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Comment by jqpabc123 | Hacker News Reader

save a hundredth of a cent per laptop

If only it was just about the cost of paint. I suspect this is really something more sinister --- engineered obsolescence.

A significant portion of the Apple cult mystic is built around status, image --- and let's be honest, pure BS.

What does a devout Apple acolyte with an old, scratched up, obsolete looking laptop do? Of course he buys a new one!

This is legally a much safer way to promote upgrades and boost sales than installing a software update to slow the old one to a crawl. When the latter approach was tried, it cost them half a billion dollars.

https://www.classaction.org/blog/apple-will-pay-up-to-500-mi...

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OTOH, I've got a bunch of MacBooks from 2012, 2014 and 2015 that are still running fine. Just bought a "scratch & dent" 2018 iPad for < $200 and it's just fine.

If that's "planned obsolescence", I'm just happy to be downstream of it ;-)

still running fine.

This is not about how it *runs* but rather how it *looks*. They tried altering how some of their older hardware *runs* and were successfully sued for it.

I'm just happy to be downstream of it ;-)

So you'd be ecstatic if they installed a software update on your old laptop that intentionally degraded performance? Lucky for you, they probably won't try this stunt again after getting their hand smacked for it.

> So you'd be ecstatic if they installed a software update on your old laptop that intentionally degraded performance?

Where did he ever say that? The point is as overpriced as Apple is (or may have been, before people point out that some Apple ARM computers are good value), it can be surprisingly durable and reliable. As mentioned you can get an old iPad second-hand for pretty cheap and it still gets updated and works fine.

My best friend is still using the iPhone 6S he bought 7 years ago, only replacing the battery once and received all the latest updates and was running fine (he won't get this year's major release, but it barely adds anything anyway).

Yes Apple is a shitty company, with shitty practice, and has a bunch of braindead fanatics. But some of their products are great, and especially if you look at the second-hand market you can get great value for your money.

Where did he ever say that?

I never said he did. Notice the question mark at the end of my line. A question is not an attribution.

He did say he was happy to be downstream of Apple's "planned obsolescence". I simply asked about the kind of "planned obsolescence" that Apple has been successfully sued for.

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