6 ms·

Cool. The manufacturers will figure out a way to make nice phones with a longer lifetime. Because the EU forces them to.

Simulacra 3y ago
I wish you were right but I have zero faith that Apple would ever willingly follow through with this. A depleted battery is an opportunity for them to sell people on a new phone who don't realize they can get the battery replaced. It also totally goes against their whole ethos of non-repair. Mandating USB C was easier because Apple already did that with the Macbooks, so it wasn't that big of a leap. Removable batteries, however, they would claim would require some expensive, impossible redesign. Regretfully I don't see this coming to fruition. Apple will find a way, by hook, crook, or lawsuit, to get out of it.
- dotnet00 3y ago
  Alternatively, it'll be another excuse for them to claim to revolutionize computing to cheers by bringing back the old replaceable battery with some more proprietary stuff and carefully hidden statements about the water resistance not working afterwards.
- malermeister 3y ago
  The same Apple that is prepping to open up to sideloading right now?
  - Simulacra 3y ago
    From your lips to God's ears...
- arlcode 3y ago
  Not so long ago some people claimed apple would rather leave the EU market than implement USB-C or open up the app store. They complied (or are in the process of complying) with these regulations. Afaik the proposed battery act allows either swappable batteries or a minimum "lifetime".
  - seszett 3y ago
    > Not so long ago some people claimed apple would rather leave the EU market than implement USB-C or open up the app store It's just a case of Americans underestimating the size of the EU market. But the large corporations that already do business in the EU know very well that they can't leave a market that represents half of their revenue.
refurb 3y ago
Or they just create one phone for the EU market and don't market the rest?
- malermeister 3y ago
  That just doesn't happen because you lose economy of scale. The EU actually has a ton of soft power through this, enough for it to be a term in geopolitics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brussels_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brussels_effect
  - refurb 3y ago
    Europe is about 20% of Apple sales internationally. It's not that much power. https://www.statista.com/statistics/382175/quarterly-revenue-of-apple-by-geograhical-region/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/382175/quarterly-revenue...
    - malermeister 3y ago
      I don't think many companies would be able to take a 20% overnight drop in sales without it causing some major issues.
      - refurb 3y ago
        But the adjustment is not without cost itself. Is the cost of a complete redesign > lost sales in EU? Then don't do the redesign.
        malermeister 3y ago
        The redesign is a one-time cost. Lost sales in the EU will be ongoing until it happens.
        refurb 3y ago
        That's true, but a new product line has on-going update costs and warranty support costs as well.
alex7734 3y ago
Engineers have become experts in selecting components so that they fail right after the warranty period. Replaceable batteries just means they will make something else weaker instead, preferably something that fries the device once it fails (see https://youtu.be/7cNg_ifibCQ?t=238 https://youtu.be/7cNg_ifibCQ?t=238). It's too dangerous not to, as nowadays phones (or computers in general) don't really need to be upgraded that often to remain useful. No manufacturer wants a repeat of the 1080Ti.
- phyllistine 3y ago
  > No manufacturer wants a repeat of the 1080Ti I think I'm out of the loop. What does this mean?
  - alex7734 3y ago
    It's too good, as long as you don't need 4k, it still runs the newest games at full quality with more than acceptable performance. It has 11GB VRAM. And it's a 6 year old GPU.
  - fnimick 3y ago
    NVidia made a video card good enough that people who bought it had no need to upgrade for 4-5 years afterward. It hampered sales of cards for two generations afterward.
- marcosdumay 3y ago
  Wow, Apple engineering a computer to fail destroying all the data after the guarantee and lying to their customers why their computers failed is pretty damning. Did anything come out of this?
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]

Simulacra 3y ago

I wish you were right but I have zero faith that Apple would ever willingly follow through with this. A depleted battery is an opportunity for them to sell people on a new phone who don't realize they can get the battery replaced. It also totally goes against their whole ethos of non-repair. Mandating USB C was easier because Apple already did that with the Macbooks, so it wasn't that big of a leap. Removable batteries, however, they would claim would require some expensive, impossible redesign. Regretfully I don't see this coming to fruition. Apple will find a way, by hook, crook, or lawsuit, to get out of it.

dotnet00 3y ago
Alternatively, it'll be another excuse for them to claim to revolutionize computing to cheers by bringing back the old replaceable battery with some more proprietary stuff and carefully hidden statements about the water resistance not working afterwards.
malermeister 3y ago
The same Apple that is prepping to open up to sideloading right now?
- Simulacra 3y ago
  From your lips to God's ears...
arlcode 3y ago
Not so long ago some people claimed apple would rather leave the EU market than implement USB-C or open up the app store. They complied (or are in the process of complying) with these regulations. Afaik the proposed battery act allows either swappable batteries or a minimum "lifetime".
- seszett 3y ago
  > Not so long ago some people claimed apple would rather leave the EU market than implement USB-C or open up the app store It's just a case of Americans underestimating the size of the EU market. But the large corporations that already do business in the EU know very well that they can't leave a market that represents half of their revenue.

refurb 3y ago

Or they just create one phone for the EU market and don't market the rest?

malermeister 3y ago
That just doesn't happen because you lose economy of scale. The EU actually has a ton of soft power through this, enough for it to be a term in geopolitics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brussels_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brussels_effect
- refurb 3y ago
  Europe is about 20% of Apple sales internationally. It's not that much power. https://www.statista.com/statistics/382175/quarterly-revenue-of-apple-by-geograhical-region/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/382175/quarterly-revenue...
  - malermeister 3y ago
    I don't think many companies would be able to take a 20% overnight drop in sales without it causing some major issues.
    - refurb 3y ago
      But the adjustment is not without cost itself. Is the cost of a complete redesign > lost sales in EU? Then don't do the redesign.
      - malermeister 3y ago
        The redesign is a one-time cost. Lost sales in the EU will be ongoing until it happens.
        refurb 3y ago
        That's true, but a new product line has on-going update costs and warranty support costs as well.

alex7734 3y ago

Engineers have become experts in selecting components so that they fail right after the warranty period. Replaceable batteries just means they will make something else weaker instead, preferably something that fries the device once it fails (see https://youtu.be/7cNg_ifibCQ?t=238 https://youtu.be/7cNg_ifibCQ?t=238). It's too dangerous not to, as nowadays phones (or computers in general) don't really need to be upgraded that often to remain useful. No manufacturer wants a repeat of the 1080Ti.

phyllistine 3y ago
> No manufacturer wants a repeat of the 1080Ti I think I'm out of the loop. What does this mean?
- alex7734 3y ago
  It's too good, as long as you don't need 4k, it still runs the newest games at full quality with more than acceptable performance. It has 11GB VRAM. And it's a 6 year old GPU.
- fnimick 3y ago
  NVidia made a video card good enough that people who bought it had no need to upgrade for 4-5 years afterward. It hampered sales of cards for two generations afterward.
marcosdumay 3y ago
Wow, Apple engineering a computer to fail destroying all the data after the guarantee and lying to their customers why their computers failed is pretty damning. Did anything come out of this?
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]