I was recently talking to my wife about not buying any more Apple devices. We have a few Apple computers in the house. Both of them are Mac Minis, one old G4 version, and an Intel Mini that I use as my main workstation for producing podcasts, writing, paying bills, etc. We also have a few iOS devices in the house. The oldest boy has a first gen iPod Touch. The youngest has a first gen iPad, and I have a fourth gen iPod Touch. I also had an iPhone 3G for 3 years as well, but that one is gone.
So, why no more Apple products? In two words, planned obsolescence.
What do I mean? My G4 Mini is useless for anything but serving up files as a network server. It was long ago abandoned in favor of Intel based systems. My current Intel Mini won’t run the latest version of Mac OS X. I had purchased an iOS development course to work through at night. I was going to attempt to learn iOS application development, but I cannot run the latest version of the development environment because the Mac Mini cannot run the latest version of OS X. My son’s iPod Touch is stuck back on iOS 4.something. The iPad that we purchased for my youngest son is now stuck on iOS 5.1.something. The only device that hasn’t been left behind is my 4th gen iPod Touch. It is still supported with the latest version of iOS, though I haven’t upgraded it yet. I long ago sold my iPhone 3G to someone on Ebay. After the 4.0 version of iOS came out it became obvious that I needed to get rid of the phone before it lost any more resale value.
I had been peeved at the above situations as they occurred, but time had marched on and these devices are older. I understand that products need to get faster to enable better and more interesting applications. I get it , but I came to this revelation when viewing an article on the new iPad Mini. I thought to myself, “What a great thing to get the kids for Christmas”. Right? The article that I’m referring to over at Mobile Orchard basically states that the new iPad Mini is the best iPad yet. I read a similar article on GDGT as well. Awesome! But, hold on. Maybe not. Check out the benchmarks below.
So, the new iPad Mini is just slightly faster than the year or so old iPad 2. The current 10-ish inch iPad is over twice has fast as any other iPad produced to date, even the 6 month old “New iPad”. We’ve already shown that Apple has no problem leaving behind its users that don’t buy the latest and greatest products that the company is producing. So, how long before the iPad 2/Mini/”New iPad” are deemed obsolete by Apple. One year? By buying one of these iPad Minis you are buying two-year old tech repackaged in a smaller form, but it’s still old tech. Maybe, but I suggest that these devices are practically obsolete on purchase.
I believe the saying “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me” is applicable here, except I’ve been fooled far more than twice.
Shame on me. Apple won’t be fooling me again.
Via Mobile Orchard: REVIEW: 10 Days with the iPad Mini | Mobile Orchard
