Originally Posted by
anrkitec
Screw the optical drive, how about a user replaceable battery? The lack of this on the Air strikes me as a bit of a scam. Want a new battery – sorry, you have to buy it from Apple, no refurbished or much cheaper non-OEM new batteries for you.
The news I've seen is that the bottom plate is held on by a couple screws and that the battery is not soldered in place. Should make changing batteries not too difficult.
There are plenty of iPod aftermarket batteries out there, so I expect that eventually we will see non-OEM batteries for the air as well. The computer isn't even out for general sale yet and you're already making assumptions about what will or will not be available from 3rd parties.
Really though, how much are you going to save on a non-oem battery? Maybe $50-$60 at most. That's really insignificant in comparison to the cost of the computer and depreciation.