Well, folks, I won’t take credit for it, But it looks like it might be happening. PocketNow reports that the European Union is considering a law to make batteries in phones user-replaceable. We’re still a long way from it happening, though. Right now it’s just a proposal. It’s not a law yet. And if it is a law, count on Apple and Samsung challenging it. If they lose that challenge, expect that law to go into effect maybe around 2028 or so. It takes a long time to change this sort of thing in a design. Phone designs are locked in years in advance.
Why is this a big deal?
I laid it out here, just a few weeks ago. Battery life is still a big concern on phones. There have been improvements to be sure, but they haven’t really kept pace with the phone’s need for power. I like to point out that 20 years ago I had a phone that went a week on a charge. Sure, it was as dumb as a dumbphone gets, but the battery life was fantastic. Today if I get a full 10 hours I’m pretty impressed.
More importantly, battery life begins to degrade the moment you power up the phone for the first time. I’ve replaced my last two phones not because I wanted new features, but because the battery life dropped so much. That may be good for Apple and Samsung, but it’s not good for me. I’ve never considered a battery replacement because it’s so hard to do and there’s so much to break.
Easily replaceable batteries on phones would probably mean smaller batteries to start with, as extra space for the battery hatch would probably come from the space used for the battery itself. But, if I could swap in a second battery in 30 seconds or less, maybe I wouldn’t care if I only got 4 hours on a charge.
Is there a chance of this actually happening?
Remember that the EU successfully put in a law which more or less requires phones to have USB-C. If Apple doesn’t make this happen with their next iPhone (iPhone 15?) they will definitely make it happen with the one after that. They’ve already said they will comply. Yes the USB-C connector is a little bigger and it’s not as elegant or dustproof as the Lightning connector. But, let’s be honest. It’s good enough and it’s used on practically every non-Apple thing already. It’s even used on every Apple thing except the phone at this point.
So I would rate the chance of this happening at about 65%. That’s a total guess, yes. But I think it’s a solid guess. The European Union is very different from the US government. There are just not as many “laissez-faire capitalists” in Europe. This has led to a lot more intervention in things like climate issues and consumer protections than you see today in the US. I’m not here to talk about whether or not that’s good. I’m just pointing it out.
But, as I said, it will take time. It will take time to work its way through the glacially slow UK Parliament, to be ratified by the member nations, and at that point they have to give phone makers time to put the rule into place. I wouldn’t go buying stock in replaceable batteries this week. Better to wait just a little bit longer.
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