Reply to post: SD cards and batteries

Google's home tat falls flat as a soufflé – but look out Android makers

Milton

SD cards and batteries

The fact that Apple and Google both chose to omit SD cards and make batteries un-replaceable doesn't mean either of those things is good. In fact, they are, as others have pointed out here, very bad.

There is no reason—literally, none—to make batteries fixed, unless you are a manufacturer who wants his products to become obsolete so customers will spend more money on another. No amount of drivel from markturds contradicts the fact that it's perfectly possible to make a small, light, waterproof phone with a removable battery. I have one. It's not hard. At most, a fixed battery saves a few cents of manufacturing cost.

An SD slot does NOT offload the cost of storage onto the consumer. It is precisely the opposite. Whereas Apple may charge you an extra £100 for an extra xMb of storage, you can buy the same in almost any shop for less than a fifth of that price. The flexibility of having your own removable storage is always appreciated. And again, it's entirely compatible with waterpoofing (again, I have one, it is IP68) and adds almost nothing to the cost of a phone—it's about an extra 75p for SD slot and interface chip. (Of course, no SD slot means it's easier for Apple and Google to create artificial distinctions between otherwise identical lumps of plastic, and charge you a nosebleed for an "upgrade" differentiation that costs them almost nothing.)

The lack of an SD card (Google's marketurds hilariously lied that having an SD slot was "confusing for customers") is sheer greed, a naked attempt to force customers onto your ecosystem where they and their data can be systematically exploited. This can hardly be a surprise to any sentient human on the planet.

The battery issue is almost more scandalous, given the unnecessary contribution to waste and pollution.

Samsung, who really need to deal with their horrible software planted like briar amongst an otherwise harmless, vanilla Android, have at least done the right thing with SD. If they really want to pull more customers, I hope they'll try (a) return to removable batteries (maybe even the old practice of selling you two in the box, and (b) try different form factors: clamshell is an obvious fit for smartphones.

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