What the heck do you think resale price is based upon??? How nice a useless paperweight looks on your desk? Hardly. It's based a lot on longevity.
I think the "heck" that it's based on a NUMBER OF FACTORS, not some meaningless drivel term you call "longevity". Longevity is subjective when it comes to computing. I could argue my C64 has meaningful longevity even today as long as I still play games on it. Longevity is thus defined by usefulness and that is going to depend on the individual. My 1st generation iPod Touch has TONS of "longevity" left in it (I use it nearly every day for a large number of different activities), yet Apple abandoned support for it already. Meanwhile, a brand new Mac Pro might have no longevity at all for someone that needs a faster GPU that Apple doesn't/won't offer.
No sir, I'm afraid resale price is defined by something much simpler than subjective usefulness terms. It's defined by market demand. The higher the demand, the higher the resale value. No demand = low to no value. High demand = higher value. Ability to run current software at acceptable speeds is a possible FACTOR within that demand, but so might also be aesthetics, rarity, special hardware, collect-ability (e.g. The "Cube"), expandability (e.g. my PowerMac was still useful when I bought it over 3 years ago BECAUSE it's expandable whereas an iMac from the same period in 2001 was pretty much worthless at the same show ($250 versus $50 at the computer show).
But here your idea of longevity is DIRECTLY affected by Apple's articial decision whether to support it in the next OS revision or to let certain features operate on it regardless of whether the hardware can support it or not. This is what is relatively new and it's where my complaint lies. Previous Apple hardware got support for a relatively long period of time. Apple has been steadily decreasing that amount of time in recent years. If anything, computer hardware has more "longevity" today than ever because most software used on a daily basis will run just fine on a 5-year old machine. In fact, unless you're running the latest games or some specialized software like video editing, there is very little "need" for a newer computer. How different is this with the iPhone in hardware (rather than Apple simply dumping it?). If you're running the newest games, perhaps the iPhone 3G isn't good enough. Other than a higher definition camera and a few other niceties, the experience just isn't that much different. Surfing the web is surfing the web even on my 1st generation iPod Touch. Like anything, the longevity entirely depends on what you're using it to do. There are some OS9 systems that are more than adequate to check e-mail and do home shopping off Amazon.com. Whether you need to upgrade will depend entirely on your needs and the availability of software to meet those needs. The latter is where Apple is interfering with "longevity" by artificially making their products obsolete in a relatively short period of time.
I'd be willing to bet a higher percentage of Macs are in service for a longer amount of time than PCs on average. This has been my personal experience, and based on the resale Mac market I'd say my experience is typical. Nothing epitomizes disposable technology these days better than your average craptastic PC.
When you use terms like "craptastic PC" I know that you are biased right off the bat. I don't think much of the opinions of fanboys, to be honest.
And you're hyping the fact that and old PC can run an old OS (XP)???
No, apparently you cannot read. I'm saying that an old PC from 2001 running XP can run iTunes 10 while a PPC Mac running Tiger that is 5 years newer CANNOT. It is amusing that Apple themselves support "craptastic PC(s)" from 2001 and do not support much of their own hardware from 2006. There is a reason for this, of course. They want PC users to buy stuff from the iTunes store so they support as many as possible while they want Mac users to buy more hardware more than just junk from the iTunes store so they try to push them into buying hardware as often as possible.
Whoopee. I suppose you should be thanking Apple that they still cater to creaky-old XP with the latest version of iTunes.
I couldn't care less, really. It's beside the point. The point has to do with Apple's business tactics that put the consumer and consumer support way behind their greedy desire to try and force as much high-priced hardware sales as often as possible. I personally find this morally reprehensible. I want a company to woo me to buy a new product, not threaten to dump my old hardware I bought in hopes I will buy something newer.
If you hate Apple's upgrade cycle and their pricing there's an easy solution: don't buy their stuff. If enough people join you, Apple will change its ways
to meet your demands by offering cutting edge hardware at bargain prices that lasts forever.
I don't buy all their stuff. I buy what I need and if they don't offer what I want I'll go Hackintosh instead. If I need a PC I will buy one. I don't play Apple's games and praise them every time they screw me over like some on here do all the time (Hail Jobs!
)
And RIM, WinPho7 (impending) and Android currently see hardware made obsolete much faster than iOS, FYI, if the hardware isn't running an old
Those companies don't make iPod Touch type devices. I don't own an iPhone dude and I couldn't care less about them because $70+ a month will buy me a brand new MBP over the course of the contract. I don't need a smart phone that bad. An iPod Touch + pre-pay phone is close enough for me and costs me $8 a month on average.
version of the OS right out of the box. If you're outraged at Apple, you'll really blow a gasket if you buy a device from one of the competitors.
But you should try it and see.
I have no intention of buying either. I've got better things to do with $70 a month and better ways to spend my time than playing "hello Kitty" talk with all my friends. "What'cha doing now guy?" 'Nothing, just hanging and chillin. What you up to buddy?" "Nothing, just wasting my time talking to you about nothing instead of watching where I'm driving on the road." (CRASH) 'What's that sound dude?"
This. Even though you sound a bit like a conspiracy theories, your right. The iPhone (and all iOS devices) are not even 5 years old. There should be no need to upgrade this early on. Also, it's stupid not to include the Game Center in the 3G because other games have had these features working on the exact same device before hand!
I just put iTunes 10 on my PowerMac and not only did it screw around with most of my column settings and will no longer resize artwork to any size you want (the "large" artwork isn't very large at all on big monitor, IMO), but I finally decided to take a look at the "Books" category while I was at it and I found it amusing that you can listen to an audiobook from iTunes directly (or any device that will play those audio files), but you apparently CANNOT *READ* a book unless you "sync to an iPad" first.
WTF!?!?! iTunes is incapable of displaying the text of a book unless it's on an iPad??? What a crock. Conspiracy theories indeed. I don't own an iPad and don't want one. But I might want to buy an eBook and read it on my MBP or Netbook. I guess not, at least not through iTunes. I still say iTunes could use a photo viewer since it syncs photos to a number of devices. Then it would be a true all media type player (save all the formats it won't handle).
