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"There is no magic solution here." You gonna want to sit down for this one: a standardized battery that can be replaced by the user without having to disassemb

"There is no magic solution here." You gonna want to sit down for this one: a standardized battery that can be replaced by the user without having to disassemble the device, maybe through a removable back cover or something like that.

zepto 7y ago
Have you heard of the concept of a trade-off?
- seemslegit 7y ago
  Sure, in this case the tradeoff is between something that is valuable for the user (replaceable commodity battery, ability to completely power-off the phone) and something that is valuable for the vendor (obsolescence driver, always powered because reasons).
  - zepto 7y ago
    Can you not imagine that there are consumer benefits to a non-replaceable battery? Benefits that consumers may be choosing?
    - seemslegit 7y ago
      Imagine yes, believe that this is in fact the case - not so much. If only because they do not in fact have the ability to choose on this.
      - zepto 7y ago
        They had the ability to choose for a long time while Samsung attempted to compete on this feature. Consumers overwhelmingly opted for phones without replaceable batteries, which is why they stopped being made.
        seemslegit 7y ago
        Did they ? Afaik there was never a product line with comparable specs and price points that had a builtin battery and a replaceable variant. Samsung never competed on a battery design - in the galaxy/iphone competition the battery is probably the least relevant differentiator. There is arguably a legitimate user tradeoff here - a builtin battery can provide more capacity for a phone of the same size, but it doesn't mean the users got to make it.
        zepto 7y ago
        Not just capacity - robustness. No of course there were no identical products only differing by whether the battery was replaceable. But that is irrelevant. If it was important to people, phones without replaceable batteries would have been slower to sell and manufacturers would have adapted. Samsung threw hundreds of designs against the wall looking for an edge, and they all failed except for the ones closest to the iPhone in design or bigger than the iPhone. Customers did have a preference for larger phones, which Apple was forced by the market to concede, but not for replaceable batteries.

zepto 7y ago

Have you heard of the concept of a trade-off?

seemslegit 7y ago
Sure, in this case the tradeoff is between something that is valuable for the user (replaceable commodity battery, ability to completely power-off the phone) and something that is valuable for the vendor (obsolescence driver, always powered because reasons).
- zepto 7y ago
  Can you not imagine that there are consumer benefits to a non-replaceable battery? Benefits that consumers may be choosing?
  - seemslegit 7y ago
    Imagine yes, believe that this is in fact the case - not so much. If only because they do not in fact have the ability to choose on this.
    - zepto 7y ago
      They had the ability to choose for a long time while Samsung attempted to compete on this feature. Consumers overwhelmingly opted for phones without replaceable batteries, which is why they stopped being made.
      - seemslegit 7y ago
        Did they ? Afaik there was never a product line with comparable specs and price points that had a builtin battery and a replaceable variant. Samsung never competed on a battery design - in the galaxy/iphone competition the battery is probably the least relevant differentiator. There is arguably a legitimate user tradeoff here - a builtin battery can provide more capacity for a phone of the same size, but it doesn't mean the users got to make it.
        zepto 7y ago
        Not just capacity - robustness. No of course there were no identical products only differing by whether the battery was replaceable. But that is irrelevant. If it was important to people, phones without replaceable batteries would have been slower to sell and manufacturers would have adapted. Samsung threw hundreds of designs against the wall looking for an edge, and they all failed except for the ones closest to the iPhone in design or bigger than the iPhone. Customers did have a preference for larger phones, which Apple was forced by the market to concede, but not for replaceable batteries.