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Liam – An Innovation Story

Apple · 5.5M views · 2016-03-21 · 1:04

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Overview

A short Apple promotional video about Liam, a robot that disassembles old iPhones so their materials can be recovered. It frames the robot as part of Apple's product life cycle and recycling story.

On Hacker News

Cited in repair and recycling threads as Apple's showcase of its iPhone disassembly robot, and sometimes mocked as marketing for what is really shredding.

Recommended by 1 HN people across 1 months · HN mentions 2016–2020

Topics

RoboticsRepair, teardowns & right to repairEnvironment, agriculture & food systems
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appleliamrecyclingright to repair

What people said

jxramos · 2017-09 · Recommendation

This article taught me about Liam [VIDEO] "It is also investing in technology that makes it easier to recycle its products, such as Liam, a robot for disassembling iPhones." Very cool!

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rasz · 2020-10 · Criticism

Yes, reselling is recycling. Apple redefines recycling to Will it blend [VIDEO] 100K devices back in the supply stream means Apple lost on at least $30Mil of pure profit.

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rasz · 2020-10 · Criticism

Its the other way around. Apple determined it was detrimental to their bottom line to repair and resell devices older than Iphone X. Devices with cracked screens, requiring battery/ charging port/ case/ button replacement, of fully working traded in [LINK] ones. What do you think happens to perfectly working iphone 8 plus worth ~$300 after its been traded in? Its not being resold [LINK] , it goes into a blender [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by Apple, played through YouTube.

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