Second iPhone battery lawsuit filed

A second lawsuit relating to the iPhones non-user-replaceable battery has been filed.

This lawsuit was filed on Monday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California by Sydney Leung.  The suit seeks more than $5 million in compensatory and punitive damages.

Here's a distilled version of Leung's story; Leung buys two iPhone at $599 each the first day they were available, signed up for a two-year AT&T contract and he's now annoyed to find that he wasn't told that the battery wasn't user-replaceable and the replacement process is going to cost him extra dough.

Now, my personal opinion is that I find it hard to believe that anyone who was willing to pay $600 for a new cellphone and sign up for a contract didn't know that the iPhone shipped with a fixed battery - at the very least Leung should become a poster case for doing some research before buying something.  But what surprises me more that the fact that someone will pay $1,200 for two cellphones without checking out the spec is the fact Apple is getting a lot of flak for this when all iPod's have shipped with a fixed battery that's at best tricky to replace.  My guess is that the iPhone has penetrated a new segment of the market for Apple - a fickle market that's not all that brand-loyal - and tricks that Apple got up to with the iPod just don't wash for the iPhone.

I don't give these lawsuits much of a chance of success, but if Apple does start having to hand cash out to disgruntled customers I wouldn't be surprised to see thee things happening as a result:

• Apple getting hit by iPod battery lawsuits
• Apple investors getting nervous
• iPhone MKII will have a removable battery

Thoughts?