g_mac_man

dewme said:

I hope that we are part of the last generation of consumers that have to live with the reality that all of our devices with embedded batteries that are destined to die, sometimes in the most horrific way, long before we are done consuming the utility of the devices. I'm a big fan of Apple design, but I also cringe when yet another one of my Apple devices swells up like a bloated corpse due to a failing non-user-replaceable lithium-ion battery. I totally understand the compromises to product design and release velocity that would occur if Apple (and all other device vendors) had to design their battery powered products around a set of standard user-replaceable battery formats in easy-to-access slots or compartments.

On the other hand, all device makers are really pulling a fast one on consumers by making their design problem our ROI problem. We are the ones that have to deal with the fact that all of these devices are living on borrowed time and that if we attempt to replace the non-standard encapsulated batteries in our aesthetically pleasing gadgets by ourselves we may burn down our homes in the process. This isn't an issue exclusive to Apple, it is a case of consumers having no say in determining how the utility and lifetime of the products that they buy is factored into the design equation. Nobody is looking out for us and we're paying the price associated with the short term, make a quick buck, damn the landfill volume mindset that pervades the entire consumer electronics market.

I appreciate that Apple is providing tools to let you know when your device is going to fail due to battery failure, but why can't they build products that allow the consumer to handle this wear-out issue in the same way they handle changing a light bulb in their home? Yeah, we are kind of getting screwed on this deal, but I guess that's what powers progress and elevates quarterly results.