What a strong argument, so people can’t criticise a company decisions even though they like some things about their products.
News flash, all companies suck in one way or another.
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Apple Makes iPhone 16 Batteries Easier to Replace to Comply With EU Law
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News flash, all companies suck in one way or another.
Absolutely nonsense compare iPhone X to the latest iPhone 16 Pro Max and see how far we’ve come.
They should demand the same for the screen.
A cracked screen and/or bad battery are probably the biggest reasons many get a new phone.
Making those easily replaceable would prolong their service life and get rid of thousands of tons of electronic waste.
A cracked screen and/or bad battery are probably the biggest reasons many get a new phone.
Making those easily replaceable would prolong their service life and get rid of thousands of tons of electronic waste.
LOL ethical? What’s ethical about it? It’s something only a tiny fraction of users will ever bother with. Why should Apple (or any company) be forced to compromise other features to make a rarely used one more common?
No it’s not, because now I can’t choose a phone that has better design for the features I DO care about like durability, etc. in favor of a feature I don’t (being able to replace the battery myself).
Here’s what the EU (and any government) should regulate:
1. Is the device dangerous?
2. Does the device operate as advertised
3. What cell frequencies the device can use
Here’s what they shouldn’t:
1. The connector the device uses
2. The features the device includes
3. The internal design of the device (except related to “is it dangerous”
If enough consumers want easily replaceable batteries then someone will build a phone that prioritizes that.
False conclusion.
We don’t know what would have happened had the EU stopped playing product designer.
We might have gotten even bigger batteries and even better thermals. The phone might have been more durable or more waterproof or cost less.
Engineering requires tradeoffs. Unfortunately with imposed limitations that means Apple et. al. have less room to make those tradeoffs and no matter whether they or customers actually want what the EU is pushing we ALL suffer as a result.
You know why those don’t exist anymore? Because almost no one cared. The vast majority of people prefer more durable, more water resistant devices. Only a tiny fraction of people like you care about swapping batteries on a regular basis. Why should Apple et. al. be forced to design inferior devices for a tiny minority at the expense of the needs and interests of the overwhelming majority?
I don’t want a flimsy phone with a removable back. Hopefully Apple never is forced to make such a terrible device.
As long as they don’t have a monopoly then yes, they should. If people don’t like it they will buy from competitors who don’t have those policies.
And? Lightning is superior to USB-C in everything except data transfer speed. It’s smaller, more durable, has a more secure physical connection, is easier to waterproof, and I already have plenty of cables. Given that I NEVER use USB for data transfer in my iPhone there’s literal no advantage for me to forcing Apple to use it.
And now if someone wants to make something better than USB-C they can’t. The EU has stuck everyone with USB-C for who knows how long.
LOL, Apple doesn’t control me and I am not fooled. I use their devices by choice. They do what I want better than the competition. If that wasn’t true I’d use Android or Windows or whatever.
Rational people use the devices that they prefer, whether it’s Apple or Android.
Irrational people like you assume no one who disagrees with you has any reason for what they do because you can’t comprehend that you aren’t the center of the universe and not everyone is like you. Hint: you aren’t.
If you only used iphones then unlike many of the rest of us who have used non iphones you have no idea how great it was to easily swap/replace your battery and it was so much cheaper to do so. You make it sound like the majority of people use iphones, when in fact the great majority of the world use Android phones and don't care about going swimming with our phones lol. Apple doesn't do this for us, they do it to increase their profits.
If Apple was ever forced to make their phones with removable backs I am pretty confident that you would be praising them for doing so since you blindly defend whatever they do.
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FUD
even bigger batteries and even better thermals aren’t some engineering miracle - Samsung does it.
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Then why complain? They're going to do things how they want regardless. They don't care about you or your opinion.
That is a false dichotomy, though. The combination of easily replaceable battery, durability and water resistance was already a solved problem well before before phones largely moved to integrated batteries, and that combination of features has stayed around on the market for rugged, industrial phones. Apple pioneered the non-replaceable phone battery, because it benefited Apple - the first iPhone generations were not water resistant nor particularly rugged. There was no consumer advantage to the battery being non-removable, consumers accepted this drawback because the iPhone's advantages outweighed this issue. Other manufacturers saw that it was possible to get away with non-removable batteries, so they increasingly switched to this design for their otherwise more advanced models, leaving the replaceable battery to the generally less attractive budget class of phones.
Well, you mentioned safety. Phone batteries are volatile components with limited lifespans. Eventually they often swell, increasing the risk of breaking the surrounding device, of battery puncture and fire. Making the battery difficult to remove endangers the users and, less dramatically, the devices. It also endangers the recycling chain, because when users cannot easily separate battery and device, phones are bound to end up in the trash with their batteries still inside. Discarded Li-ion batteries are a major cause for fires in waste management vehicles and facilities. Living in the EU, I hope we will eventually have a solid ban on integrated batteries with no loopholes.
Dangerous for who? For the user? For the others?
Because if it only for the user, I wish a 5 ton cars, using jet engine to go to work. Why not? It is not dangerous for me, operates as advertised... but if you say that this car could be dangerous for the others, in the "others" we add even the environment.
Earth resources are not unlimited, are not only for who has the power to buy them. They are for everybody, and especially for the next generations.
For this reason, to reduce our footprint, same easy rules have been created: replaceable batteries, so we don't need to trash a phone just because the battery isn't good enough...
I'm sure you understood this concept, so please, stop defending big companies...
Tomorrow, if a$$le needed more money, they could squeeze you by creating a new standard and "your being plenty of cables" become unusable.
If you remember, before that light cable, a$$le used another standard...
Isn't waterproof? You'll pay a little more attention to your stuff, like everybody else on the planet is already doing.
Believe me: USB-C is here to protect you from being squeezed like a lemon.
unless you can get bad actors to comply, restricting the inevitable is ridiculously dumb. it's far better to allow the good guys research as fast as the bad guys.
again, talking about those who are getting it. "All those people" does not include the incompatible users.
And power throughput. So, basically, it’s better at the main things a port needs to be good at and not meaningfully worse in the other areas.
If Apple had put any effort at all into keeping lightning current then maybe you’d have a point, but they didn’t.
Because the industry understood they can make more money forcing you to replace a full phone instead of a single battery.
You are absolutely correct.
Well that'a a hot take. Good thing governments around the world don't agree with you. Let's not forget teh scondary markets too- so I am forced to take my car to Audi- but for how long? What if they decide to quit supporting it, or unilaterally raise the repair prices? Where is the fairness/competition in that?
Who own's the product(s)? The consumer or the company?
Apple is already being sued in many international jurisdictions for monopolistic/anticompetitive behavior (app store, interoperability of other devices, the "apple tax". Forcing consumers to use their authorized repair centers is just another reason they are being taken to the woodshed
Exactly- the two things most people use a cable for. Also, I've never broken a USB-C cable, but I've seen and had to remove several lightning cables stuck in folks phones that were broken off.
Also, let's not forget - Apple didn't move from 30 pin to lightning out of the goodness of their heart. Cables were a big money making avenue for Apple and forcing people to use their products is nothing new for them. I seem to recall that when they quit including cables with phones it saved them ~$5B-$6B in profitability.
I've never had either break, but the fact that Apple chose to put USB C on its laptops way back in 2016 should be indication enough that they think it's a good connector (and they should, they helped to design it).
They still include cables with the phones, it's the charging bricks they leave out.
I didn’t read the article (too long) so I might be off, but I thought the thermal redesign was due to iPhone 15 overheating, and Apple already occasionally increases battery size. So I don’t think those two can be attributed as a result of EU regulation with confidence.