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Average Apple Device Lifespan Estimated at Just Over Four Years by Analyst

Yeah okay. Fake news. Here I have my MacBook Pro 2012. Runs like new. Battery replaced and swapped to Ssd and ram. Plus my iPad Air runs like new still
 
My 2011 iMac with the addition of SSD and 32GB RAM runs like a charm. Plus, I don't think I need an iMac anymore, so I'm not even looking at the later gen offerings...
 
Going back as long as I have been buying apple products (usually at introduction). I'd say the upgrade cycle is right around 4 years for us - maybe longer now with ssd upgrades and faster external storage options.

the imac g4 2002
power book g4 2003
mac mini 2006
imac 24 2008
macbook pro 15 2010
imac thin late 2012 - present
macbook pro 2013
macbook Pro 2016
Various ipods/ iphones/ ipads

Although I have upgraded on a shorter average, the products themselves have been handed down to family members and are all still operating.
 
Iphone 5S...2013, 5 years, still going strong
Mac Mini 2011 Edition, 7 years, still going strong
Original iPad, 2010, 8 years, still going strong, though the OS is outdated
iPod 5th Generation, 2012, 6 years, still going strong.


Plus a host of other Apple products. they last and work a long long time....
 
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My 1999 iBook Tangerine Clamshell is still kicking... don't use it for anything, but it works and can be used.
My 2002 Airport base station was still going strong into 2013, before it was packed away for being slow.
My 2005 Powerbook G4 is still going strong, and I use it to rip DVDs to digital files... doesn't work with the internet so well anymore, but it works for a lot of productive stuff.
My 2006 2.66 MacPro tower is going strong and sitting by my side. I use it mainly for CS3 work, still.
My 2006 ACDs died across the years... those had crappy life spans.
My 2011 Airport base station is still doing well and running strong.
My 2012 MacMini is doing this and is my everyday Mac.
My 2013 iPad is going strong, but it is slow compared to newer ones.
My 2013 iPodTouch is still in great shape and chugging.

My 2012 iPod Mini-Shuffle-Thingy died last year...

I'd agree that most products Apple makes have gone sour after 4 years, but few have died.
The problem is more about speed and current adaptability. The internet evolved beyond the graphics software and hardware of older Macs, the software and OS changed drastically across the past 10 years. etc.

iDevices tend to become very sluggish after the 4-year mark. The Macs (above base level) tend to go about 6 years before becoming "clunky". MacPros go 8 years and beyond, but should be traded off and renewed every 4 years--if you use it for income.
 
Maybe I don't understand how it works, but is this just the average lifespan of literally everything? From iPhone to iPod to Mac? What's the point then, as clearly Macs and iPads (as seen by the iPad 2) are going to last longer than four years for most people save for the tech enthusiasts that buy a new one every year, while an iPhone probably gets replaced and recycled/trashed via trade-in every 1-3 years

I guess it's an interesting random trivia fact lol. I'd rather know, for example, the lifespan of Macbook Pros with the pretty frequent dedicated GPU failures Apple has with them.
 
^^^ you clearly don’t understand statistics. LOL.

Average 4 years sounds about right. My iMac is 8 years and MacBook is 10 years. Funny I’ve gone through 5 phones in that time span. Clearly Apple builds obsolescence into the phones, bringing the average down to 4 years. Once they decide to start crippling the Mac via updates, that average will drop.
 
OllyW said:
My Mac mini is five years old. I didn't plan to keep it so long but Apple have failed to release a suitable replacement.
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Bought my 2012 Mac Mini about 6 months before the 2014 was introduced. Just had a gut feeling that the 2014 would be crippled. Decided to buy a 2015 refurb rMBP as the price was right (got a 2.8 for the 2.2 price) as backup, plus I wanted ports....not dongles and no reason for me to have touchbar at a much higher price.
Still use my PowerPC G5 tower from 2006 as I didn't want to reinvest in some of the software, plus still working just fine.

I would still buy a new Mac Mini if they up the specs (which I doubt). To me, Apple still needs a gateway unit. Maybe the modular Mac Pro will offer something...if it ever comes to being.

I have money, Apple...but nothing to buy...You haven't tempted me with something I don't need.
 
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With laptops, I can see that with those built-in batteries. Replacing it with even a base model of a newer laptop would give you more benefits than spending the money to upgrade the battery on the old laptop if you are using your laptop for business.
 
Wondering whether anybody here or the analyst knows the meaning of the word average or where best to use it.
 
I've squeezed quite a lot of life out of some of my devices.

I used my MacBook Pro for over 6 years, my iPhone 4 for 5 years and I'm still using the iPad Mini I bought over 5 years ago, although I desperately need to update that because it's painfully slow.

What's most amazing is that I bought a MacBook in 2010 and it lasted 6 years never once needing a repair. Meanwhile, I bought a new MacBook in 2016 and right now I'm having to live without it because it's in for it's SEVENTH repair. Oy vey.
 
manu chao said:
The only iPods in these numbers are the iPod touch sales (and compared to other iOS devices those sales were pretty low). When Apple releases numbers of active Macs separately, you can start differentiating between the two. You can of course also add a guess as to how long Macs are used and then backcalculate how long iOS devices are used.
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It doesn't matter what iPods were included, or if Macs COULD be separated. What matters is mixing in iPhones with Mac Pros with MacBook Pros with Apple TVs is as meaningless as a survey about what food is popular (but no brands, no differentiation between food types, etc.) They simply have no relationsahip to each other. Even intermingling different years of the same device (such as 2016 and 2017 MBPs) makes it fairly meaningless. Like items are the only ones that can be compared.
 
yaxomoxay said:
The fact that you assume that I was talking about myself is very telling.
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What a "I don't really know what to say" defense. What you stated in your comment is, after all, your opinion, isn't it? So of course you're talking about yourself in the sense that you hold the opinion that people have every right to replace their phones whenever they please. And of course, from a legal stand point this is entirely correct, but from a moral perspective, this is the mindset of a person who doesn't care about the consequences of our excessive consumption, and unfortunately, that's the mindset of the thoughtless majority.
 
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i guess it sounds right. it's heavily skewed by iphones. Plus even Apple watches sold and Ipads sold dwarfs the number of Macs sold.

I feel like I don't have the newest phone but it's a 32gb SE. It would be seen as a device that is not even 1 year old in this data since it came out March 2017.
 
I think there is a stark difference between 'functional lifespan', of which the article speaks, and 'per-user lifespan', which is the average amount of time being used by a single User.

For example, Apple's devices may have a functional lifespan of 5–6+ years, easy, but I keep all of my devices for 2 years max before I update/upgrade. If people are like myself, then the per-user lifespan is much less, and provides a value of how often the device has switched hands, similar to knowing the number of previous owners of a used car.

Personally, the per-user lifespan has more real-world relevance to me. I'd like to see that kind of metric.
 
My 8 Year old iMac is still spinning in my studio.. changed to ssd though, and now it’s even faster :p
 
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