<story><title>Determining the Average Apple Device Lifespan</title><url>http://www.asymco.com/2018/03/01/determining-the-average-apple-device-lifespan/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>oflannabhra</author><text>1) 2&amp;#x2F;3 of devices Apple has ever sold remain in use today [0]&lt;p&gt;2) The average lifespan of an Apple device is 4.25 &lt;i&gt;years&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;That should put to rest the &amp;quot;Apple&amp;#x27;s planned obsolescence&amp;quot; narrative, but I doubt it will. I think it has always been the case that Apple cares about building really good hardware that lasts. That&amp;#x27;s not to say that they don&amp;#x27;t make mistakes (they do), but they care most about making something good, regardless of the &amp;quot;business case.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;On the most recent earnings call, several investors had questions about how Apple&amp;#x27;s new battery replacement program would affect business. For example, would the cost bring down profits, would the replacement prevent upgrades, etc. Tim&amp;#x27;s response was:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt;On the battery, Toni, we did not consider it in any way, shape, or form what it would do to upgrade rates. We did it because we thought it was the right thing to do for our customers. And sitting here today, I don’t know what effect it will have. And again, it was not in our thought process of deciding to do what we’ve done. [1]&lt;p&gt;[0] - &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.asymco.com&amp;#x2F;2018&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;27&amp;#x2F;the-number&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.asymco.com&amp;#x2F;2018&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;27&amp;#x2F;the-number&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt; (this does not include iPods, I don&amp;#x27;t think)
[1] - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;sixcolors.com&amp;#x2F;post&amp;#x2F;2018&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;this-is-tim-transcript-of-apples-q1-2018-earnings-call&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;sixcolors.com&amp;#x2F;post&amp;#x2F;2018&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;this-is-tim-transcript-of...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Determining the Average Apple Device Lifespan</title><url>http://www.asymco.com/2018/03/01/determining-the-average-apple-device-lifespan/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>SpikeDad</author><text>My Apple &amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;e is still running. My Newton 2100 is still running. My iPhone 5s is still running on original batter (on iOS 11 to boot). My MBP 2011 is still running (albeit with new SSD).&lt;p&gt;Sadly my Macintosh Portable isn&amp;#x27;t running but that&amp;#x27;s only because the batteries are dead and I haven&amp;#x27;t refurbished them yet.&lt;p&gt;No other hardware I&amp;#x27;ve ever purchased has run for that long. My Palm Pilot is dead. My Treo is dead.&lt;p&gt;No one who says Apple builds in planned obsolescence has probably never used any Apple hardware.</text></comment>