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how long before you upgrade(d) ?

T

Transmogrified

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 17, 2005
4
0
India
I'm just wondering how long you guys over here tend to hold on to your iBook(MB)/PowerBooks(MBP) before upgrading. Hopefully that'll give some sorta trend as to which of these two family of notebooks hold their value (to their owners) longer.

I currently own a (dead) iBook G3 and plan to purchase a MBP soon. My iBook lasted me a good 5 years until its display and power adapter stopped working almost at the same time last month. I'd be more than happy if i could get that kinda mileage out of my (soon to be) new machine :)
 
i had an ibook g4 for a little over three years before i replaced that with a macbook this past december. i'm replacing that macbook with a macbook pro i just ordered this morning. i know, i'm weak. :eek:
 
Transmogrified said:
I'm just wondering how long you guys over here tend to hold on to your iBook(MB)/PowerBooks(MBP) before upgrading. Hopefully that'll give some sorta trend as to which of these two family of notebooks hold their value (to their owners) longer.

I currently own a (dead) iBook G3 and plan to purchase a MBP soon. My iBook lasted me a good 5 years until its display and power adapter stopped working almost at the same time last month. I'd be more than happy if i could get that kinda mileage out of my (soon to be) new machine :)
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I always promise myself that I will hold on to a new apple laptop for three years. Unfortunately I'm addicted and tend to upgrade every year or so. I usually am able to sell my old one, put in a few hundred bucks and get a newer one. With the MBPs, however, selling them at a good price won't be as easy so I intend to change my ways.

The only computers I've kept for longer is a pismo and lombard - they're still great after almost 8 years, but don't have the power I currently need.

For normal people, I'd say 3 years is reasonable and makes sense in terms of the value of an upgrade. It doesn't make sense to upgrade unless there is something you really need...
 
I'm VERY weak, usually either selling/upgrading or just outright buying another one after 6 months to a year. Oddly, my wife is not amused by this charming quality of mine.
 
I'm serious, but I'm turning over a new leaf. (Don't want the spouse to poison my morning coffee.) I'm getting a 17" high-res SR and then committing to no new Mac purchases for at least 2 years, no matter what.

We'll see how that works out. :rolleyes:
 
xpovos said:
I'm serious, but I'm turning over a new leaf. (Don't want the spouse to poison my morning coffee.) I'm getting a 17" high-res SR and then committing to no new Mac purchases for at least 2 years, no matter what.

We'll see how that works out. :rolleyes:
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Yes, I'm serious too. A new leaf. Another new leaf. And then another.....the great thing about Apple keeping the same design is that my girlfriend never notices when I get a new one. I just have to time it right so that the old is not gone before I get the new one or she'll start suspecting things...


But never again. A new leaf..a new leaf....a new leaf...I won't upgrade in 6 months, I won't, I won't.....
 
I purchased my last Powerbook used at just under a year old and kept it for another year. I had intended to get through 2007 with it (would have been 18 months with me, and about 2.5 years old by then) but an incident involving a table and a full coffee cup netted me a new macbook instead.

Not really sure how long I'll keep this one; will depend on how its performance serves me.
 
PDE said:
...the great thing about Apple keeping the same design is that my girlfriend never notices when I get a new one. I just have to time it right so that the old is not gone before I get the new one or she'll start suspecting things...
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Ha! You too, huh? I've done many clandestine purchases with just that exact same approach.
 
Since 2003 I've had the following machines"

12" iBook G3
15" PowerBook G4
eMac
12" iBook G4
12" PowerBook G4 (second hand)

This week I'm selling on the 12" PowerBook and waiting till either Leopard or Macworld to buy my next machine, I'll have no computer to speak of till then.

Then I'll have my 6th Mac in 5 years, I then hope to keep the 17" MBP for at least as long as it lives, I can't keep spending my cash or credit on these things! :)
 
I usually upgrade every 3 years but after doing some research, I am changing my strategy. Using eBay as a pricing guide, Macs suffer a price shift after about 2 years. Up until that point, they hold there resale value pretty well but after 2 years they start to drop like a stone. Not sure if it has anything to do with AppleCare still having a year to go or if 2 years is just a magical number to some. At any rate, I think that is the sweet spot for most Macs as far as resale value goes. If you watch MacRumors carefully you can probably time sales to coincide with new releases fairly closely so you will always have the latest and greatest.
 
I worry that this may not be a fair survey as most people on this forum will either need a powerful computer for their job (particularly in the photography/video areas) or are just Mac obsessed and so will buy computers more than is really necessary. I know that I fall into the latter category. Happy hunting.
 
PDE said:
The only computers I've kept for longer is a pismo and lombard - they're still great after almost 8 years, but don't have the power I currently need.
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I feel the same way about my graphite G4 450 ... it's served me faithfully for a whisker short of eight years without a single modification, and one system upgrade to 9.1 (IIRC, InDesign 2.0 wouldn't run in 9.04).

Eight years of trouble-free, no-cost operation and it's still just about the best looking tower Apple ever designed. Even though I've just upgraded, I've actually kept it as a print server mainly because I can't bear the idea of trashing it!

Cheers

Jim
 
I hung onto my B&W G3 until last year when I order the Mac Pro (so about 6 - 7 years but my primary machine was the PowerBook since 2002). I just ordered a new MBP so I hung onto the PB for over 4.5 years. This is why I like Apple. Both old Macs will still be used, B&W for testing the PB goes to my sister.
 
The first G4 Ti Book I bought served for a bit over three years before I handed it down the line and got a new AlBook. That one has been going strong for about 3 years now and is about to be handed down. I expect that the SR MBP I will buy next week will last me about three years too.
 
I'll keep this 2ghz macbook until it falls apart. Then I'll get whichever laptop offers what I want at the price I'm looking for. All my heavy duty work/gaming is on my desktop. I upgrade the desktop maybe every 2 years? So far, my 7800GT is still going strong with an AMD Athlon 3000. OS X doesn't stutter a bit on that Athlon chip nor have games, so no need for an upgrade yet! :p
 
maxp1 said:
The first G4 Ti Book I bought served for a bit over three years before I handed it down the line and got a new AlBook. That one has been going strong for about 3 years now and is about to be handed down. I expect that the SR MBP I will buy next week will last me about three years too.
Click to expand...

My hope is 3 solid years although 2 would be acceptable. My Athlon64 3000+ lasted me until now, and I only added RAM and a bigger hard drive. That's almost 4 years.
 
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