They were simple back in the days before Apple thought of brilliant ideas like glueing the battery to the laptop topcase. The old iPod is like a crude raspberry PI casemod in comparison, workable for anyone with nimble hands and good eyes.
It's 'just' a battery. From an engineering standpoint it's just a component that Apple also doesn't produce themselves.
If apple no longer sells the battery, it will be trivial to find a suitable replacement. As long as there is demand, there will be loads of shops able to replace the battery for you.
The real question is: will people who buy $500 branded headphones really have their 5+ year old headphones repaired, or will they but the latest-and-greates shiny new thing?
It's a battery of a popular but specific chemistry in a specific shape. Given this is Apple, those may be popular chemistry/shape, but if not, then in 10-15 years it's not going to be easy to find if Apple doesn't produce them. I'd say Apple keeps the supply chain around for maybe 5-10 years.
> If apple no longer sells the battery, it will be trivial to find a suitable replacement. As long as there is demand, there will be loads of shops able to replace the battery for you.
Its a niche product. You will bot find replacement batteries for it. Heck it is even hard to find replacement batteries for 10 year old MacBooks.
> The real question is: will people who buy $500 branded headphones really have their 5+ year old headphones repaired, or will they but the latest-and-greates shiny new thing?
That’s my whole point. These things are not build (and bought) to last anymore but to be consumed. You used to retain some value when buying into expensive headphones.
Not sure if you're trying spread FUD, but NewerTech (owned by OWC) batteries are readily available for older Macbooks/Pros. Just checked their site and they have replacements for the 2008 Macbook.