Among the many changes, the new rules would require batteries in consumer devices like smartphones to be easily removable and replaceable. That’s far from the case today…
Among the many changes, the new rules would require batteries in consumer devices like smartphones to be easily removable and replaceable. That’s far from the case today…
As someone who tends to hang onto my phone for ages, I like being able to get replacement batteries… but I wish they would just take everything fairphone does (removable battery + lineage + and especially right-to-repair stuff) and base new standards on that.
OTOH, I also believe that would not be impossible to engineer a phone that could be taken apart where you could have replacement parts for both the battery and seals (e.g. while many companies currently frame things as “removable batteries OR water resistance”, I see no technology reasons why BOTH couldn’t exist in the same device) … There just hasn’t been a big push for businesses to develop something like that bc everyone buys their products without them needing to put that much effort into it.
If companies stopped auto-voiding warranties over users opening a phone and stopped treating everyone as incapable of doing their own repairs, I could totally see user-replaceable seals being a thing. You can basically look at other markets that do have right-to-repair. Sure, replacing seals on a phone might be a bit much for grandma. But grandma is also probably going to call either a repair shop or someone in the family who is good with it. Really not much different than upgrading laptop ram/hdd or doing your own plumbing or changing the oil on a car today… pretty damn easy if you know what you’re doing, but not something everyone is going to know how to or want to do.
When Samsung and Apple are seemingly incapable of producing repairable devices while Fairphone comes out of nowhere and are doing it just fine, it’s not a question of it being difficult. It’s a question of it being profitable. If Fairphone managed to make a repairable device, Apple or Samsung would have managed to create one that is both fully waterproof and repairable if they considered it a priority.
From the view of the industry, the logic is that “if you’re not going to have your phone break down in heavy rain, at least make sure you’ll have to replace it in three years because the battery starts sucking”. There’s absolutely no incentive to make a product that will actually last.
If people were buying the Fairphone there would be lots of incentive. But people just like to talk about how they care about the environment, human rights, etc. And then go buy the new iPhone.