alt Hacker NewsI worry that this ends up, like other EU consumer-protection regulation, as an own goal.
- The cheapest phones available in the EU (and purchasable online) all have glued-in batteries, not swappable ones. Forcing consumers to use phones with swappable batteries may just mean that the bottom of the market disappears, and consumers will be left paying more for their phones. And would they rather pay less or have swappable batteries?
- This will cause some cascade of engineering changes, which will make phones thicker or less waterproof. Again, it's not clear to me that the tradeoff is being fairly reflected here.
Replies
... other EU consumer-protection regulation ...
like unified charging cable, free EU roaming or intercountry bank payments that are instant and almost free, air travel protections?
Not having cheap plastic junk that ends up as toxic landfill is a pro, not a con.
"Cheap" isn't enough, especially if it's cheap through externalizing cost.
It's replaceable with commercially available tools, it doesn't mean that you should be able to pop off the battery during the day at any point.
This doesn't restrict the design space that much at all.