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The economics of a extremely large machine with thousands of parts are different than the economics of a $150 piece of electronics with 4 parts. I'm not sure w

The economics of a extremely large machine with thousands of parts are different than the economics of a $150 piece of electronics with 4 parts. I'm not sure why this surprises people.

wlesieutre 6y ago
I'm not surprised, I just think Apple could do more to keep old devices in use if they were really concerned about it. Going 100% carbon neutral on your supply chain is great, but it's even better to just make and dispose of less stuff to begin with. The economic incentives of selling gadgets less often obviously don't line up with making Apple more money, but neither do all of their other environmental initiatives. Some things they do because it's the right thing to do. On the phones side I'm holding them to a high standard, knowing they already do a better job keeping phones useful compared to any of their competition. I don't think that's the case for laptops and other devices where there are serviceable alternatives though; I see a lot more old ThinkPads in use than I do old MacBooks. That's probably because an old laptop still gets OS updates, and other manufactures make more repairable laptops than Apple does. Apple's gadgets (laptops and everything else) eventually hit limited software support.
- ogre_codes 6y ago
  > The economic incentives of selling gadgets less often obviously don't line up with making Apple more money... I disagree. Longevity is a big part of why I buy Apple products. Laptops that last 8-10+ years and the fact that they hold enough resale value that I can sell it used when I need to upgrade are massive selling points. Likewise the fact that I get 4-5 years of useful (supported) life out of the iPhone versus 2-3 for Android phones. > I don't think that's the case for laptops and other devices where there are serviceable alternatives though; I see a lot more old ThinkPads in use than I do old MacBooks. My MacBook is 8 years old and will likely be in use for at least a few more years. Pretty much every Mac I've owned has lasted for a decade or I've sold it while it was still running. As I said above, reliability is a big chunk of why I started buying Macs. Apple's single standout reliability on MacBooks as far as I know is that keyboard issue.
  - wlesieutre 6y ago
    YMMV I guess. My Mac longevity has been less impressive, MacBook Pro I got for college lasted 4 years and then went totally unbootable, and the Air replacing had its audio inputs/outputs die around 3 years. I dragged that one out for a while longer with bluetooth headphones and replaced it when the 2016 MBPs launched, which as you mentioned have keyboard problems. Otherwise still solid, so maybe this will be my first 8-year Mac. My iPhone SE 2016 is >4 years though, so I'm doing above average on that one at least.

The economics of a extremely large machine with thousands of parts are different than the economics of a $150 piece of electronics with 4 parts. I'm not sure why this surprises people.

wlesieutre 6y ago

I'm not surprised, I just think Apple could do more to keep old devices in use if they were really concerned about it. Going 100% carbon neutral on your supply chain is great, but it's even better to just make and dispose of less stuff to begin with. The economic incentives of selling gadgets less often obviously don't line up with making Apple more money, but neither do all of their other environmental initiatives. Some things they do because it's the right thing to do. On the phones side I'm holding them to a high standard, knowing they already do a better job keeping phones useful compared to any of their competition. I don't think that's the case for laptops and other devices where there are serviceable alternatives though; I see a lot more old ThinkPads in use than I do old MacBooks. That's probably because an old laptop still gets OS updates, and other manufactures make more repairable laptops than Apple does. Apple's gadgets (laptops and everything else) eventually hit limited software support.

ogre_codes 6y ago
> The economic incentives of selling gadgets less often obviously don't line up with making Apple more money... I disagree. Longevity is a big part of why I buy Apple products. Laptops that last 8-10+ years and the fact that they hold enough resale value that I can sell it used when I need to upgrade are massive selling points. Likewise the fact that I get 4-5 years of useful (supported) life out of the iPhone versus 2-3 for Android phones. > I don't think that's the case for laptops and other devices where there are serviceable alternatives though; I see a lot more old ThinkPads in use than I do old MacBooks. My MacBook is 8 years old and will likely be in use for at least a few more years. Pretty much every Mac I've owned has lasted for a decade or I've sold it while it was still running. As I said above, reliability is a big chunk of why I started buying Macs. Apple's single standout reliability on MacBooks as far as I know is that keyboard issue.
- wlesieutre 6y ago
  YMMV I guess. My Mac longevity has been less impressive, MacBook Pro I got for college lasted 4 years and then went totally unbootable, and the Air replacing had its audio inputs/outputs die around 3 years. I dragged that one out for a while longer with bluetooth headphones and replaced it when the 2016 MBPs launched, which as you mentioned have keyboard problems. Otherwise still solid, so maybe this will be my first 8-year Mac. My iPhone SE 2016 is >4 years though, so I'm doing above average on that one at least.