The short version is: "Wouldn't it be disruptive if Apple went back to replaceable batteries?" but the author stopped short of where that leads. One of the things that doable "now" that wasn't doable "then" is wireless charging. I love that I can put my phone on a pad next to the bed at night and it charges, pick it up and there is no trailing wire to unplug, put it down and there is no wire to find and plug in. This…
You'd still need some in-device battery to keep the phone from fully powering off every time you change the outside battery. I think people want their phones to not have to fully power off all the time.
Not going to happen. Battery life is good enough for 99% of people that they aren't going to want to swap batteries. Only nerds really did that in the first place.
Battery technology has improved so much that removable batteries are less desirable.
The short version is: "Wouldn't it be disruptive if Apple went back to replaceable batteries?" but the author stopped short of where that leads. One of the things that doable "now" that wasn't doable "then" is wireless charging. I love that I can put my phone on a pad next to the bed at night and it charges, pick it up and there is no trailing wire to unplug, put it down and there is no wire to find and plug in. This…
Wireless power is too inefficient for this to make sense. You’d be throwing 30% of the battery capacity to the wind
You could have low profile metal contacts between the battery case and the phone to achieve full efficiency.
The short version is: "Wouldn't it be disruptive if Apple went back to replaceable batteries?" but the author stopped short of where that leads. One of the things that doable "now" that wasn't doable "then" is wireless charging. I love that I can put my phone on a pad next to the bed at night and it charges, pick it up and there is no trailing wire to unplug, put it down and there is no wire to find and plug in. This…
You'd still need some in-device battery to keep the phone from fully powering off every time you change the outside battery. I think people want their phones to not have to fully power off all the time.
30min of standby capacity for an internal lil battery, external poptarts galore? I don't hate it.
It's kind of an interesting play because apple could make a super thin phone that has 30 min battery life and then a few different size pop tarts with different capacities. You want 3 days, get the mondo brick.
The future is batteries with more charge cycles, not replaceable batteries. The solid state battery people are claiming 10,000 charge/discharge cycles. If they can achieve that, it's 27 years of battery life. The case will wear out first.
Lithium ion batteries that can handle a thousand to several thousand charge cycles and only see 80% reduction in capacity have been available for ten years. My 2013 Macbook Pro has just such a battery, rated for 80% capacity after 1000 cycles, and it lasted over 6 years before the battery's internal resistance rose enough that heavy load would cause a brownout and the machine to force sleep. Yet they are not in wides…
> Solid state batteries with 10k charge/discharge cycles are never going to happen for the same reasons, which are identical to the same reason incandescent bulbs are purposefully manufactured by every single lightbulb manufacturer to fail when they figured out a hundred years ago how to make them last forever.
My first phone was NiCad Nokia. Later Nokia monochrome display phones used Li-ion well before smartphones. I use an iPhone now, but if a user-upgradeable Android phone came out with a solid-state battery, I would switch.
Of all the things I've ever wanted to be different on my macbook, removable batteries have never been one of them. Now when battery life exceeds a (long) working day, why on earth would anyone want this? The very few times you will be away from a wall socket for more than 12 hours, you can just bring a power bank.
Siracusa's simpering, consoomer defensiveness for Apple has become intolerable. He seems unable to deal with the fact that his precious company's business practices are incompatible with his political/enviromental beliefs. Instead concocting this 'blue ocean' dream that Apple will switch back to user serviceable batteries, creating a new market where there competitors don't dare tread. What? There are still plenty of…
> they don't sell as well because what the majority of users want is [...] I think in the current market we have no idea of what the majority of users want because there's no combination of all the available options. The majority of users might value iOS more than any specific hardware feature. Second to that, they might value price and career rebates. That makes fringe android phones failures irrelevant and would le…
Exactly. Just because a company sells something doesn't mean the majority of users want it that way. I would love for Apple to sell a laptop akin to the 2006 MacBook and MacBook Pro but with modern components, complete with removable batteries as well as user-upgradeable RAM and storage. It doesn't need to replace the existing Apple laptop lineup; it could supplement it (let's call it the MacBook Pro Max or the MacBook Extreme or something to that effect). Of course, Apple doesn't sell this product, and so I have to choose between two compromises: dealing with non-replaceable components so I could use macOS, or dealing with Windows or Linux so I could use something like a Framework laptop. In other words, I must choose between macOS or user-serviceable laptops, and unless Apple experiences noticeable declines in sales, this won't change; in fact, even PC laptops have largely moved toward the Apple model; even many ThinkPads have soldered RAM these days.
I used to feel like you - the non-removable battery thing was annoying, the non-modular flash was a deal breaker, etc. None of them turned out to matter, at all. What does matter is a solid feel and solid construction and the flash and batteries lasting the lifetime of the product. I'd rather have that than replaceable.
But the batteries dont last the lifetime of the product. Most iPhones are still very useful devices by the time their batteries have deteriorated below 70% original capacity.
iPhone batteries can be replaced for $89 from Apple and last for years. This is not the problem you think it is
I really enjoyed the first half talking about how Apple and Nintendo followed a blue ocean strategy. Then the second half ranting about removable batteries felt totally out of place. I’m not sure I buy the blue ocean strategy of that, although well written.
I agree. It made no sense after the excellent first half.
Apple has designed the Mac to become obsolete in approximately 10 years. That’s when you lose official OS support. And yes, you can get your battery serviced but nobody’s going to buy a $200 battery for a laptop worth $500. Adding it back wouldn’t be a blue ocean, it would just be Apple ceding profits to nobody.
Apple’s blue ocean is stacking ecosystem benefits. If you have an iPhone it makes more sense to own a Mac or an Apple Watch. If you own a Mac or Apple Watch it makes more sense to own AirPods. If you own AirPods it makes more sense to own an Apple TV.