Quote:
Originally Posted by ZodWallop
It's called planned obsolescence. I couldn't say for sure that a non-user replaceable battery was designed with that in mind (my guess would be that it shaves a few pennies off their costs), I'm sure they don't mind the side benefit. |
I'm sure they didn't overlook the fact that it might generate a few more sales a few years down the road but I doubt that's a major factor in a decision to have a built-in battery. I'm guessing that savings, as you suggest, and making the device thinner and lighter, were the deciding factors.
This isn't really a major issue for most devices since most are fairly useless by the time the battery wears out anyway. I used to hate that my tablets didn't have replaceable batteries but after using tablets a few years I realized that long before the batteries go the apps get updated so that they won't run well on older hardware. It's pretty rare for a tablet to be useful 3 years later. Batteries last longer than that in most cases.
But there are some devices where that's just not true and ereaders fall into that group. So do MP3 players. Maybe cameras as well. And it's really nice to be able to carry a spare battery when you might need it.
Barry