Probably because it's designed to prevent smaller smartphone companies from ever being able to get a leg up on the larger ones. When you can get a smartphone at WalMart for $10 there comes a point where it doesn't really make sense to offer parts / repair services for it. When you're forced to by law, all of a sudden it doesn't make much sense to sell cheap burners anymore. I can see why Apple wouldn't want to be forced to do repairs on Joe Slump the Midget's smartphone that he tried to replace the glued in LI-ION battery on himself that caught on fire. As it is, my understanding is that the "warranty void" stickers on the back of PlayStation / Xbox game consoles don't mean diddly-squat because they're already bound by law preventing them from being able to enforce that.