[thevagrant]

The last 'flagship' mobile phone with removable battery - the LG V20 did ok and had a diehard fanbase, but still mobile phone manufacturers dropped replaceable batteries as a feature. It certainly is done to force more sales and consumption in the market.

In LG's case though, it backfired as their mobile marketshare dropped with each successor to the V20. I suspect they could have carved a large niche by evolving the V20 design and fixing the problems that plagued it. LG's repairable phones were a point of difference. The V30 and beyond were glued shut and offered very little differentiate themselves.

Canon used to ship various models of pocket camera which offered a similar feature as shown by the original post (ability to use AA or AAA batteries depending on model). This to me was a practical feature but the market must have shown otherwise.