The back door already exist.

Apple can already remove the lock, they just don't do it for enterprise machines

This isn't even an instance where information security is a concern, the drives are already wiped. This is to complete the factory reset and establish a new user.

And to get ahead of your "but what if its a stolen laptop" Apple already confirms the machine hasn't been stolen before unlocking them for non enterprise machines.

Apple will remove activation lock on a second hand machine with a proof of purchase, but they will explicitly refuse to do it if the computer uses Apple MDM (a feature only used by enterprise) even if you can demonstrate you lawfully received the machines from the company.

Hell, I'm sure these refurbishers would even be willing to pay $20 a machine to get it done. This isn't about protecting users, it's about controlling the volume of second hand MacBooks in the market

I don't hate Apple, i actually believe the Apple silicon laptops are the best consumer class laptops on the market.

They are well priced, incredibly built, and have great screens. They are wonderful machines for browsing, office productivity, coding, & video/photo editing. A windows laptop of comparable quality will cost way more and they absolutely stomp everything in their price class.

That being said, I abhor Apple's tendency for being anti repair, anti consumer, greenwashed marketing and building closed ecosystems. If they would support Vulcan, support RCS, and just be more respectful of their users right to own the things they buy, I dare say I would be a fan

Yeah I definitely misspoke, that said dropping the adapter when they did was even more anti consumer than I let on because they also switched to including the USB C to Lightening at the same time. Most apple users would need a new adapter to use the included cable completely undermining their environmental excuse for eliminating the adapter in the first place.

Not for Apple, more M1 Macbooks in landfills means more new M2 MacBooks sold.

But hey, at least Apple is concerned about lightning cable adapters ending up in the landfill & conveniently stopped include one in every new iphone sold /s

Edit- slight correction, it was the wall adapter they stopped including, right when they switched to USB c ends on the cables and most users would want a new adapter

https://9to5mac.com/2023/01/27/2020-macs-landfill/

The long short is that enterprises cycle through their machines every 2 to 3 year and dump their old machines to refurbishers. The companies however don't go through the effort to wipe them properly resulting in an Activation Lock effectively bricking otherwise functional machines.

The companies aren't interested in unlocking hundreds machines one at a time and Apple provides no avenue for resellers to fix the issue themselves

Hopefully this will lead to less M1 Macs ending up in landfills.