Opinion: Batteries only just included

And the dude in Illinois who tried to bring Apple to task for less than stellar iPhone battery life has just learned the hard way exactly what’s against the rules.

Lame battery life isn’t against the rules according to the judge, as long as the company admits as much when you buy your kit.

And Apple did exactly that – the iPhone box tells you the battery won’t last forever and you can’t swap in a new one yourself, unless you are a major geek.

Which really makes you wonder, since users can’t claim they didn’t know, how many of them will start howling when their batteries need replacing around about the end of their first year if they’re a heavy user.

Most every other mobile phone on the market has a battery you can easily swap out, either because yours went flat and you can’t wait for a recharge or because it has simply died from over-use.

The iPhone isn’t built that way but users don’t seem to care, or are they really unaware of the situation?

Based on figures from the telcos an awful lot of punters don’t keep their mobile phones long enough to need a new battery.

They just upgrade to a newer model every 18 months or so, and keep paying the monthly rental.

But the iPhone is more than just a phone – that’s the whole point of the thing – so will they be happy to upgrade the way they have been doing with lesser phones?

Most users of other Apple products tend to keep them for some time – my 10 year old Powerbook G4 is now making my granddaughter really happy – she’s the only one in her class with a 15” widescreen titanium notebook.

The fact that’s it’s a slow old dog doesn’t seem to matter.

But if iPhone battery life proves to be as short as the Chicken Little brigade is claiming, she might not be so pleased if I pass one of those down the line and her mum isn’t inclined to spring $100 for a new battery.

In this age of throw-away technology Apple has set a rather higher standard for eking out a more than average life from its products.

Let’s make sure they know we expect to use our iPhones for many years to come, and apply pressure for a low-cost battery replacement program.

Come on Steve, you don’t have to follow the other guys, let’s see Apple handing over more power to the people. At least that is, when it comes to battery power.