Quote:
Originally Posted by Cyberman tM
My guess: Cost.
Simple as it may seem, the mechanism you describe is a lot more complex than "soldier two contacts, squirt a blob of glue, drop in battery, close case".
The screws may cost next to nothing. But people will buy it even so - in great quantities.
Lets say the whole battery compartment costs 20 cent per device (material, additional build time, additional equipment, storage of additional parts).
Not much in itself, but multiply it with the number of devices sold.
Now imagine you're a manager that can offer the higher ups a way to cut production cost by that amount.
That the device will be thrown away sooner rather than later is just the icing, if you ask me.
No need to conjour up the romantic image of a mustache twirling badguy.
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The question is, why can one phone have a user replacable battery and not the other. My Lumia 950XL for instance has a battery I can replace. It's not more expensive than the Iphone. My husband's Lumia has a battery he can replace. Apple won't even consider pricing something for that amount...
The only reason I can think of is your last remark: if the battery runs out, people will have to buy a new (expensive) device, instead of a cheap battery. So, instead of having to buy a new phone every year because the battery life has degraded so much, people will do several years with one phone.