> There is a theory that Apple products are priced at more or less 1$ a day for their expected life span
Using your MBP example, that would put it at $3 a day. You’d have to keep using the MBP for another 7 years for the ‘$1 a day’ rule to be accurate. Let’s not even do the math on Mac Pros, the rule just doesn’t work out for the Pro products.
But let’s try the rule on consumer Macs. I have a 4 year old mid-range Mac mini. It runs Mavericks fine, so I’ll continue using it for another year. That means the computer will have cost me $0.55 a day. I have a top-of-the-line MacBook Air I bought last year. I expect I will use it for 4 years. That will mean it cost me $1.02 a day. My mom has a 5 year old MacBook Alu, which I just upgraded to Mavericks. She won’t buy a new notebook for another year. By then, the MacBook will have cost her $0.50 a day.
I don't think it would apply to all products, but I am still using my 2008 Macbook which cost me around $2,500 i think... I have installed new HDD twice (1TB and then moved to a smaller SSD), also replaced the battery twice in that time. Probably adding another $1,000 to the cost. It is still going strong, probably keep working on this until it dies...
My MacMini is a 2011 model, I will probably install a SSD into it in 6 months and get another two years of life out of it...
iPhones on the other hand are pretty much 24 month life cycles for me.
iPad, I am still rocking a launch day iPad 2... it probably only has about another 6 months of life left. The battery only lasts maybe five hours of solid use which is barely enough for what I need each day at work.
Using your MBP example, that would put it at $3 a day. You’d have to keep using the MBP for another 7 years for the ‘$1 a day’ rule to be accurate. Let’s not even do the math on Mac Pros, the rule just doesn’t work out for the Pro products.
But let’s try the rule on consumer Macs. I have a 4 year old mid-range Mac mini. It runs Mavericks fine, so I’ll continue using it for another year. That means the computer will have cost me $0.55 a day. I have a top-of-the-line MacBook Air I bought last year. I expect I will use it for 4 years. That will mean it cost me $1.02 a day. My mom has a 5 year old MacBook Alu, which I just upgraded to Mavericks. She won’t buy a new notebook for another year. By then, the MacBook will have cost her $0.50 a day.