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Comment by bambax | Hacker News Reader

I love when people say that and apparently think it's admirable/amazing that a device would still work 6 years after its release.

But most devices used to work a lifetime. My motorcycle was made in 2009 (14 years ago) and is in pristine condition. The previous one was over 25 years old when it got stolen (by someone, presumably, who thought it was worth the risk). Blenders from the 40s still work. Not to mention non-electrical tools like hammers and such, which last for generations.

Parts of my home desktop computer are over 15 years old; the case itself was made in the 1990s.

It's one thing to get newer devices that do new things, and quite another to have to throw away old ones that should still be working fine.

Phones have no moving parts, there's no good reason they should become obsolete.

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Well, the iPhone from 2009 was an iPhone 3GS, it had a 320x480 screen, 256MB of RAM and only supported 3G - a networking standard that has been turned off by the major carriers.

If your motorcycle only supported leaded gas could you use it?

> Phones have no moving parts, there's no good reason they should become obsolete.

You’re right, Apple should have made it so the cell radio supported wireless standards that didn’t even exist at the time.

>only supported 3G - a networking standard that has been turned off by the major carriers.

Remember, the US is not the world. What major carriers do in the US is not necessarily a global fact. Where I live 2G and 3G is still a fallback if 4G or 5G doesn't work. It will continue to be that way until 2025.

>If your motorcycle only supported leaded gas could you use it?

Google lead replacement additive or think about whether the engine could be rebuilt/replaced on a motorcycle. I certainly would prefer an engine rebuild/replace over replacing a modem in an iPhone 3GS.

>the iPhone from 2009 was an iPhone 3GS, it had a 320x480 screen, 256MB of RAM

The iPhone from 2009 wasn't that impressive in specs compared to other phones at the time. My even older 2.5G dumbphone had higher PPI on the screen and could run useful j2me apps. In 2010, the iPhone 4 came, had a 640x960 screen and 512MB of RAM. The fact that the specs could be doubled within a year shows that the earlier 3GS wasn't pushing anything spec wise.

> Remember, the US is not the world. What major carriers do in the US is not necessarily a global fact. Where I live 2G and 3G is still a fallback if 4G or 5G doesn't work. It will continue to be that way until 2025.

And it’s two largest markets - the US and China don’t support 3G GSM. What’s the market share of iPhones in your country?

> even older 2.5G dumbphone had higher PPI on the screen and could run useful j2me apps

J2ME games weren’t nearly as advanced as App Store games. The App Store was introduced a year before the iPhone 3GS came out.

> If your motorcycle only supported leaded gas could you use it?

Yes! It was the case with the previous one (the one that got stolen); all I had to do was add a few drops of a special liquid every time I filled her up. No problem at all.

If the iPhone emitted toxic poisons on a daily basis, yeah, we'd want to ban it too. But it doesn't.

Also the original iPhone from 2006 had bluetooth and wifi -- so there's that.

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