Over the years I owned an original Mac notebook (1999 time frame), a dual processor G4 desktop, and later 2 Macbooks (first one was stolen), and then a MacPro 1,1 quad core desktop (upgraded to six processors), and later a 2015 Macbook Pro.
I also had an Apple iPad version 2.0 – which was basically bricked by an iOS update that used more memory than the prior iOS version – causing the iPad to become unusable. This problem was widely reported online, at the time – but there was no way to go back to the prior iOS version. Apple killed my iPad 2 after I had had it for about a year. I switched to Android and have not looked back.
I had this short-lived Macbook:
The shortest-lived Mac is the late 2008 version of the white MacBook, which only received 2.7 years of new macOS updates and another 3.3 years of security updates from the time it was introduced.
Source: Some Macs are getting fewer updates than they used to. Here’s why it’s a problem | Ars Technica
Because of when I bought it in the life cycle, they announced end of support about 3 1/2 years after I bought it, which was not good. Short product life is a problem with Apple products. I tend to use my hardware for many years – and do not upgrade annually to the latest hardware – there is no need to do so.
Some argue that we should replace our systems every other year and sell the old one as “used” to make it someone else’s problem.
The short life cycles I encountered caused me to gradually shift over to Windows-based systems. I still have my 2015 Macbook Pro (4-year product life from when it was discontinued), and my 2006 MacPro desktop. The 2015 high end Macbook Pro, with two GPUs on board, benchmarks about 2x faster than the 2006 Mac Pro – and today, of course, it needs a battery replacement. Those systems have a lot of computational horsepower and it seems weird to otherwise have to throw away the hardware (environment anyone?)
I have now migrated to Windows-based systems and think it unlikely I will purchase another Apple Mac. They are nice systems, of course, but I would like to use them for more years than Apple supports them, whereas Windows systems tend to be supported for much longer time periods.
Based on my experience, I cannot trust that Apple will provide me with products that will last for the period of time that I intend to use them – so I no longer buy Apple products.
Here is a spreadsheet that tracks Apple product life – since I tended to buy products near what would later turn into the discontinuance date of the product, support lasted only a few years.
