Why no simple battery replacement......

[Pinecone]

Actually a fully discharged lithium polymer battery is not hazardous. But a charged one is.

When discharged, there are no reactive elements present, they are bound as salts.

[CommonReader]

You seem to have missed that the service manual for the PRS-650 is even available on mobileread.

[adbosch]

Couldn't they hide a solar or light-sensitive charging thingy behind the screen? So we would hardly ever have to actively charge our low-power consuming readers?

[elcreative]

They may not be intrinsically hazardous but they are legally classed as hazardous/toxic waste in the EU and require special disposal... or to be well hidden in your usual rubbish...

Originally Posted by Pinecone

Actually a fully discharged lithium polymer battery is not hazardous. But a charged one is.

When discharged, there are no reactive elements present, they are bound as salts.

[Greg Anos]

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.

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.

[CraftyDan]

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

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.

Quaint idea, but the problem with that market is there's no one in it.

There are no manufacturers aren't in it because there are no customers in it.

This market you dream of, like fine art, wines, horses, boats, and villas, is a patron market. For a patron market to exist, you need patrons. Unless you have the more-money-than-sense kind of cash lying around, you're with me -- not a patron.

The fact is very few markets select on longevity or maintainability -- in many cases, this includes even the patron markets. The PRS/Kindle/Nook readers exist in a market that doesn't (and the point of the OP).

While I appreciate your calculator and receiver are still alive, The expectation that "my ereader will still be going strong after 26 years" is meaningless with the march of a technology that is only a few years old with many capabilities yet unexplored. Longevity has no solid measure or relevance in most purchasing decisions. This is nothing new to the modern technology.

As a consumer you're free to complain about it, but until enough cash or groundswell changes what is or is not "valued" in a market, the engineering requirements will not change.

Alternatively you could fund you're own cadre of engineers and manufacturers to build your dream device, however be prepared to wait a long time for an out-dated technology with an astronomical the unit price that will last nearly forever.

[carpetmojo]

Like replacing the internal combustion thingie..................