A Dutch financial newspaper reports the European Union (EU) wants to establish a new regulation that would “force electronics manufacturers to facilitate easier battery replacements.”>It’s been years since flagship phones and laptops came with easily removable batteries, especially from companies like Apple. Have tech companies pulled the wool over our eyes? Or do people not care as much about removable batteries as the EU thinks?>If you buy a phone today, chances are you can’t easily remove the battery yourself. If you really want to try it out, it’ll require dozens of steps, including the removal of delicate pieces like the screen and the logic board. It’s not for the faint of heart.>I took a poll, asking people if an easily replaceable battery was a major factor when buying a phone. Unsurprisingly, the overwhelming majority wouldn’t buy a phone just for a replaceable battery.>Maybe we’ve all fallen for Apple’s marketing schemes. Maybe we could’ve had super-thin, sturdy phones with replaceable batteries all along. We believed the explanation that Apple provided because its phones thin and waterproof, and that’s what we wanted at the time.Hopefully this applies to laptops too.">