Originally Posted by
Tourist in MSN
I think it is simpler. For example phones, it is very hard to find a phone these days that has a user replaceable battery. Phone companies have figured out that if your battery goes bad in three years, instead of paying a shop to replace the battery you are more likely to replace the phone. And they hope that you will be a repeat (profitable)
Certainly, planned obsolescence is one of the factors in the lack of equipment with replaceable batteries. There are imperfect workarounds such as how some people use external battery packs. My comment was about wanting lights and other items powered by batteries to be able to accommodate different battery chemistries and the ability to charge or not charge the installed battery chemistry. For example, if a device used AAA batteries, you could install AAA NiMH batteries and use a charging cable to charge the installed cells. If you instead installed non rechargeable alkaline AAA batteries, the charging system would not attempt to charge them as that could cause accelerated leakage or other damage. I want flexibility of power sources and useful longevity, which the marketplace doesn't readily supply for a variety of reasons.
Phones are a special use case where the tight integration of the non replaceable battery has become ingrained in the design and engineering of virtually all smartphones, hence very few current model phones have replaceable battery packs. Further, those that do have replaceable battery packs cannot accomodate difference battery chemistries such as switching from Lithium to NiMH as an example.
Finally, while I usually carry a mobile phone, I relish leaving my phone behind or turned off and being immune to interruptions from a mobile device on my rides.