Here's the flaw in your reasoning: you don't compare it to the alternative. If those laptops all had removable batteries like the unibody 15", they'd need replacing about every 2 years, at $129 dollars apiece! That's an average of 150 batteries per year x $129 = $19,350! Why would you complain about something that looks to nearly halve your costs? Perhaps "Businesses, higher ed, and all those" would have an easier time meeting their budgets if they actually put some careful thought into them. I'm just sayin'.
Are you "just sayin'" that I don't know how to do my job?
I don't replace batteries every two years, they get replaced once per computer in a 4-5 year life-cycle, usually at 2.5-3 year mark, when they get depleted, and can no longer be used.
I don't think the new batteries are going to change that much, except perhaps pushing it to the 3-3.5 year mark, and cost 50 dollars more per service. It will still be one battery service per machine, and each service will be more expensive, all else is barely a matter of time. The existing MBP 17's use an encased LiPo battery. The new ones use an internal LiPo battery. I doubt the performance difference is going to be as night-and-day-different as the marketing speak would lead most to believe. It may have more Mah rating, or a higher C-value, or be a larger quantity of more cells per computer. But this isn't a re-invention of that particular wheel, it is just a different packaging aspect, that is making things more difficult under the existing policy umbrella.
1 $179 battery service is not cheaper than one $129 (and probably over-priced at that) replaceable battery, that is more expensive.
And, if a swollen battery damages itself, it involves the replacement of the battery, covered by apple, or not. Even if Apple DOESN'T cover it, which their policy does not obligate them to do... the user, or the organization pays $129 for a new battery, and it takes les than 2 seconds to swap. The old battery goes to recycling. OR someone can use two batteries continuously, and with reasonable use, can extend their cyclic lifetime to cover pretty much the entire useful life of the computer hardware, and have double the non-AC-powered run-time.
If a swollen internal battery damages the case and internal components of the computer, it is a MUCH larger problem, and many times more expensive to fix. Hundreds or thousands of dollars, probably at least a week of down time, and it puts the machine's data at risk if not backed up, OR requires the replacement of the machine, which is essentially the shortening of the machine's useful life. A $3000 computer should not have that sort of design flaw, that foreseeable, and somewhat common aspects of battery failure can possibly cause severe damage, or cause the service life to be shortened by a year or more. AND it completely cancels the ability to use redundant batteries for longer cycle life, and longer DC run-time.
What also is not cheaper, is the fact that in order not to take the risk of a voided warranty, it is also going to continue to cost more for an Apple for down time to send computers in for HDD and RAM issues, because those are essentially NOT user serviceable, if you don't want to risk an internal issue with the computer not being covered in the future. I've been over that before. That cost either manifests itself in having to keep more spare computers on hand for temporary use, OR the cost of user dissatisfaction and inability to work properly without their tools.
I can replace RAM or a HDD in a PC laptop in well under 3 minutes, and I can have software, and backups fully restored in hours. Less than a day of down time for even a basic emergency service. The RAM and HDD can be sent for replacement once the computer is back in service with replacement parts, and the warranty replenishes my inventory by replacing the defective or failed parts. That is a VERY common repair service. Much more common that screens, or main logic board replacements, or other more invasive services.
A similar issue with a Mac takes the better part of a week, due to having to send it in for that service to be done under warranty. The software restoration takes about the same amount of time. Pickup, delivery, and service queues, part shipping times, all make the difference. Again, a very common issue.
ALSO, if something more severe, like a main logic board fails... I can swap a PC's hard drive into a temporary unit, and the user is back up and running in minutes, and has 'their machine' for all intents and purposes, in a temporary shell, until their actual unit is repaired. In some pool systems, the hard drive is the only thing that is truly tied to the user, and the hardware shell can be changed out at will, and stay that way. In some more enterprise-level server-based windows environments, the hard drive doesn't even need to be swapped, the roaming user profile is just re-allocated to a different machine.
An APPLE computer cannot be handled that way. Again, wishing to preserve the warranty coverage keeps people like me OUT of the computer, and I cannot serve my users as quickly or as easily, with a minimum of downtime for them.
I'm just sayin'... Apple has it's distinct benefits, but it is not all roses and candies, from a service standpoint, and a built-in battery is not a positive direction in that regard.
I'd buy it.
