Design the next phone with battery availability in mind
asked 2015-05-08 21:37:39 +0200
Because of the upcoming tablet and no sign of a next phone I'm assuming that there isn't going to be one atleast in the next 12 months. This means that the current Jolla phone's lifetime is going to be quite long, and we're maybe around halfway now. I'm still fine with the hardware specs (CPU, RAM, etc.), but I'm slightly worried about the battery. We all know that the current battery situation is quite miserable. Not sure why there is only occasional (this far only one?) limited batches of batteries and why their supply doesn't meet community's demand. I'm sure there is some reason (manufacturer problem, pricetag of small quantities, ...) which the company seemingly doesn't want to be open about. That's understandable and I'm quite fine with it. However, I have no reason to believe that the lifetime of the next device would be any shorter or battery availability would be any better...
So what am I suggesting?
In order to avoid the aforementioned and keep customers happy, why not design devices to use some commonly available battery pack? I'm guessing battery packs may have some patents issued or some sort of licensing hassle preventing others to use the same battery, but supposedly there are some footloose models too. (Anyone remember seeing Nokia BL-5C's in random devices? :)) Ideal would be a battery from eg. a Galaxy S5 (3.85 V, 10.78 Wh), but not sure if it's conceivable. Alternatives ought to be out there. Or maybe work around legal issues by making devices compatible with Chinese mockup batteries, which are yet again compatible with original ones. Warranty would of course be voided when using some compatible battery, but that usually is already the case when the original one has gone bad.
This way the battery is already on the market at launch, supply is guaranteed and you (Jolla) don't have to worry about delivering batteries. This would of course take battery sales away from you, but I don't think you've made much revenue with batteries this time around either.
Sail on.
Jolla battery is very good quality, but why we can't buy one?????! we have changeble battery but there is none to change to :D
Makeclick ( 2015-05-08 22:33:41 +0200 )edit@Makeclick, That exactly is the problem. My own Jolla battery is still all fine, but some are less fortunate. I guess that since the Jolla battery is being manufactured in so small quantities it's fairly expensive and probably quite low on manufacturers priority list. A mainstream battery would not suffer from any such problems.
Okw ( 2015-05-08 22:53:58 +0200 )edit@Okw Yep!
We have money Jolla! Give us the batterys and they can pay more than 25€ ;).
Makeclick ( 2015-05-09 20:11:44 +0200 )edit