An Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max smartphone at the company’s Grand Central store in New York, US, on … [+]
The iPhone 16 is shaping up to be one of the most consumer-friendly devices Apple has released in years.
That’s largely thanks to a series of pro-repairability moves the company has made, or is rumored to make, in recent months. This week information reported that Apple was developing a new “electrically induced adhesive bond” technology that will make removing batteries easier.
As it stands, removing the batteries from an iPhone requires some skill to pry out the adhesive strips that attach it to the chassis. It is not an easy thing for a regular, inexperienced user. But Apple wants to change that by using tethering technology that would free up the battery as it “administers a small shock of electricity.”
Information sources claim that this new technology could hit at least one iPhone 16 model this year, with it rolling out to the entire iPhone 17 lineup in 2025.
The move appears to be an attempt by the Cupertino-based company to comply with ecodesign legislation passed by the European Union last year. Specifically, the law states that replacing batteries in a smartphone must be “feasible without any tool, a tool or set of tools supplied with the product or spare parts, or basic tools”.
Several other announcements, or quiet changes, indicate that Apple’s next iPhones will be very different from the last decade of Apple handsets.
For example, the redesigned internal chassis of the iPhone 15 makes it easier to remove the back panel without breaking the glass. Last year the company introduced a self-service repair program that made it easier for people to fix their devices at home, which has now been partially extended to Europe.
Then there’s the company’s new policy on pairing parts, which means iPhone users will be able to replace parts without Apple’s authorization. The change applies to the iPhone 16 and is likely in response to Oregon’s Right to Repair law. The new legislation prohibits the practice of disabling features if an unauthorized repair is carried out on a smartphone.
Elsewhere, a recent patent for a future iPhone detailed a modular phone that had an easily removable back panel. The idea is that the back cover can be swapped in and out for panels with one or more additional hardware features. So if a user wanted more battery life, they could plug in the battery module, or if they wanted a different display, they could attach a second display.
Nothing about that patent application screams Apple to me, it looks more like the LG G5, the ultra-customizable smartphone, the Inspector Gadget of 2016. But the patent application also reads like the vision of the EU phone bill smart, which talks about reusable fasteners (the clips, screws and bolts that hold components together) and spare parts that have the effect of “improving or restoring the functionality of the device in which they are installed”.
There are caveats to all of this. Patents often do not materialize. The independent repair program (separate from the self-service repair program) has been criticized for squeezing the profits of the repair shops that have signed up. The new part-pairing policy apparently only applies to iPhones (read this story on iPads that won’t draw straight lines after a repair), and Apple has fought hard against some of the new regulations, arguing that the Oregon law would “undermine the security of iPhone users.
The good news is that Apple’s latest moves suggest that the next iPhone will be one of the most repairable in the company’s history. This means savings for buyers over the lifetime of the device, because iPhones won’t require expensive repairs that can only be done by Apple. Cellphones will also not have to be thrown away when something goes wrong.
Replaceable batteries are also one of the major battles lost by consumers in the last decade. Partly because Android manufacturers such as Samsung and LG struggled to capture Apple’s market share using the iPhone’s sleek design. We can go back to the path of easily swapping out batteries as and when needed, rather than paying Apple $99 to do so.
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Image Source : www.forbes.com