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Comment by akshatpradhan | Hacker News Reader

>upgrade the machine in a pursuit of a more thinner machine

Why is hardware upgradeability so important? What's the harm in just upgrading to the next device?

Programmed obsolescence... The analogy is, buy a new car if your spare tire is flat

A better analogy would be: "buy a new car if you want a new engine or nicer seats". Which is what most people actually do.

Because not everyone can afford to just upgrade to the next device....?

Who needs to upgrade to the next device? More likely, you'll upgrade every N devices, where N depends on your personal needs.

This, incidentally, is almost certainly the purchasing behavior of the vast majority of computer owners. RAM and disk upgrades (particularly on laptops) are performed by a fairly tiny minority of consumers. Yet it seems disproportionately cited when shopping, likely due to an illusion of control or the laughable (in computing terms) myth of "future-proofing".

I'm speaking from experience. I'd really like to be able to add more RAM to my MacBook Air. 4GB isn't working out as well as I had hoped. I knew about the RAM being soldered to the MB when I bought it, but I figured I'd be financially able to upgrade by the time the amount of RAM it had became a problem. Unfortunately, I'm not able to do that. I cannot afford to upgrade.

Also, I do upgrade every N devices. I'm not someone that buys the new model everytime they release one. I guess I should have phrased it "because not everyone can afford to upgrade to a new device".

You may be able to sell it, then buy the same model secondhand, with more ram.

Doubling the RAM, replacing the disk, or buying new batteries are all much cheaper than acquiring a new laptop. Not everybody can treat a US$1299 device as disposable.

Besides, when I pay a premium price for a product I expect it to be useful for more than a couple of years.

From what I can see apple laptops have a longer working life than other higher end laptops, there must be a reason 2010 macbook airs are still selling on ebay for $400+.

Sure they do. My mother is still using my MacBook white 2008, which I upgraded from 1GB to 4GB RAM and replaced the battery. I also expect to get at least two more years from my MacBook Pro 2012 after upgrading my disk to a SSD and the RAM to 16GB.

I was specifically replying to this comment:

> Why is hardware upgradeability so important? What's the harm in just upgrading to the next device?

Not everybody has the money to buy the next device, so upgrading is a great option to get a couple more years of work from a little old but otherwise solid laptop.

Apple laptops have their share of woes (see the video issues on earlier Macbook Pros).

But, whatever the reason, Apple hardware tend to hold on to its value longer, without doubt.

I recently sold my 2010 13' Macbook Air, dented and with a cracked screen a for 300$ on ebay (and I expected more based on similar auctions), about 1/4 the price of a new model for a broken 4.5 years old model.

Technically you could just upgrade every year and recoup at least 60%-70% of the original price.

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