A modular future is good; AirPods that last would be even better
As if to temper the cries of «but what are you doing for Sustainability Week, Tim?» across the internet, Mr. Cook’s behemoth recently filed a patent for uniform battery enclosures – something that might match across your iPhone, your wireless keyboard and your wireless mouse, say – that could allow us to routinely swap batteries between our iOS devices.
If Apple’s idea makes it to market, the tech is a solid step towards a more modular, sustainable, planet friendly future, although it’s important to note it is an application, rather than a granted patent – and according to stats from Insights, the Cupertino giant files literally thousands of those per year.
I applaud any push for a future in which we’ll be replacing just one small part of our Apple product, rather than canning the whole thing and buying again. You can probably sense there’s a ‘but’ coming though…
Interchangeable batteries for monitors and so on are a noble idea, but how often have you mused: «I wish I could remove my MacBook Air’s battery and use it to charge my iPad»? Now, how often have you thought to yourself: «I wish my AirPods Pro 2 batteries didn’t start deteriorating so fast»?
If the second statement resonates, we speak the same language, friend.
Back to the patent application titled ‘battery charging system and mobile and accessory devices’ (first spotted by Apple Insider) for a minute though. It features images depicting standardized slots and a relatively traditional-looking battery pack
– a cuboid core, an outer shell, two sensor terminals, positive and negative core terminals at the end – ready to slip into a cell phone, a monitor, a wireless keyboard and a wireless mouse.
Sadly, no headphones or earbuds are mentioned in the filing and for me, that’s the number one Apple item sorely in need of a better shelf life. User replaceable Mac batteries are only ‘new’ if you were born after 2009
Replaceable batteries are hardly a groundbreaking idea. I can’t be alone in remembering the deep joy of getting a new Nokia 3310 phone up and running in 1999. It’s a task that included releasing a fresh 1,450mAh battery from its little plastic wallet, whipping the back of the handset off with a quick upward flick of the wrist, lining up the three contacts, sliding in the power pack, squishing the whole thing back together again, flipping it back to the screen and firing it up. Just me? And if the 3310’s stamina ever dipped (it rarely did; that phone lasted for days) you could simply buy another battery pack and do it yourself. Many of us popped a spare in our rucksacks if we knew we’d be camping at a music festival. Those halcyon days…
If you want to try it today, there’s always the 2022 issue Nokia 5710 XpressAudio, which comes with Bluetooth earbuds built into the back or the August 2023 Nokia 130 and 150, all of which sport the self-same 1,450mAh replaceable battery.
That wasn’t the case with the original 2007 iPhone though, was it? In fact, no iPhone has ever come with a battery we get to load in (and update) ourselves; the last time Apple gave us the option of a user replaceable battery in any of its products was 15 years ago, in the 2009 Apple MacBook. Light-powered charging for earbuds exists – so can’t Apple fix it for AirPods?
Can you imagine how many ice-white Apple earbuds have found their way into landfill since they burst onto the scene in December 2016?
I can do better than that – I’ll give you an educated estimate. According to Statista, between 2017 and the end of 2022, Apple sold 391 million pairs of AirPods, which means sales figures are now well over 400 million units (and then some). It’s also safe to assume that the 110 million pairs sold between 2017 and the end of 2019 have now passed on to the great big gig in the sky. Why? Because the unpalatable truth is that your AirPods have a finite lifespan (which I’ll explain fully later), owing to the batteries that power them.
