I am discussing most medium to large company IT device policies. Broad industry wide. They recoup partially paid price after 3 or 4 years by using a 3rd party to sell them for refurbishment before they become too old to be bought by 3rd parties.
Just because someone running their private business hangs onto to these devices too long just means they have a higher chance of failure, having to sell them with no trade in value, become somewhat slower/less useful then most current devices is not the view of lets hang onto them as long as we can. Like everything running a business carries risk, if you need someone to be dependable you don't let him/her use devices for many years, thats when something serious could occur and the all the money you save is consumed trying to recover, help, ship to urgently events.
If your technology adverse I might see this view more predominately, but it's a very old view if you think technology doesn't change much in a few years IMHO.
