parts in order to deter stolen iPhones from being disassembled for parts.

This fall, Apple will expand Parts and Service History to additionally show whether a part is a new or used genuine Apple part.

“In the last five years, Apple has nearly doubled the number of service locations with access to genuine Apple parts, tools, and training to more than 10,000 Independent Repair Providers and Apple Authorised Service Providers,” said the company.