Originally Posted by jonmorris:
“I'd say that the typical Apple user doesn't hold on to kit for long enough for things to be a problem. The second hand market isn't really that important for Apple, and sealing everything in to laptops, phones and tablets to stop you being able to easily (or cheaply) upgrade storage, RAM or batteries, is a good way to make hardware obsolete long before the software does.”
Its not as bad as some people make out, my friends have two kids both under 10 and they both have iPhone 4S handsets (16gb with PAYG SIMs with no credit) and these phones were both bought at the launch. The battery life is still good, about 5 years later. So sometimes paying more for quality works.
Sealed in batteries solves a problem for airlines, and stops the market for £1 replacements in market stalls that the end user can change. Lithium Ion batteries (and LiPol) are horrendously dangerous as we've seen in the news in the past few years. Its not something people should be getting changed by market stalls and small accessory shops using products of unknown origin.