5 ms·

I think my own personal anecdote is indicative of the majority's experience. It's telling how long ago all the personal electronics in my house were acquired:

I think my own personal anecdote is indicative of the majority's experience. It's telling how long ago all the personal electronics in my house were acquired: 2009- My personal PC. Used heavily and daily, 3 monitors, 2 mice, gaming and development. 2011- iPhone4S, wife's phone still in use today. 2011- Nook Simple Touch. 2013- Dell Haswell i5, wife's laptop. 2015- My phone is an iPhone5S. I love this phone. I was on an upgrade treadmill for the last 5 years though with Android. Having gone through 3 phones in that time. Each with the hope I was getting the 'iPhone' of the Android world and never found it (ended on the Samsung GS3 on Cyanogenmod). Including the infamous HTC Thunderbolt. HTC found a good way to get people to replace their device.. The only thing I intend to replace on this list before it breaks is my personal machine built in 2009. That only for VR (something like this with a video card from this summer's selection http://pcpartpicker.com/p/m2gN3C http://pcpartpicker.com/p/m2gN3C), which may put me on a replacement treadmill again. If I don't buy a VR headset this year, I'll probably stick with Intel NUCs, particularly Skull Canyon with Iris Pro for the foreseeable future. That may also put me back to more frequent upgrades since the GPU is limited enough to warrant a new NUC in a year or two. I'm fairly into my devices and there's really little hook IMO for most people to replace anything. Maybe if one has a strong desire for "latest and greatest" but I don't unless I need it. Unless you're on some sort of higher powered gaming treadmill and even then I've been using one from 2009 to this day. Granted, it was born with a $600 Intel 160GB X25-M SSD among other pretty good items that held the test of time. In Apple's case, they have incentive to have a device last as long as our 4S as the business model is predicated on the AppStore ultimately. Not many businesses are as vertically integrated though so it's a problem when sales decline ~10% for everyone else.

camillomiller 11y ago
Dude, stop, you're spoiling the shared certainty that companies are fucking us up with their planned obsolescence conspiracy! We need to believe!
nemothekid 11y ago
>they have incentive to have a device last as long as our 4S as the business model is predicated on the AppStore ultimately The incentive your touting doesn't really match reality. At the start of 2015, Apple made $7.5B in revenue from the App Store cumulatively ($3B in 2014). Apple made $10B from the iPhone in Q1 2011, and has only been growing from there. The AppStore, like Apple's many other software departments, contributes a fraction of what the high-margin hardware business brings in. https://www.apple.com/pr/library/2015/01/08App-Store-Rings-in-2015-with-New-Records.html https://www.apple.com/pr/library/2015/01/08App-Store-Rings-i... http://www.statista.com/statistics/263402/apples-iphone-revenue-since-3rd-quarter-2007/ http://www.statista.com/statistics/263402/apples-iphone-reve...
- BuckRogers 11y ago
  That's irrelevant to the point made. The incentive existing and being stronger for some more than others, is entirely unrelated to the actual profits brought in currently. It's a longterm plan, and I believe good for the environment and consumer.
  - hollerith 11y ago
    So, you concede grandparent's point that Apple's revenue from (smartphone plus tablet) hardware sales is and always has been at least 10 and probably 20 times as much as revenue from the (smartphone and tablet) App Store, but you won't retract your statement that Apple has "an incentive for [their hardware] to last" a long time "as the business model is predicated on the AppStore ultimately"? Can you point to any statement by a leader at or spokesperson for Apple that suggests that that is Apple's long-term plan? Apple's cost for manufacturing and delivering to a customer a new iPad or iPhone (and providing post-sale support and warranty service) is only 60 or 70% of the selling price of that iPad or iPhone -- the rest is pure profit for Apple (provided they would have been profitable without that one additional sale -- provided, that is, that revenue is enough to cover the "fixed" costs such as design and engineering). If their "marginal" cost were 99% of the selling price, then it might be different, but the way it is now, surely the more iPads and iPhones Apple sells, the more profit they make. And since that is the case, in what sense does Apple have an "incentive" to make it so that any customer replaces his iPad or iPhone less often?
    - BuckRogers 11y ago
      I disagree with the premise that it's a point at all. Certain hardware is hot right now but it won't be forever (ask Dell and HP).

camillomiller 11y ago

Dude, stop, you're spoiling the shared certainty that companies are fucking us up with their planned obsolescence conspiracy! We need to believe!

nemothekid 11y ago

>they have incentive to have a device last as long as our 4S as the business model is predicated on the AppStore ultimately The incentive your touting doesn't really match reality. At the start of 2015, Apple made $7.5B in revenue from the App Store cumulatively ($3B in 2014). Apple made $10B from the iPhone in Q1 2011, and has only been growing from there. The AppStore, like Apple's many other software departments, contributes a fraction of what the high-margin hardware business brings in. https://www.apple.com/pr/library/2015/01/08App-Store-Rings-in-2015-with-New-Records.html https://www.apple.com/pr/library/2015/01/08App-Store-Rings-i... http://www.statista.com/statistics/263402/apples-iphone-revenue-since-3rd-quarter-2007/ http://www.statista.com/statistics/263402/apples-iphone-reve...

BuckRogers 11y ago
That's irrelevant to the point made. The incentive existing and being stronger for some more than others, is entirely unrelated to the actual profits brought in currently. It's a longterm plan, and I believe good for the environment and consumer.
- hollerith 11y ago
  So, you concede grandparent's point that Apple's revenue from (smartphone plus tablet) hardware sales is and always has been at least 10 and probably 20 times as much as revenue from the (smartphone and tablet) App Store, but you won't retract your statement that Apple has "an incentive for [their hardware] to last" a long time "as the business model is predicated on the AppStore ultimately"? Can you point to any statement by a leader at or spokesperson for Apple that suggests that that is Apple's long-term plan? Apple's cost for manufacturing and delivering to a customer a new iPad or iPhone (and providing post-sale support and warranty service) is only 60 or 70% of the selling price of that iPad or iPhone -- the rest is pure profit for Apple (provided they would have been profitable without that one additional sale -- provided, that is, that revenue is enough to cover the "fixed" costs such as design and engineering). If their "marginal" cost were 99% of the selling price, then it might be different, but the way it is now, surely the more iPads and iPhones Apple sells, the more profit they make. And since that is the case, in what sense does Apple have an "incentive" to make it so that any customer replaces his iPad or iPhone less often?
  - BuckRogers 11y ago
    I disagree with the premise that it's a point at all. Certain hardware is hot right now but it won't be forever (ask Dell and HP).