US regulators take action on Apple over iPhone

The powerful regulator is taking Apple to task over the sealed battery the company insists in placing in the iPhone. The chairperson of the NYCPB, Mindy Bockstein, has written to Apple CEO Steve Jobs requiring him ensure that the design of the iPhone is changed to allow owners of the device to gain easy access to its battery so that they can change it for themselves.

Another Apple device, the iPod, sells in its tens of millions and is enormously popular but buyers have always been infuriated about the fact that it too was designed with the battery hidden away in a sealed space. iPod users have complained for years that the batteries on their music players fail far too quickly, often in less than a year after purchase, and it costs almost as much as buying a new iPod to have the thing repaired and a new battery inserted.

Indeed, consumers in the mid-west state of Illinois are so incensed that they are pursuing as case that seems likely to result in a class action suit against Apple for its restrictive practice.

There are strong suspicions that Apple is ripping-off iPhone owners by charging an exorbitant amount to change the battery when it fails. The iPhone is far from inexpensive as it is. The two versions of the device currently available cost either US$499 or $599 each and Apple is charging $79 just to change the battery! On top of that there's another cost, $29 to rent a replacement phone whilst the one with the duff battery is being "maintained". Money for old rope.

What is particularly annoying iPhone owners and particularly exercising the NTCPB is that Apple itself admits that the iPhone battery has a lifespan of a mere 300 charges. That means for even an ordinary user the things going to go dead within about 15 months and for a heavy user it will fall over in less that 12 months.