[munk-a]

I think it's a tall order to argue that worse performance is a necessary requirement of repairability and height and weight are constantly obsessed over but very few people I've met actually care about it (and a fair number like the Mac interface but would be happy to trade height for keyboard improvements).

[andy_ppp]

The products we have today are the result not of what people say they want but what people actually buy.

[jfghi]

Id claim it’s the products bought without clear alternative choices or understanding in the disposability of the designs. When I bought a MacBook Air around 2012, I didn’t expect the battery to be so remarkably difficult to replace as every laptop I had owned prior had removable batteries. Given the choice of a bigger computer with a replaceable battery/ram and probably better cooling, I’d choose that instantly.

[User23]

> I didn’t expect the battery to be so remarkably difficult to replace

Having seen a MacBook air, I’d be shocked if the battery weren’t remarkably difficult to replace. What was it about the almost paper thin form factor back than that lead you to believe you could just pop the battery out?

[jfghi]

Although the laptops are thin, I think it’d be possible to use less glue when setting the internal parts and to use screws that have heads that provide more grip to screwdrivers.

Apple could also provide affordable batteries for sale in the event that a person wants a 3rd party professional to replace them.

Id claim that this was somewhat of a turning point when computers started becoming more disposable and that competing companies followed suit. At the time I owned a flat phone with replaceable battery.

[theshrike79]

The amount of glue is a balancing act.

Too little glue and a perfectly working battery might start to jiggle around.

Too much glue and it's a bit harder to replace a non-working battery.

I'm guessing that a good 99% of laptops never have their battery replaced. Thus they've optimised for the first case.

[vel0city]

> Given the choice of a bigger computer with a replaceable battery/ram and probably better cooling, I’d choose that instantly.

So I take it that you immediately returned the MacBook Air and bought something which did have removable batteries?

[bfdm]

This is really not the gotcha you seem to think it is. One is unlikely to learn how difficult repairs on a given device are until deep into the ownership cycle and well past any return window.

[vel0city]

The poster claimed to prefer thicker laptops with replaceable batteries. There were lots of thicker laptops out there with obviously replaceable batteries. If it was such a priority, there were plenty of options.

People are acting like they didn't have a choice but to choose a laptop with a battery glued in. No, the poster chose that machine at the time. There were laptops on the market with replaceable batteries, it just wasn't really their priority as they claim. If it was their priority, you'd think they would have bothered checking.

If I claim having a lot of RAM is important for my machine, and then I buy a laptop with 2GB, I can't really go about arguing I didn't have a choice but to buy the 2GB machine. I just didn't bother investigating the specs and figure out there are machines much more suited for my demands.

There were teardown reviews of the MBA almost instantly when it came out. The knowledge was there, if it was a priority they could have easily known. I'm arguing it wasn't really a priority, I'm sure they were plenty satisfied with that device the day they bought it. They went and choose a machine without bothering to consider if the battery was user serviceable. They might say now it's a priority, but when they paid for the machine it clearly wasn't.

[_carbyau_]

Let me FTFY: The products we have today are the result of what people actually buy from what is available, with the knowledge on hand.

[userbinator]

"knowledge", more like "marketing propaganda".

Apple's popularity is largely due to its marketing power.

[desiarnezjr]

Dozens of crappy computers sitting in my storage disagree. Lenovo Thinkpads (even back in the IBM days), Dell, HP, Acer, and on and on.

I've used perhaps hundreds of computers in my life and possible evaluated thousands. Many were OK. Some were pretty good. A few were great.

Apple's products aren't perfect, but they were "better" enough.

Mind you, I don't worry about repairability as much as "Is this computer functional and useful to me?"

[fezfight]

And yet every Apple product I've ever used was pretty below average and absolutely normal things like nice keyboards, and mice with useful buttons. Their laptops, for example, often lack absolutely fundamentally basic things like common ports. And there are no replaceable batteries! As far as I'm concerned, their stuff is half baked at best.