The Reason Why Apple Uses Integrated Battery Designs

[ben850]

I have never needed to replace a battery in ANY of my cell phones. Most people don't even keep them long enough to the point where they require a fresh battery.

 

[Guest]

didn't read the article, as i don't care... but i'll believe you all the same. however, "The Reason Apple Uses Integrated Battery Designs" both sounds and is, grammatically speaking, better... be well.

 

[turbotong]

They patented the concept of an internal battery...?
US really needs to fund the USPTO so that they can pay for some real examiners...

 

[A Bad Day]

[citation][nom]ben850[/nom]I have never needed to replace a battery in ANY of my cell phones. Most people don't even keep them long enough to the point where they require a fresh battery.[/citation]
Ever used laptops or cellphones for more than six months?

Ever used them frequently without it being plugged?

You'll quickly realized how fast the batteries wear down. I got a laptop next to me that's no longer truly portable because of how deteriorated the battery is. I also have a six years old cellphone that has at most 40 minutes of call time before the battery runs down, used to be around 3 hours.


I buy a product and I expect it to be maintainable by the user. If I'm locked out of maintaining my own stuff, then it's a no-purchase for me.

 

[Guest]

I don't know about the iPhones, but the guts of the unibody MBPs are actually easier to access than the old models with removable batteries. Unscrew the phillips-head screws along the underside edge, remove the bottom plate, and you have easy access to the battery, optical drive, memory and hard drive. I can vouch for their batteries' durability, too. After two years and 92 cycles, my MBP still lasts for 6+ hours on a charge. My last laptop, a 2007-era Toshiba Satellite, barely lasted an hour when it was brand new.

 

[livebriand]

@A Bad Day - In my case, since my laptop is my secondary computer that I don't use daily and when I do use it I usually have it connected to AC, and the machine is 6 months old, I have about 8% wear. Kinda surprising since it's run off the battery maybe once a week or so, maybe a bit more often at times since I've taken it on a few trips where I wasn't using ac power as much. At that rate, in 3 years, I'll have 48% wear. Ouch. That explains how, if you use the machine a lot, it's even worse and will get ridiculous after a few years. btw this is a Lenovo Thinkpad x120e.

 

[kancaras]

samsung should patent changeable batery design so apple couldnt use it!

 

[Guest]

@A Bad Day - Wife's iphone is 3yrs old and still lasts longer than my 1yr old Samsung Galaxy S, she can use her phone all day, while I'm afraid to txt and drain the battery.

Our Macbook Pro is used everyday for the last year, and we don't use it plugged into the wall, charge it and go for 5hrs+ of surfing the web. If anyone has it right, that would be Apple. Even tho the batteries aren't servicable, they sure as hell last a long time.

 

[rantoc]

[citation][nom]phexac[/nom]I've had numerous i-devices over the years and never needed to replace the battery. I am certainly glad that my macbook air doesn't have a removable battery, as I am quite happy with its form factor, and a removable battery would likely interfere with that. Removable battery is really not a priority for quite a few people out there, many of who are quite tech savvy. You guys are far too blinded by Apple hate to see this objectively though.[/citation]

And you my man should ask your boss for a raise in that marketing firm your working for. Seriously, no one in their right mind would want their product to be hard repairable for no reason other than profit for the company that built them...

 

[sonofliberty08]

what if car maker sealed (simply seal in the case and talk like the so called "integrated") the battery in the car ? so u have to send back the car to replace a simple battery with unreasonable price or u just go get a new car ......

 

[tanjo]

Marketing BS.

Those who say that they don't need to replace the batteries after a year or two isn't using the device "intensively". The duration of usage doesn't matter since most of the time the device is turned on and "light" usage doesn't drain the battery much... meaning the device's capabilities are (most of the time) not utilized.

 

[molo9000]

non-user-replaceable batteries can make sense from an engineering standpoint, but why the fuck would this be patentable?

 

[TEAMSWITCHER]

[citation][nom]SirGCal[/nom]They're trying to patent that horrible idea? Good, maybe then no one else will be so stupid as to try it... That was initially my biggest complaint about the iStuff... Consumers NEED the ability to replace the battery or you are greedily forcing them to spend big $ on maintenance and/or replacement. That, IMHO, is akin to gouging with our dependency on electronics today. While I'm not an Apple fan myself, this one one of the enormous "avoid at all cost" items that they continued to do which just made NO sense to me.[/citation]

The patent Apple clearly states they were making a complex trade-off. That is an admission they are removing a desired feature to improve another. What you don't realize is they took YOU into consideration, when they made this trade-off. They knew full well there would be a subset of shoppers that would not buy the product without a removable battery. But the subset of shoppers they gained from improving thinness, weight, and reliability was much larger.

 

[walter87]

"a plurality of battery cells, wherein each battery cell is directly attached to a housing for enclosing operational components of the portable computing device, […] wherein the protective structure is configured to protect the battery cell from a compressive force applied to the housing of the portable computing device, the protective structure being attached to or integral with the housing and having a height greater than that of each of the battery cells."

So a number of battery cells in series in an enclosure (the device itself). Numerous products have that...
Seems Apple is just trying to make it look more complicated than what it really is in an attempt to get it patented...

 

[phexac]

I use my MBA every day at school, running it without charge most of the time. One charge easily last me the whole day. My wife has 2.5-year-old MBA that she uses for work, which still gets very close to its original battery life (which to be fair, was much lower than my current gen MBA to begin with). I could not care less about Apple's profits, but their laptops have good build quality, which is something I appreciate. I would be pretty hard to make MBA with its form factor and reliable battery life. Since form factor, size, weight, and build quality were important issues to me, I am fine with foregoing replaceable battery. One thing I do know for sure is that my classmates with Lenovo's and other Windows-based laptops needs to start charing their machines when my MBA is only down to about 2/3 charge. Apple detractors here can write it off to blind loyalty all you want, but to me the way Apple designed the laptops I used has very concrete and tangible benefits.

 

[jeff77789]

[citation][nom]sonofliberty08[/nom]what if car maker sealed (simply seal in the case and talk like the so called "integrated") the battery in the car ? so u have to send back the car to replace a simple battery with unreasonable price or u just go get a new car ......[/citation]

What if that car was a Prius? (the big battery i mean)
If the big battery in a Prius was easily removable, think of the rest of the car and it's design.

 

[marraco]

I "cite" Winston Churchill:

Lies, dam lies, and patents.

 

[applefairyboy]

They do it because changing a battery is brain surgery for a tard like me

 

[elkein2]

I do believe batteries have many grades, My previous BB battery outlasted it's multi year contract, I expect my new iPhone 4s battery to last serveral years too.

 

[jsc]

I remember when the first iPod came out. Apple wanted $100 to replace the battery. Someone online figured out how to replace the battery and posted instructions on the 'net. Shortly after, Apple reduced the price to $80. When asked about the timing, Apple said it was a coincidence.

 

[izmanq]

another jedi mindtrick from crapple, tell BS reason why using unremovable batt

 

[pocketdrummer]

[citation][nom]Zanny[/nom]Its fine to have custom batteries. That lets you squeeze them in awkward nooks in a device. The problem with every iDevice is that they vacuum seal everything shut so you can never alter it.It isn't a bad vision - abstract away the hardware and ignore it. But that is also ignorant to how hardware, even Apples stuff, will fail, and doing something like what Apple does in such a circumstance is just a money grab to force you to send it back.It's one of the reasons I don't buy apple stuff. I understand the people that do and the market is fine - people who want an experience without having to worry about the device itself get their best shot at never worrying about hardware with Apple stuff. It is just when something goes wrong, they pay out their bum to fix it.[/citation]


Go to ifixit.com. It shows you how to fix your own device and they sell parts and tools. I've fixed iphones and macbooks using that site.

 

[pocketdrummer]

On another note...

I HATE THE PATENT SYSTEM! Nothing slows progression like restricting others from producing anything that resembles a good product.

 

[Guest]

Obviously most of the posters here aren't (good) engineers. What's the most common thing to happen when someone drops their cell phone or calculator -- the battery pops out. By not having that removable battery cover, Apple has created a more durable product. Furthermore, several 3rd party vendors sell portable chargers and extended battery life cases for the iPhone. So the lack of a removable battery is really a non-issue for those of us with a strong technical background who appreciate excellent engineering.

 

[estienne_taylor]

I think it has to do more with control and lower cost. Simple because if user want to replace battery try will have to do it at Apple Store and pay for expensive battery replacement and I believe integrated battery haven't been patented by anyone else other than Apple and is fairly inexpensive.