Around 20 years ago, most people replaced their phones on a yearly basis in some countries, largely due to the fact that if you signed the right mobile service contract, you got a free phone. These days, it's not nearly as common to get a free device with your service, but then again, mobile service contracts also tend to cost much less these days in many countries. As such, people retain their devices longer, which has put the device upgrade cycle somewhere around the two or three year mark. Now the EU is proposing new regulations that will force the mobile device makers to re-think the current status quo, as the European Commission regulators are considering asking mobile device makers to offer not just better battery life, but also spare part availability for as long as five years after a device was launched.

When it comes to battery life, the EU Commission is intending to offer the device manufacturers two options. The first is that they'll have to offer batteries that can deliver 83 percent of their rated capacity after 500 charging cycles, followed by 80 percent capacity after 1000 charging cycles. Alternatively, they can offer replacement batteries and phone back covers to its end-user customers, so they can replace their batteries once the batteries no longer hold charge that meets the owners expectations.