I still have a 2011 era MacBook that I can use, and was very pleasant to use until an OS update a couple of years ago.
But that was because I was able to upgrade the RAM, the SSD, and replace the battery.
None of those things are possible with macs from the last few years, so their longevity is much more likely to resemble phones than older macs.
We've solved the storage latency and throughout bottlenecks, scheduling, and CPU core counts, so we don't really need beaucoups of RAM for a functional laptop.
RAM bandwidth doubles with each generation and throughout and latency improve, so less is needed for the same performance.
Batteries are relatively inexpensive to replace through the vendor are improved in energy density, energy density, and cycles, so there's not a big advantage to buying aftermarket even though you can.
For 2014-2016 Macs with flash storage, they're still pretty great to excellent machines. The greatest detriment to the longevity of 2017-2019 Macs is that they contain Intel components, and that every release of MacOS since High Sierra has been designed adversarial against their security flaws. Costco was practically giving away Intel iMacs recently, offering them almost half off.
Also, I remember benchmarking on apfs post-mitigations and seeing up to a 40% performance loss on some syscalls, which translated to an unusable computer on dual core Intels or anything with mechanical storage. How would upgrading components have helped then?
RAM bandwidth is improving a lot faster than its latency. (The latter is almost as stagnant as max CPU clock frequencies.)
They downclock the CPU on mobile devices as the battery ages, to keep the CPU from browning out so you
My system, made in 2013, won't be supported by the next OS release this coming fall, but they usually continue security updates at least one release behind. That's basically ten years of hardware support.
Keep in mind that Windows 10 came out in 2015. A ton of manufacturers simply did not support windows 10 on hardware sold before it, because win10 coming out helps them move new PCs.
Apple leads the industry in using slave labour to create disposable fashion items.
https://9to5mac.com/2021/05/10/seven-apple-suppliers-alleged...
Mac hardware holds value because it's well built, supported for a long time, has specs that are enough for a wide range of users...
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For every power user running through battery cycles every day, there's people who just need a solid well built machine and won't feel the need to upgrade just because their machine gets less battery life, or a given IDE needs more RAM.
Those people don't replace hardware because it's broken, they replace it because it feels old. Design wise, materials wise, etc. Not having crummy bloatware slowly accreting gigabytes of junk and a dozen extra startup items.
Compare a sub $1000 M1 Air to any other sub $1000 laptop coming out today. You'd be incredibly hard pressed to find anything even half as well designed... that's how you get people to keep their hardware.
I sold it last month to pick up a new 2021 MacBook Pro M1 Max. I bought it with 32GB RAM and a 1TB SSD because I don't need anymore, 8 years later. And the i7 I had still beat out last years base model on Geekbench.
I would be OK with my M1 Air performing in a similar way.
My iPhone came out around the same time and Apple is planning to support devices several generations older than mine with iOS 16...
Just saying.
Otherwise, yeah! My wife has an older iPhone still nicely supported, and older than my Note.
My last Mac was a 2012 i7. I used it 6, 7 years? It is still useful, but got coke on keyboard! I fixed it myself last time. Not doing it again.
I wouldn't choose that kind of uncertainty.