Apple's Battery Breakthrough: Is Planned Obsolescence About to End?
Battery health is becoming a primary concern for smartphone users. Online forums are filled with complaints about battery health degradation, with users expressing anxiety over even slight declines.
If you share this concern, there's good news. Apple recently patented a “Lithium Metal Embedded Battery Cell” technology aimed at improving battery health and addressing the common issue of reduced battery life over time.
This patent offers hope, but the challenges remain. Battery health, represented by a simple percentage, has become a crucial metric influencing user sentiment and the resale market.
Apple's New Patent: A Solution to Battery Degradation?
Apple's patent targets the battery's initial charge-discharge cycle. During this process, some active lithium ions are permanently trapped, forming a protective layer called the Solid Electrolyte Interphase (SEI) on the battery's negative electrode. While necessary, this process reduces the number of available active lithium ions, decreasing the battery's overall capacity from the start.
Apple's solution involves “pre-lithiation.” This clever approach pre-loads the battery with extra lithium during manufacturing. This way, the lithium consumed in forming the protective layer doesn't deplete the lithium used for cycling.
When the battery is put into service, this extra lithium offsets the capacity loss from the initial charge-discharge cycle, resulting in several benefits:
- Higher Capacity: New batteries deliver close to their full capacity from the start.
- Longer Lifespan: Battery capacity degrades more slowly, extending the overall lifespan.
- More Stable Voltage: The battery operates more consistently, reducing unexpected shutdowns.
Apple's design is remarkably compact, integrating the pre-lithiation device within the battery. It is particularly suitable for thin batteries commonly found in smartwatches and headphones, even in small spaces.
However, this technology is still in the patent phase, and mass production is not guaranteed. Even if it is mass-produced, based on Apple's past practices, it will take at least 3-4 years from the patent stage to implementation. This indicates that Apple recognizes the anxiety caused by battery health and is trying to address it.
Battery Health Percentage: The Currency of the Secondhand Market
Users are highly concerned about battery health, not just for longevity but also because it affects resale value. In the secondhand market, battery health is a key factor in determining the price of used iPhones.
The value of battery health percentage is significant in the secondhand market. Driven by profit, some unscrupulous merchants use methods to make the system recognize the replaced battery as the original battery and display a health of 100%.
All market behavior is caused by consumer demand. The reason why this phenomenon exists is that consumers do overvalue battery health. Some conscientious secondhand merchants also complain that what they value most when buying secondhand mobile phones now is not whether the motherboard is original, but battery health. This secondhand consumption concept makes many secondhand mobile phone merchants miserable.
The Mystery of Short Battery Life: Planned Obsolescence?
We've heard a lot about new battery technologies like graphene and solid-state batteries, but few have materialized. For manufacturers, overly durable batteries might not be ideal.
In 2023, the association “Stop Planned Obsolescence” in France investigated Apple, accusing it of a monopolistic “planned obsolescence” strategy. The agency had previously fined Apple for limiting the performance of older devices through battery aging, resulting in a €25 million fine.
This raises the question: Is battery life a technical challenge or a deliberate strategy of planned obsolescence?
Ultimately, Apple's patent offers a technical solution to address battery anxiety, but a broader shift towards durable electronics requires more than just this one innovation. The hope is for a more sustainable era of electronic product consumption.
Whether this Apple patent will be implemented remains to be seen. More than just the implementation of Apple's patents, we look forward to a new era of electronic product consumption with less anxiety and more sustainability.
