Poll:How often do you generally buy a new Mac?

[MacRumors]

Vote: Poll:How often do you generally buy a new Mac? (http://www.macpolls.com/?poll_id=51&ref=forums.macrumors.com)

[bousozoku]

I'm on my 4th now, but the 3rd is running right beside me also.

[SilvorX]

never..so far, gonna buy one in a month tho :)

[zimv20]

5 macs in 17 years, so between 3-4 years average.

[Hemingray]

Well, my G4 was the first Mac I've technically bought. All the previous Macs were either bought for me or I inherited from my dad's office. Since it's been 3 years now since I bought my G4, I'm going to say 3 years. Although it will probably be 4 before I even thinking of getting a new one...

[-hh]

I find these results to really be surprizing - - one of the big advantages that I've found with the Mac is that it didn't NEED to be replaced as frequently as a Windows PC (ie, on a 2-3 year replacement cycle).


Are these old machines really going out the door, or is there a trickle-down, so that they're really getting a 4+ year lifecycle out of them before they're old and gone?


-hh

[ddtlm]

-hh:

I've always thought that the "Macs last longer" argument was silly, but some people certainly will insist otherwise.

[Knox]

Originally posted by -hh
Are these old machines really going out the door, or is there a trickle-down, so that they're really getting a 4+ year lifecycle out of them before they're old and gone?[/B]
You're probably right about the trickle-down. I've bought 3 macs, with 3 years each between them. However, all 3 of them are still in use by multiple people - the first one is now 9 years old (i've had my current one for 3 years) or so.

[jelloshotsrule]

also, the users of this forum are generally prosumers at least... or at least crazy enough about macs to want to upgrade more often than joe consumer might....

so take that into consideration when seeing the high upgrade speed.

[scem0]

about every three years, I wish it was more often ;)...

[Durandal7]

About every 4 years. I'm due for a new one soon....

[job]

About every 3-4 years...

Like Durandal7, I'm also due for a nice tidy hardware update. :)

[marklander]

I'm on my 5th Mac starting with an SE in 1988...

Recently I've realized that there is always someone out there who will buy a used Mac so if you crave a new Mac, buy it...the sooner you sell your used Mac, the more you'll get for it.

I bought a flat-panel iMac in the spring but didn't like the screen resolution. When the 17" iMac came out, I decided to get it. A friend bought my old iMac for nearly list price so I only had to shell out a few hundred bucks (and the beautiful screen is worth it).

BTW, I also have a 3yr old iMac DV floating around. Currently it's taking up residence at another friend's who is contemplating a switch!!

[wdlove]

On my 5th since 1983!:)

[MacBandit]

I have found recently that for me this is totally dependent on the computer and the software that I am running. My first mac a Performa 600 I replaced in a year and a half for a PowerMac 7100. This was because the Performa was slow when I got it and I wanted something faster as soon as I could afford it. The PowerMac 7100 only lasted a year. For the same reason. It was replaced by a PowerMac 8500. It lasted for 2 years but I upgraded the CPU in that time. It was replaced by a B/WG3 400 which lasted for 3 years. It lasted that long because quite frankly for most of that time it was faster then I needed with a new graphics card and faster hard drive. Well I wanted to run OSX and the B/W just wouldn't cut it for me with X so I got a new Dual/GHz/DDR I fully expect this machine will last me at least 3 years. The difference is when I got the B/W it was fast enough that most of the time it did the task nearly as fast as I could respond (opening programs etc..). My new dual does things way faster then me so in comparrison this machine should last me even longer then the B/W. This is unless I have for some reason I have some extra cash and the new machines have quadrupled the speed of this thing (real speed not MHz).

For reference from tests I ran on my machines here is the real world speed comparisons of all the Macs I have owned.

Performa 600/33 030 kept 1-1.5years
PowerMac 7100/80 ppc601 twice as fast as the Performa. kept 1.5years
PowerMac 8500/120 ppc604 twice as fast as the 7100 kept 1year
PowerMac 8500/200 ppc604e upgrade twice as fast as the stock 8500 kept 1year
PowerMac B/W 400 G3 2-3x as fast as the 8500/200 kept 3 years
PowerMac Dual/Ghz/DDR G4 4-5x as fast as the B/WG3 current computer

So as you can see the newer computers have been much faster in comparison to the computers they replace and in turn I have kept them longer.

[TheMacOS.com]

was every 2-3 yrs for me, until the G4 towers came out.... my sawtooth is nearing 4 yrs old..... and it's so upgradable, I'm keeping my Mac's much longer these days. :)

upgrading is MUCH cheaper than a new mac. I've upgraded this many times, and their is still MORE room for growth. ;)

[Sparky's]

The glacial cycle of the ice ages comes to mind. I only bought one = G3-350 severely upgraded now though, but I own 4 (rescued from the dumpster at work, IIsi, Quadra 650, and a Umax S900 clone)

[miloblithe]

I'm on my fourth since 9/1993. . .
9/1993 Centris 610
1/1999 iMac 233
7/2001 iBook 500
10/2003 eMac 1Ghz

Really though, I think 3 years for a laptop and 4 years for a desktop is the standard.

My next Macs are going to be a 13" 2Ghz G5 powerbook, sometime in 2005, and a dual 4Ghz powermac, sometime in 2006.

[5300cs]

Since 2001, my entire collection:

iBook 800
iBook 500
550 TiBook
17" PowerBook
1Ghz MDD PowerMac
B&W PowerMac
1Ghz Xserve
20th Anniversary Mac
Mac Portable
etc, etc ...

[atari1356]

About every 3-4 years. Since 1983 I've owned:

Original Mac 128k (sold long ago, but wish I had kept it)
Mac IIsi
Powermac 6100
PowerBook Duo 2300
PowerBook (Pismo)

I'll probably buy a new PowerBook when Apple gets around to updating them again.