As the "stronghold" of environmentalism, the EU has been giving foreign consumer electronics manufacturers an eye medicine in the past few years, first by unifying the charging interface specifications, and then by forcing mobile phone manufacturers to adopt removable battery designs. And Apple, which also holds high the banner of environmental protection, has suddenly fallen into a dilemma. Just after the iPhone 15 series' interface was changed from Lightning to USB-C, the ancestral all-in-one design may be shaken. In the matter of blocking Apple, the EU can be said to be really concerned.
A few days ago, according to the list published by the U.S. Trademark and Patent Office, Apple has obtained a patent on the charging system, which can modularize removable batteries, making the device more flexible to respond to various usage scenarios. The patent, titled "Battery charging system and mobile and accessory devices", is Apple's preparation for the design of removable batteries for its Mac, Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse, iPhone and other devices, and users can meet the flexible use needs of the device by simply replacing the battery module.
However, Apple's patent is different from the traditional removable battery, which adopts a conventional rechargeable battery for the battery cell, but the outer layer is equipped with a special interface, and then uses a standardized connection scheme. The patent also describes a wireless communication system between the battery and the device, which can monitor and display the battery level while enabling wireless charging, and the overall idea is similar to viewing the battery of AirPods on the control center of an iPhone or Apple Watch.
In fact, Apple's stockpiling of removable battery patents is almost a consequence of this. Because even later, when the EU Battery and Waste Battery Regulation was in the discussion stage, the reason given by the EU was that the design of the built-in non-removable battery was easy to obsolete, not environmentally friendly, and not conducive to battery recycling. However, mobile phone manufacturers, represented by Apple, believe that removable batteries are an outdated technology that has no value to implement at this stage, and the EU's move is to "stifle innovation". However, the end result is that mobile phone manufacturers are taking advantage of the mantis arm and from 2027 onwards, all electronic products in the EU will need to be designed with easy-to-replace batteries.
You know, almost all smartphones currently use an all-in-one design. There are two ways for mobile phone manufacturers to fix the battery in the battery compartment, one is to use glue to directly bond the battery to the body, and the other is to use a quick-release solution with easy-to-pull glue. However, whether it is directly glued or fixed with easy-to-pull glue, it is not easy to disassemble.
I believe that all friends who have had the experience of disassembling should have the same experience, after carefully opening the back cover, if you want to remove the battery, you will often find that the battery is firmly fixed. For this reason, there are quite a lot of friends will use a hot air blower or hair dryer to heat the glue, but this method is actually extremely dangerous, because it is necessary to heat the glue evenly, once the improper operation will easily cause the battery to bulge and even explode. Therefore, on hardware repair websites such as iFixit, it is also recommended that you use turpentine and rosin perfume as the main material to dissolve the cured glue.
However, the result of the integrated design is that the maintenance of mobile phones is becoming more and more difficult day by day, and this solution is not for users to disassemble the mobile phones by themselves. So that's why, even after two and a half years of Apple's self-service repair program, the vast majority of users still want to bring their iPhones and iPads that need to be repaired to genius. However, in addition to meeting the needs of manufacturers for "planned scrapping", the integrated design is actually the result of consumers voting with their feet, and it also conforms to users' demands for lighter, thinner, and longer battery life.
Thin, lightweight, high-capacity battery, removable, in fact, a set of impossible triangles. It's okay to not be a smartphone at the moment that it's thin and light, but if it's considered heavy by consumers, it's bound to be a dead end, and the most typical example is undoubtedly Sony's XZ2 Premium, which has earned it the nickname "Suo Ban Jin" with a body weight of 236 grams. Therefore, it is a good thing for users to change the interface to USB-C unlike the iPhone, and once the removable battery appears on the iPhone, I am afraid that not all users will be happy to see it.
Because the EU's Internet companies and mobile phone manufacturers have lost in the market competition, they have adopted the strategy of suppressing foreign enterprises. After all, the arm can't twist the thigh, Apple and other manufacturers obviously can't reverse this trend, and what's worse is that for today's Apple, every market has to fight for every inch of land.
Apple has not prevented the EU from requiring the unified use of the USB-C interface for mobile device charging, and has also had to allow third-party app stores to appear in the iOS ecosystem, and it is unlikely to make the already promulgated "EU Battery and Waste Battery Regulation" become waste paper, so taking precautions is an inevitable result. Of course, Apple is not the only one that needs to adopt the removable battery design on the devices sold in the EU, and the manufacturers in the Android camp will not be spared either, so Apple only needs to do its own solution better than its competitors.
Perhaps the EU's confrontation with Apple will not only benefit domestic consumers on the other side of the Eurasian continent, but may also cause us to suffer from the fish in the pond.