The iPhone doesn't become a brick if the battery dies. Just because the battery isn't user removable doesn't mean it isn't removable. For $20, I can buy a new battery for the very first iPod, released in 2001, without a user removable battery. That same iPod would still attach to my 2008 computer, and work as it did in 2001.

I'll agree planned obsolescence is indeed a dirty revenue stream. But that statement doesn't apply to Apple products.