Since when is it “sad” for PCs to last longer than a couple of years?
When was the last time you upgraded your computer? This year? A couple of years back? Five years ago? Five years! What are you, some kind of charity case? Well, that’s what senior executives at Apple think of you.
Speaking at the latest Apple launch – where the company “revolutionised” the iPhone by returning it to the size it was five years ago – chief marketing guru Phil Schiller issued a withering put-down to anyone who refuses to chuck out their hardware every couple of years. “There are over 600 million PCs in use today that are over five years old,” Schiller told the audience. “This is really sad. It really is.”
No, Phil, it’s not. It’s a sign that most people either don’t have the money or the will to adhere to Apple’s relentless upgrade cycle, where anything more than a couple of years old is instantly deemed obsolete.
When did making hardware that’s built to last become “sad”? Manufacturers used to take pride in the longevity of their products, as did the customers who bought them. Nowadays, technology is so disposable that even an iPhone costing the thick end of £800 comes with only a “one-year limited warranty” – half the duration of the mobile contract that you typically take out alongside it.
Apple likes to portray itself as the world’s greenest tech company, producing environmental reports for every product it makes to show how much it cares about the planet, and then it lets rip at 600 million people who are preserving the Earth’s resources by refusing to replace perfectly functional hardware. And before you try to argue that modern hardware is more energy efficient and better for the environment than a clunking five-year old PC, take a look at Apple’s environmental report on its MacBook: 84% of the greenhouse gas emissions created during the product’s entire lifecycle come from the manufacture of the laptop, with a further 3% in transporting it to the customer and 1% from recycling. Only 12% comes from the customer’s usage of the device. Unless your old computer requires its own petrol-powered generator, sticking with what you’ve got is almost certainly better for the environment.
There are many things wrong with Windows 10, but arguably the best thing about it is that it has exactly the same system requirements as Windows 7, which was launched in 2009. That £500 PC you bought back when Gordon Brown was prime minister should still be able to run the very latest Windows operating system today. That’s not something to be ashamed of – it’s a massive improvement over the days when a new version of Windows meant another trip to PC World to pick up another beige box.
And while Apple’s latest version of OS X is technically supported on Macs stretching as far back as 2007, if you want to take advantage of its best new features – such as the ability to take calls on your computer or share files via AirDrop – you basically need a Mac that was bought from mid-2012 onwards. That “free” upgrade to the latest version of OS X comes at quite a cost if you need to buy a new Mac to take advantage of its bells and whistles. That is sad. It really is.