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I have a simpler explanation. Apple would prefer people buy new phones than repairing old phones because they make more money that way. One way to accomplish th

I have a simpler explanation. Apple would prefer people buy new phones than repairing old phones because they make more money that way. One way to accomplish that is to make the phone harder/riskier to fix. That said, I think Apples success is mostly inertia at this point: demand in the secondary market keeps resale prices high which quickens the new device cycle. As long as it costs less to sell the broken one and buy a new one, that will be the path people take when there is an issue.

GW150914 8y ago
Apple’s success is first and foremost a result of the walled garden that so many here love to hate. A vast majority of people would rather know that whatever they download from an App Store isn’t a scam or malware than almost anything else. People want their phone to just work, they don’t want to tinker with the damned thing.
- JTbane 8y ago
  Agreed- I dislike Apple for many reasons, but I cannot deny that they make computing extremely intuitive and easy for many people.
- freehunter 8y ago
  I'll admit that's the only reason I bought an iPhone in the first place, and why I bought into more Apple products over time. I couldn't trust myself to not break my phone trying to tinker with it (bricked a Palm Pre and then two Android phones after that, all my fault), so I got one where no matter what I did, it was phone first and computer second. Then HP shut down Palm and my HP Touchpad stopped getting updates, so I installed Android but the experience was never what I wanted from it, so I got an iPad to replace it. And then my Windows machine broke down (because of a bad repair I had made) and trying to fix it broke it even further (my fault), so I went out and bought a Macbook. I got sick of being my own tech support. I do that stuff all day at work and when I get home I'm tired of it. If I have to fix my computer, I'm probably going to rush through it and make it worse, because I really don't want to be doing it in the first place. I want to be using it, not dinking with it. Same reason I ditched my old fix-me-up beater car for something with a warranty: I needed a car that started every time I turned the key. I haven't opened my own hood since, and it's taken a lot of stress off of my mind.
  - magduf 8y ago
    It sounds like your problem isn't getting the wrong products, your problem is tinkering with things. Buying Apple stuff isn't the answer here, the answer is to just not tinker if you don't need to.
    - pvg 8y ago
      It sounds like a really good answer born from experience and self-awareness. Your answer is 'don't buy stuff that mitigates your problem, undergo a corrective personality reconstruction instead'. This seems like a lot more work than just buying an iPad and getting on with your life.
      - magduf 8y ago
        I don't see how you need to reconstruct your personality to avoid tinkering with things. Just don't do it. I'm a tinkerer too; all you have to do is realize that you have limited time and attention, and then consciously decide to focus your tinkering time on only specific projects, and ignore other ones. Make a priority list perhaps. This takes some willpower obviously, but it's no different than any other undertaking where you're deciding to make a change in your life and do something different (e.g., you decide you want to eat better, exercise more, try socializing more, act better towards people, etc.).
ceejayoz 8y ago
> Apple would prefer people buy new phones than repairing old phones because they make more money that way. I'm dubious of this. They could easily do this on the software side, but don't. A five year old iPhone 5S is still supported as of iOS 12; some Android devices are sold already unsupported. Only two percent of devices run 8.1! https://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/ https://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/

GW150914 8y ago

Apple’s success is first and foremost a result of the walled garden that so many here love to hate. A vast majority of people would rather know that whatever they download from an App Store isn’t a scam or malware than almost anything else. People want their phone to just work, they don’t want to tinker with the damned thing.

JTbane 8y ago
Agreed- I dislike Apple for many reasons, but I cannot deny that they make computing extremely intuitive and easy for many people.
freehunter 8y ago
I'll admit that's the only reason I bought an iPhone in the first place, and why I bought into more Apple products over time. I couldn't trust myself to not break my phone trying to tinker with it (bricked a Palm Pre and then two Android phones after that, all my fault), so I got one where no matter what I did, it was phone first and computer second. Then HP shut down Palm and my HP Touchpad stopped getting updates, so I installed Android but the experience was never what I wanted from it, so I got an iPad to replace it. And then my Windows machine broke down (because of a bad repair I had made) and trying to fix it broke it even further (my fault), so I went out and bought a Macbook. I got sick of being my own tech support. I do that stuff all day at work and when I get home I'm tired of it. If I have to fix my computer, I'm probably going to rush through it and make it worse, because I really don't want to be doing it in the first place. I want to be using it, not dinking with it. Same reason I ditched my old fix-me-up beater car for something with a warranty: I needed a car that started every time I turned the key. I haven't opened my own hood since, and it's taken a lot of stress off of my mind.
- magduf 8y ago
  It sounds like your problem isn't getting the wrong products, your problem is tinkering with things. Buying Apple stuff isn't the answer here, the answer is to just not tinker if you don't need to.
  - pvg 8y ago
    It sounds like a really good answer born from experience and self-awareness. Your answer is 'don't buy stuff that mitigates your problem, undergo a corrective personality reconstruction instead'. This seems like a lot more work than just buying an iPad and getting on with your life.
    - magduf 8y ago
      I don't see how you need to reconstruct your personality to avoid tinkering with things. Just don't do it. I'm a tinkerer too; all you have to do is realize that you have limited time and attention, and then consciously decide to focus your tinkering time on only specific projects, and ignore other ones. Make a priority list perhaps. This takes some willpower obviously, but it's no different than any other undertaking where you're deciding to make a change in your life and do something different (e.g., you decide you want to eat better, exercise more, try socializing more, act better towards people, etc.).

ceejayoz 8y ago

> Apple would prefer people buy new phones than repairing old phones because they make more money that way. I'm dubious of this. They could easily do this on the software side, but don't. A five year old iPhone 5S is still supported as of iOS 12; some Android devices are sold already unsupported. Only two percent of devices run 8.1! https://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/ https://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/