Quote:
Originally Posted by CraftyDan
I agree it's all about money, but not in the way Poppaea proposes. It's not about service income, it's about sales income.
Having designed enclosures for "technical aids" before, I can say it's an engineering tradeoff between user requirements (size/features/speed/charge time).
To create a service panel that works reliably, one has to compartmentalize the area (you rarely see the guts of your cellphone or TV remote when you open the battery compartment). The space for the internal compartment walls and door come out of the space budgets for screen, mainboard, connectors, battery and buttons.
To put one in, you'll end up with a bulkier, less responsive, shorter life device -- but what do you gain? A high quality rechargeable battery's lifespan typically outlasts the device's expected lifespan. End users may like a battery compartment, but few will use it and very few weigh maintainability into their purchase decisions.
For the PRS series, dimensions and performance are optimized at the cost of user maintainability. In this case, to slip in a battery compartment would be an EXPENSIVE design feature. It may not drive up costs, but the loss in performance WILL drive down sales.
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Why? I have a 27 year old calculator, solar powered that works just file...no battery for instant on, so it takes a few seconds to "warm up". I don't mind. I have a Sony multiband portable receiver that's 26 years old. I don't load batteries into it (4 AA) unless I plan to use it on battery. (AC converter /charger works just fine in the house.)
So why should my gadget die before the battery? Shoddy engineering? Garbage parts? Or planned obsolesce? (Make you buy a new one every couple of years, more profit for the manufacturer.)
Drive down sales. Hmmm... Where's the Porshe/Mercedes/Rolls of gadgets? Pay more and get something that is flexible and long lasting, (user replaceable battery, storage, ect.) A small market perhaps, but with no one in it, a profitable one.