[cbeach]

This should be for the market to decide, not EU bureaucrats.

If I want a thicker, clunkier, less waterproof phone with a user-replaceable battery, I can already buy a Fairphone or a Samsung Galaxy XCover6 Pro, or whatever.

The reason people buy iPhones and flagship Samsung phones is they want the benefits that come from a design that doesn't have to make sacrifices to accomodate a user-replaceable battery.

[izacus]

Do you still believe in free markets? What other things? Santa? The Easter Bunny?

They're not real you know.

[ezst]

> This should be for the market to decide, not EU bureaucrats.

Ohh sweet summer child... We are in an era of obscene consolidation, in pretty much every sector, wealth is being consolidated to degrees unseen before, oligopolies enshrine their dominance via regulatory capture and a plethora of unfair practices. There's just no competition left to suggest that "markets can decide" of anything beneficial for our skinny bottom lines..

[cbeach]

    * Samsung Electronics
    * Apple
    * Xiaomi
    * Oppo (includes OnePlus)
    * Vivo
    * Huawei
    * Honor
    * Motorola Mobility
    * realme
    * Google
    * Sony
    * Nokia
    * Asus
    * Nothing
    * HTC
    * ZTE
    * Fairphone
    * LG Electronics

But yeah, "no competition left," okay..

[ezst]

ok, now bring-up a photo and datasheet of the flagship model from each of those brands, and articulate how they effectively depart from one another on metrics such as ergonomics, operating system, and hardware specs such as CPU/GPU/modem.

- The ergonomics story is: all those devices look and handle the same

- operating system is: a duopoly between Android and iOS

- chips: a triopoly between Qualcomm, Samsung and Apple

those manufacturers are not innovating as much as copying each-other's formula, using a very short list of identical suppliers, with no room for error. If that's not the definition of consolidation, please show it to me.

[cbeach]

The software, OS and chips are completely irrelevant to the discussion about the physical design of batteries.

As for ergonomic differences, I see sliding phones, folding phones, big phones, small phones, minimal phones, phones covered in buttons.