No question, but the point is that Apple is producing disposable products whereas cars/appliances are not
Tim Cook had bemoan the fact that people opted for battery replacement instead of buying new phones
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Disposable Tech - Airpods Pro (non repairable)
- Thread starter golfnut1982
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Tim Cook had bemoan the fact that people opted for battery replacement instead of buying new phones
It's a different industry. The term is "durable goods." Cars and those kind of appliances are meant to be owned and used 10+ years. Even if you turn in your car in after a few years when the lease expires, it will likely get resold as a used vehicle.
Do you ever eat prepackaged food? Do you grow your own vegetables? What sort of lightbulbs do you use? Are you pissed off that you can't change the filament in an incandescent lightbulb?
What do you think the average Samsung Galaxy owner does with this phone after two years?
Consumer electronics has a word in it that describes what kind of electronics it is. They aren't durable goods. There really isn't much debate about what type of things fall into the durable goods category.
Personal consumer electronics certainly do not. You'll never hear economists arguing that AirPods Pro should be compared to an automobile in terms of repairability.
A lot of technologists can't see the forest for the trees.
Do you ever eat prepackaged food? Do you grow your own vegetables? What sort of lightbulbs do you use? Are you pissed off that you can't change the filament in an incandescent lightbulb?
What do you think the average Samsung Galaxy owner does with this phone after two years?
Consumer electronics has a word in it that describes what kind of electronics it is. They aren't durable goods. There really isn't much debate about what type of things fall into the durable goods category.
Personal consumer electronics certainly do not. You'll never hear economists arguing that AirPods Pro should be compared to an automobile in terms of repairability.
A lot of technologists can't see the forest for the trees.
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I buy all the newest tech stuff when they become available for purchase if it’s something I’m interested in. Doesn’t matter if it’s a marginal upgrade, as long as it’s an upgrade. I welcome change and new technology. If AirPods Pro 2 became available tomorrow, I’d be owning them by tomorrow even though I just bought my APP a few months ago. Money is earned to purchase goods and services which is what I do with it.
To the person who said TVs did not last decades, My Zenith from 1988 would like a word with you. That thing was bought at Risley's Audio and Video (a local store that sold high-end and expensive electronics) and it's never seen a repair. It only has one little glitch--in high humidity (common in a garage) the degauss relay starts getting clicky and messes with the picture. Some good ol'e "Percussive maintenance" (hitting the top of it lightly) will fix it.
I am just upset that most tech today is disposable and intentionally so. IF your fancy Samsung Smart TV dies it is garbage fodder. Or more expensive to repair than to replace. E-waste IS a problem whether folks choose to believe it or not. It costs resources that are finite to produce new goods that only last a couple years at best (or till the warranty expires). The way people are today they replace things that still work for some new shiny phone they never needed. Their old one would still function just fine.
There used to be a thing known as loyalty to a company who produced decent goods. Folks would buy that RCA or Zenith and pay more doing so because they expected it to last. They did. People also knew basic repair and most grandparents today can still work on their old car or refrigerator. Look at the difference between an unpowered reel mower and one of those self-propelled mostly plastic lawn mowers that break in a year or two. People used to be a lot stronger. Backpack blowers all made of metal and weighed tons compared to the plastic-trons we see now with underpowered engines.
Now a company seems capable of keeping a customer base when they produce things that break in a year or so. It's awful. The only reason customers don't stop buying from them like they would in the '70s is because marketing and tech reviewers sell the new products and make people think they need it. Most phones today are meant to last to the contract period and ironically break when it's due for upgrade. People hardly own their smartphones today. They 'rent' them over a 2-year cycle. Cars are getting this way too. Leasing is more common than owning. Cars are also becoming fashion and people 'upgrade' in 5 years.
I don't understand why folks think old cars didn't last. They required more maintenance (I'll not disagree that EFI is far superior to carburetors) but folks knew how to do it. There's a reason a modern car has a ton more of those 'idiot lights' on the dash. My great grandfather's last car was a 1985 Mercury Grand Marquis LS (the good panther platform that's dead today
) and when he died in 1997 that thing was still pristine. Even in his old age he meticulously cared for that car. It still smelled new inside. I wanted it as I had just gotten my driver's license. Sadly mom thought it was too big for me and some young kid bought it at auction and trashed it (he turned it into a hoopty and ruined it in a wreck)
We need to get off the cycle that tells us we NEED new things all the time. Most of the time our stuff ain't broke but we replace it because fashion or because everyone else has it. That's a dumb mindset IMO. But because we are intent on buying and buying and buying companies make things designed to break.
If you don't believe that old stuff was made to last, just view some of the videos on YouTube from Shango066 and RadioTVphononut. Listen to them-they know what they're talking about.
As for the power consumption/efficiency argument, does the amount of resources to produce new goods that are more efficient offset the cost to simply keep the old stuff going?
I am just upset that most tech today is disposable and intentionally so. IF your fancy Samsung Smart TV dies it is garbage fodder. Or more expensive to repair than to replace. E-waste IS a problem whether folks choose to believe it or not. It costs resources that are finite to produce new goods that only last a couple years at best (or till the warranty expires). The way people are today they replace things that still work for some new shiny phone they never needed. Their old one would still function just fine.
There used to be a thing known as loyalty to a company who produced decent goods. Folks would buy that RCA or Zenith and pay more doing so because they expected it to last. They did. People also knew basic repair and most grandparents today can still work on their old car or refrigerator. Look at the difference between an unpowered reel mower and one of those self-propelled mostly plastic lawn mowers that break in a year or two. People used to be a lot stronger. Backpack blowers all made of metal and weighed tons compared to the plastic-trons we see now with underpowered engines.
Now a company seems capable of keeping a customer base when they produce things that break in a year or so. It's awful. The only reason customers don't stop buying from them like they would in the '70s is because marketing and tech reviewers sell the new products and make people think they need it. Most phones today are meant to last to the contract period and ironically break when it's due for upgrade. People hardly own their smartphones today. They 'rent' them over a 2-year cycle. Cars are getting this way too. Leasing is more common than owning. Cars are also becoming fashion and people 'upgrade' in 5 years.
I don't understand why folks think old cars didn't last. They required more maintenance (I'll not disagree that EFI is far superior to carburetors) but folks knew how to do it. There's a reason a modern car has a ton more of those 'idiot lights' on the dash. My great grandfather's last car was a 1985 Mercury Grand Marquis LS (the good panther platform that's dead today
) and when he died in 1997 that thing was still pristine. Even in his old age he meticulously cared for that car. It still smelled new inside. I wanted it as I had just gotten my driver's license. Sadly mom thought it was too big for me and some young kid bought it at auction and trashed it (he turned it into a hoopty and ruined it in a wreck)We need to get off the cycle that tells us we NEED new things all the time. Most of the time our stuff ain't broke but we replace it because fashion or because everyone else has it. That's a dumb mindset IMO. But because we are intent on buying and buying and buying companies make things designed to break.
If you don't believe that old stuff was made to last, just view some of the videos on YouTube from Shango066 and RadioTVphononut. Listen to them-they know what they're talking about.
As for the power consumption/efficiency argument, does the amount of resources to produce new goods that are more efficient offset the cost to simply keep the old stuff going?
Like the technologists, there are others who don't see the forest for the trees either.
If you are a professional gardener, wearing an extra 10-20 pounds on your back all day does not result in a better quality of life. In fact, this is the type of thing that will drive a gardener into early retirement.
There's a reason why some of this stuff is lighter and moved to plastic. And there is nothing new about any of this.
Heck, my (male) scuba instructor back in the Nineties said that the best thing that ever happened to the sport was women. The scuba gear industry had tried to make things slightly smaller and pink. The women didn't buy into that crap. They complained that the gear was too heavy, too uncomfortable, didn't fit well/baggy in the wrong places/too tight in the wrong places, etc.
Same with camping gear. No one hikes around with canvas tents and steel poles anymore. It's all lightweight synthetic fiber (that won't absorb a ton of water when wet) and carbon fiber. Look at the modern military. They aren't carrying around the same gear as WWII soldiers.
Hell, if you can flight nonstop from LA to Auckland, it's because today's planes are better than DC-3s. Speaking about flying, do you still use the same leather-and-wood luggage from seventy years ago that grandma used? The ones with no wheels? They still hold stuff, just like today's plastic/nylon luggage with the four spinner wheels, telescoping handles, expandable zippers.
And today's construction workers don't take metal lunch pails with those glass Thermos bottles to job sites. They take insulated Igloo coolers, some are probably cooled via the truck's 12V socket in the passenger compartment, etc.
There's also a noise component to leaf blowers. Hearing damage is cumulative. Having quieter motors and better designed nozzles to more accurate put the air where you need it to go is an improvement. Same with air dryers.
It's also more pleasant for the people who are surrounded by these infernal devices. My complex's landscaping crew fire up their leaf blowers twice a week. I happen to live on the edge of my complex, so I get noise from the adjacent complex's landscaping crew, despite the fact that my HOA dues don't pay for them. That's right: four days a week I hear leaf blowers.
Heck, some cities around here have banned the use of gas-powered leaf blowers, not just for environmental reasons.
Hell, frankly I'd prefer if the landscaping staff used rakes instead of leaf blowers. But in fact, they do. If I'm lounging at the swimming pool when the landscaping crew comes by to do a pass, they switch to manual tools.
Taking the high and almighty "old ways are better than new ways always" is short sighted.
At least in some cities around here, fire up your super-loud and powerful gas-powered leaf blower and you may get a cease-and-desist order from local law enforcement.
Do you have kids? If so, do they only wear natural fiber clothes? Leather shoes that are resoled regularly? Do they bring fountain pens, refillable piston cartridges and inkwell jars to school? Because the disposable ink cartridges are wasteful.
We get it. You are saving a bunch of money by using old things. But sometimes sticking with old things isn't an improvement in the quality of life.
I like old things too, the average age of my wristwatches is probably 20 years. My car is 15 years old.
But I am not so stupid enough to think that spending $150-200 on a dishwasher repair call is better than getting a new one. Did you know that today's dishwashers use less electricity AND less water? Same with clothes washers. Yeah, your 30-year-old top-loading laundry machine is something that one won't see much in Europe today.
The "holier than thou" stance is really, really hard to defend. Do you really think you have a solid grasp on these issues from a macro viewpoint?
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You really seem to care a whole lot about how others decide to spend their money with the insults. May be a dumb mindset to you for those that enjoy tech upgrades, but it’s a cheap mindset to me for those that hoard old crap. You keep doing you. WE don’t NEED to do a thing.To the person who said TVs did not last decades, My Zenith from 1988 would like a word with you. That thing was bought at Risley's Audio and Video (a local store that sold high-end and expensive electronics) and it's never seen a repair. It only has one little glitch--in high humidity (common in a garage) the degauss relay starts getting clicky and messes with the picture. Some good ol'e "Percussive maintenance" (hitting the top of it lightly) will fix it.
I am just upset that most tech today is disposable and intentionally so. IF your fancy Samsung Smart TV dies it is garbage fodder. Or more expensive to repair than to replace. E-waste IS a problem whether folks choose to believe it or not. It costs resources that are finite to produce new goods that only last a couple years at best (or till the warranty expires). The way people are today they replace things that still work for some new shiny phone they never needed. Their old one would still function just fine.
There used to be a thing known as loyalty to a company who produced decent goods. Folks would buy that RCA or Zenith and pay more doing so because they expected it to last. They did. People also knew basic repair and most grandparents today can still work on their old car or refrigerator. Look at the difference between an unpowered reel mower and one of those self-propelled mostly plastic lawn mowers that break in a year or two. People used to be a lot stronger. Backpack blowers all made of metal and weighed tons compared to the plastic-trons we see now with underpowered engines.
Now a company seems capable of keeping a customer base when they produce things that break in a year or so. It's awful. The only reason customers don't stop buying from them like they would in the '70s is because marketing and tech reviewers sell the new products and make people think they need it. Most phones today are meant to last to the contract period and ironically break when it's due for upgrade. People hardly own their smartphones today. They 'rent' them over a 2-year cycle. Cars are getting this way too. Leasing is more common than owning. Cars are also becoming fashion and people 'upgrade' in 5 years.
I don't understand why folks think old cars didn't last. They required more maintenance (I'll not disagree that EFI is far superior to carburetors) but folks knew how to do it. There's a reason a modern car has a ton more of those 'idiot lights' on the dash. My great grandfather's last car was a 1985 Mercury Grand Marquis LS (the good panther platform that's dead today
We need to get off the cycle that tells us we NEED new things all the time. Most of the time our stuff ain't broke but we replace it because fashion or because everyone else has it. That's a dumb mindset IMO. But because we are intent on buying and buying and buying companies make things designed to break.
If you don't believe that old stuff was made to last, just view some of the videos on YouTube from Shango066 and RadioTVphononut. Listen to them-they know what they're talking about.
As for the power consumption/efficiency argument, does the amount of resources to produce new goods that are more efficient offset the cost to simply keep the old stuff going?
It depends on where you live and what the laws are.
Out here: it's not allowed to put any e-waste in the portion that goes to the landfill. If you do and get caught (unlikely for something as small as an airpod - but those breaking the law will do it for bigger things as well and then the odds of getting caught become more significant), you'll get fined.
There's a requirement for us to either
- Turn it in with where you buy the replacement (they *have* to accept it for free - no matter who made it originally and they have to recycle it)
- Turn it in in a recycle center (virtually any town will have one or more of those - there's one within walking distance from where we live) - also for free.
Since batteries (rechargeable or not) also fall under similar rules, supermarkets etc. that sell them have a box where you can return any used battery at will.
But devices with batteries in them or any electronics, tv's, washing machines, fridges, and their attributes: it all goes into the e-waste fraction.
The cost of recycling is paid for with every single purchase as an added tax (it's small enough nobody notices it -e.g. for an apple TV 4K it 4 cents) , but it's included in every purchase of anything that meets the criteria and it's included in the quoted price).
For those wondering: yes it means we have to sort our waste or get in trouble. But it's really not all that big a deal to be honest. Paper, plastics, metal, e-waste, certain packaging (e.g. plastic bottles, cans), glass, dangerous stuff, compostable, and the "rest". There's also an economic driver to do it properly as the rest is the most expensive to get rid of, while the others are cheaper or free to get rid off.
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And how many people will actually properly dispose of replaceable batteries instead of simply throwing them away?
It probably depends on the region and individual situation.
In some places, separating garbage and recyclables is well developed. In other places, not so much.
At least here in America, many refuse processors will sort through waste at the transfer station. So if Joe Consumer tosses batteries into the trash, it might end up in the e-waste pipeline after triage at the transfer station.
All of that takes effort which translates to higher cost. When municipalities have detailed, highly nuanced recycling programs, it's to reduce the work that the refuse processor needs to do.
Even then, there's stuff they don't mention. When you finish a drink bottle, do you screw the cap back onto the bottle before you toss it into the recycling bin? Guess what? Those are typically two different types of plastics and need to be separated for correct processing. Municipalities don't bring this up otherwise it might discourage people from recycling plastic bottles. Thus, there's an additional cost associated with removing plastic bottle caps from plastic bottles. The recycling industry refers to these as "contaminants."
All those different numbers on plastic containers? Yeah, that means a different recycling process. But we just toss everything into the bin. It's the transfer station that needs to separate everything out. No one would recycle if we were required to put #4 plastic in the #4 recycling bin. Human laziness is a big factor in how municipalities and other organizations run their recycling programs.
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AFAIK out here the bottles with the caps on them are shredded and then the resulting chips are sorted automatically. (based on color or density - not sure about which method they use nowadays) No human involved to do anything. Wages are way too high out here to pay anybody to do that kind of stuff.
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To the person who said TVs did not last decades, My Zenith from 1988 would like a word with you. That thing was bought at Risley's Audio and Video (a local store that sold high-end and expensive electronics) and it's never seen a repair. It only has one little glitch--in high humidity (common in a garage) the degauss relay starts getting clicky and messes with the picture. Some good ol'e "Percussive maintenance" (hitting the top of it lightly) will fix it.
I am just upset that most tech today is disposable and intentionally so. IF your fancy Samsung Smart TV dies it is garbage fodder. Or more expensive to repair than to replace. E-waste IS a problem whether folks choose to believe it or not. It costs resources that are finite to produce new goods that only last a couple years at best (or till the warranty expires). The way people are today they replace things that still work for some new shiny phone they never needed. Their old one would still function just fine.
There used to be a thing known as loyalty to a company who produced decent goods. Folks would buy that RCA or Zenith and pay more doing so because they expected it to last. They did. People also knew basic repair and most grandparents today can still work on their old car or refrigerator. Look at the difference between an unpowered reel mower and one of those self-propelled mostly plastic lawn mowers that break in a year or two. People used to be a lot stronger. Backpack blowers all made of metal and weighed tons compared to the plastic-trons we see now with underpowered engines.
Now a company seems capable of keeping a customer base when they produce things that break in a year or so. It's awful. The only reason customers don't stop buying from them like they would in the '70s is because marketing and tech reviewers sell the new products and make people think they need it. Most phones today are meant to last to the contract period and ironically break when it's due for upgrade. People hardly own their smartphones today. They 'rent' them over a 2-year cycle. Cars are getting this way too. Leasing is more common than owning. Cars are also becoming fashion and people 'upgrade' in 5 years.
I don't understand why folks think old cars didn't last. They required more maintenance (I'll not disagree that EFI is far superior to carburetors) but folks knew how to do it. There's a reason a modern car has a ton more of those 'idiot lights' on the dash. My great grandfather's last car was a 1985 Mercury Grand Marquis LS (the good panther platform that's dead today
We need to get off the cycle that tells us we NEED new things all the time. Most of the time our stuff ain't broke but we replace it because fashion or because everyone else has it. That's a dumb mindset IMO. But because we are intent on buying and buying and buying companies make things designed to break.
If you don't believe that old stuff was made to last, just view some of the videos on YouTube from Shango066 and RadioTVphononut. Listen to them-they know what they're talking about.
As for the power consumption/efficiency argument, does the amount of resources to produce new goods that are more efficient offset the cost to simply keep the old stuff going?
I didn’t say no TV lasted back in the day. You intimated that you longed for the days when people bought one car for life and TVs lasted decades. I simply pointed out that TVs did, indeed, break with regularity (and were expensive to buy and had far fewer features than modern TVs). I could, likewise point out that I own a modern smart TV that is 10 years old now and happily working problem-free. Both examples are mere anecdotal evidence worth little in the long run.
Your lawn mower comment made me laugh. People said the same thing about “horseless carriages” around 1905.
I’ll say again—romanticizing the past is a waste of time. The good old days were not as good as you’d like us to believe. Time marches on despite the protestations of luddites.
It still costs money for the triage to separate bottles with caps and bottles without caps. And of course, the recycling process that deals with the mixed plastic source is probably less efficient than the one with the pure source.
Cost is not strictly human effort based. In any case, someone had to come up with a process to do all of this. Someone still needs to make sure it happens correctly.
The recycling process doesn't run on autopilot.
For sure there is a human element. Otherwise the USA wouldn't have shipped all of their recycling to China. Even China got a clue and raised their rates to the point where shipping US recyclables to China isn't cost effective anymore.
Recycling is a fairly fluid industry. What happened 10 years ago probably isn't what's happening today.
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Just for the record, my dishwasher (an Estate by Whirlpool dated 2013) did indeed die mid-rinse not a few weeks ago. It was completely dead. Most would have paid for a service call because no one teaches basic repair skill in school anymore. I was taught--by my great grandfather. I know how to use a multimeter and discovered the lid switch was bad. It was pennies at best. Many would have just bought a new one and most service folks aren't service folks at all, only salesmen. It's a toss and replace world.
Also, those so-called HE washing machines. Did you know they actually waste far more water than those 30 years ago? Ever had one go unbalance? An avocado-colored 1975 Kenmore would buzz and the cycle would pause if it were unbalanced. A new 'high efficiency' washer would drain, spin slightly, refill, drain, and repeat until the 'problem' is cleared. Many have indeed been surprised with a $500 water bill from it. Instead of pausing/cancelling a cycle during an unbalance situation, it would just waste water trying to fix it via computer of some sort.
$500 water bill? LOL, never heard of it. Your unit was simply defective and you didn't accept it. Or you're just making stuff up.
Assuming, you actually repaired your washing machine (how convenient that it failed a couple of weeks ago after I mentioned it), that's great.
I picked one item in your litany of nonsense. Would you like me to pick apart the rest of that post?
Sorry, I won't. It would be too boring.
But enjoy your noisy, energy sucking old appliances. Even if you did fix it, you're still paying higher electricity rates for your old "durable goods" appliances that aren't as energy efficient as the newer ones.
There's a reason why governments have offered rebates for the installation of modern consumer appliances like refrigerators and washing machines.
And enjoy listening to those noisy leaf blowers. My AirPods Pro blocked out that crap when I was at the pool this afternoon.
You saved a few bucks but at a loss of quality of life. Something you refuse to address even now... A lot of people here live in a world of denial.
And I note that you ignored comments about kids. Well, do you have them or not? Kids are a big money suck. Sure, that WWII surplus backpack can hold as much stuff as the latest backpack from Target, or the one your grandma repaired for you. What are your kids taking to school?
Let me guess: you are one of those people who refer to purchases as "investments."
But keep on posting. This is bound to end up somewhere absolutely hilarious.
Assuming, you actually repaired your washing machine (how convenient that it failed a couple of weeks ago after I mentioned it), that's great.
I picked one item in your litany of nonsense. Would you like me to pick apart the rest of that post?
Sorry, I won't. It would be too boring.
But enjoy your noisy, energy sucking old appliances. Even if you did fix it, you're still paying higher electricity rates for your old "durable goods" appliances that aren't as energy efficient as the newer ones.
There's a reason why governments have offered rebates for the installation of modern consumer appliances like refrigerators and washing machines.
And enjoy listening to those noisy leaf blowers. My AirPods Pro blocked out that crap when I was at the pool this afternoon.
You saved a few bucks but at a loss of quality of life. Something you refuse to address even now... A lot of people here live in a world of denial.
And I note that you ignored comments about kids. Well, do you have them or not? Kids are a big money suck. Sure, that WWII surplus backpack can hold as much stuff as the latest backpack from Target, or the one your grandma repaired for you. What are your kids taking to school?
Let me guess: you are one of those people who refer to purchases as "investments."
But keep on posting. This is bound to end up somewhere absolutely hilarious.
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Wasn't my unit that had the $500 water bill. It was on another forum. They ended up buying a SpeedQueen which is like the old units but made today. My washer isn't an HE model (my dryer is). It's one of the last American Made GE units. If it goes unbalance it shows 'UL' on it and shuts down. Mom has a Whirlpool Cabrio however that is HE and I've caught it doing the 'spin, drain, refill, spin' attempt to 'fix' an unbalance multiple times. No telling how much water is wasted in that 'feature'.
As for kids, no I don't have any and don't plan to. Also, my quality of life is just fine thank you very much. Fact is the world can't remain livable with this constant dispose and replace mentality. Sorry if the truth offends some folks here but it's a reality. E-waste is a huge problem and unfettered consumerism isn't going to go away until things change.
It wasn't my washing machine that died it was a dishwasher. It died a few weeks before your post. Not after. It cost nothing for me.
As for kids, no I don't have any and don't plan to. Also, my quality of life is just fine thank you very much. Fact is the world can't remain livable with this constant dispose and replace mentality. Sorry if the truth offends some folks here but it's a reality. E-waste is a huge problem and unfettered consumerism isn't going to go away until things change.
It wasn't my washing machine that died it was a dishwasher. It died a few weeks before your post. Not after. It cost nothing for me.
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Not one bit. If it breaks I’ll buy new ones. Many things are less repairable then they once were. Often people just throw away items that are repairable to get new ones. I’ve had many wired headphones short out and never took them into a repair shop to get fixed. I don’t know anyone who has done this either. I guess if they were a $500 pair of headphones you might do this but normal consumer grade products just get replaced.
I think if you’re environmentally conscious recyclability might be a consideration but repairability just isn’t a thing anymore.
My advice is simple. Instead of bitching about things not lasting, either don't buy them or like me, chose carefully and buy less. I travel the world 9 months of the year by making a living running my own sport marketing digital business and guess what tech I own? A MacBook and an iPhone and that's it! I'm not dragged down or left unhappy by things going wrong or taking my money. I prefer to spend my money on organic food, fitness, travel and experiences that i'll remember when I get old.
I do have AirPods Pro and I love them and you have to realise that these are a very different product than the big headphones that a person may listen to at home. From my friends and myself who have AirPods, we use them every day! Running on the track, gym, walking into the city, travelling to vacations etc. They are in use constantly. Nothing is going to last forever in an environment like that and for me, when I had wired earphones, after 1 year, the cable would always snap around the headphone jack - even on the Kevlar cable Atomic Floyd earphone Superdarts at £200 - even though their sales speak spoke so highly of this unbreakable cable!
For me, the AirPods Pro are definitely worth the investment as I use them every day and I enjoy their reliability and user experience. If they stop working in 2 or 3 years time, their will be an advanced range of AirPods by Apple by then. But remember, tomorrow is never guaranteed - so enjoy the moment guys!!!
Buying less = more freedom to enjoy life
I do have AirPods Pro and I love them and you have to realise that these are a very different product than the big headphones that a person may listen to at home. From my friends and myself who have AirPods, we use them every day! Running on the track, gym, walking into the city, travelling to vacations etc. They are in use constantly. Nothing is going to last forever in an environment like that and for me, when I had wired earphones, after 1 year, the cable would always snap around the headphone jack - even on the Kevlar cable Atomic Floyd earphone Superdarts at £200 - even though their sales speak spoke so highly of this unbreakable cable!
For me, the AirPods Pro are definitely worth the investment as I use them every day and I enjoy their reliability and user experience. If they stop working in 2 or 3 years time, their will be an advanced range of AirPods by Apple by then. But remember, tomorrow is never guaranteed - so enjoy the moment guys!!!
Buying less = more freedom to enjoy life
I have enough "things" to last a lifetime since I'm not the kind to toss out still-working devices and I have repaired any that broke. I have stopped buying new things and the last new things I did buy were Apple products based on past experiences of Apple devices that lasted well over 10 years.
I would never buy AirPods since they don't appear to meet my standard for electronics (must last 10+ years and be repairable). I just cannot justify e-waste nor contribute to it. We need to start focusing on the first two "Rs" of instead of the third so much. Recycling takes resources and energy, but reducing consumption and reusing what you got costs nothing. Stop treating phones and tech as a form of fashion.
I know it probably makes folks here angry but I do feel quite concerned with the lack of repair skills in the later generations and the disposable mindset that one needs a new phone when it releases and replacing things that still work for the myth that 'newer is ALWAYS better'. It's an unsustainable mindset and the only way that will ever change for the better is when we stop feeling we need to own every new thing. The fact that not much is really changing in smartphones anymore helps a bit. But that will likely change once again once the 'next big thing' happens. It's a bit scary and a sign of the times when I walk around a junkyard and see cars and trucks that are the year 2010 and up, and in even nicer shape than what's on the road. Most are newer than my vehicles. Are people simply junking cars because they desire a new one and not even selling them? or are they made with lousy quality control? Seriously there's a 2011 Pacifica in the junkyard with 118K miles on it. So much for the myth that newer vehicles last longer than the old ones.
I would never buy AirPods since they don't appear to meet my standard for electronics (must last 10+ years and be repairable). I just cannot justify e-waste nor contribute to it. We need to start focusing on the first two "Rs" of instead of the third so much. Recycling takes resources and energy, but reducing consumption and reusing what you got costs nothing. Stop treating phones and tech as a form of fashion.
I know it probably makes folks here angry but I do feel quite concerned with the lack of repair skills in the later generations and the disposable mindset that one needs a new phone when it releases and replacing things that still work for the myth that 'newer is ALWAYS better'. It's an unsustainable mindset and the only way that will ever change for the better is when we stop feeling we need to own every new thing. The fact that not much is really changing in smartphones anymore helps a bit. But that will likely change once again once the 'next big thing' happens. It's a bit scary and a sign of the times when I walk around a junkyard and see cars and trucks that are the year 2010 and up, and in even nicer shape than what's on the road. Most are newer than my vehicles. Are people simply junking cars because they desire a new one and not even selling them? or are they made with lousy quality control? Seriously there's a 2011 Pacifica in the junkyard with 118K miles on it. So much for the myth that newer vehicles last longer than the old ones.
As always let's focus on Apple but think about the wider picture. Consider just how many budget end laptops, phones, tablets and other devices there are out there. How many will try and repair a $100 device after 2 years of use or just throw it in the bin and buy a new $100 device? Most.
Household appliances, TV, Washers and all the rest. The relatively small difference often encountered between new and repair leads people to replace more often than repair.
And on it goes. Apple is a very small part of the total problem.
Household appliances, TV, Washers and all the rest. The relatively small difference often encountered between new and repair leads people to replace more often than repair.
And on it goes. Apple is a very small part of the total problem.
Weird, because the last model year was 2008.
Chrysler Pacifica (crossover) - Wikipedia
It’s a free country so I’m not against your stance of buying only things that can be repaired and must last 10 or more years but this is not practical or reasonable for most people. In addition to having a Mac I also have a gaming PC and five years is about the maximum lifespan of a gaming PC. Also when it comes to phones I couldn’t imagine keeping the phone for 10 years. That would mean I would have an iPhone 4 ????
I agree!
Imagine someone replacing batteries in Airpods or APP and using some questionable components which end up exploding in your ear.
Then people would bash Apple for it.
The moment you can replace them somehow, people will try the DIY to save money for sure.
Errr... 3GS's are cool again! Nostalgia has brought them back in a big, big way. Try wielding that 3GS at a 2020 party and you'll be mobbed with admiring glances. 3GS Rocks!
Still have my 3GS and 4S. The 3GS shows it’s charging but never turns on. Guessing the battery is so bad it won’t hold anything as it’s charging. The 4S is disturbingly slow and sluggish and battery dies within an hour. Somehow, it also completely corrupted my whole HomeKit setup.
Has nothing to do with not being cool. Has to do with functionality, performance and productivity. Plus you can’t get all the new features of subsequent iOS updates. If they still worked good, I’d rock them and I advocate upgrading tech with every new model released, which is what I do. iPhone, Watch, iPad, AirPods, etc... Things get old. Time to move on.
Has nothing to do with not being cool. Has to do with functionality, performance and productivity. Plus you can’t get all the new features of subsequent iOS updates. If they still worked good, I’d rock them and I advocate upgrading tech with every new model released, which is what I do. iPhone, Watch, iPad, AirPods, etc... Things get old. Time to move on.