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October 3, 2008
Old Beyond Its Years
Dear Larry,
Recently, you helped me purchase and set up a new computer
for my home, and I thank you for that. It was a replacement for my old
four-year-old computer that had conked out the week before. That’s what my
question pertains to: Should a four-year-old computer just die like that? Do
these things come with built-in obsolescence?
F. S.
Dear F. S.,
Believe it or not, there is some obsolescence built into every
computer, and there’s perfect sense behind it. Sure, they can build solid state
components that are far less apt to burn out, design hard drives that are far
more crash resistant, or include cooling systems that instantaneously conquer
your computer’s worst enemy, heat. But the problem is, would anybody buy it for
what they’d have to charge?
When I was growing up, there was this urban legend that spoke
of how Bridgestone could easily construct a tire that would never go flat, but
the truth was that nobody would ever buy one, let alone four. Same principle
applies here.
Furthermore, computers are still an industry growing by leaps
and bounds, so even if the cost of the “frivolities” could be kept relatively
low, it’s not clear that there’d be a real market for this sort of PC. Here’s a
theoretical analogy: Imagine you purchased a very special automobile in 1910
that had luxury items unheard of in more common cars of the day that cost half
as much…only to discover a few years later that a crankless car with an all new
electric starter became available. All of a sudden, that luxury car of yours
looked as if it were a grand waste of money.
The same holds true when talking about today’s computers.
Granted, there’s probably a small market for a very cheap computer that does a
few things well albeit slowly. The problem is, try finding a manufacturer who is
willing to invest in such a bottom-of-the-line product when the truth is, they
can build something far more powerful that costs only a couple hundred dollars
more.
Competition and margins in the computer industry are
incredibly tight these days, so every Dell, HP, and Sony go out of their way to
keep part costs down and profits up. And that’s why you shouldn’t be surprised
when that seemingly “new” computer of yours overheats and keels over three to
five years into its life span. As I explain to people, a dog year is equal to
seven human years and a computer year is equal to twenty human years. Any
computer these days that can celebrate its five-year—err, make that
“100-year-old”—birthday is most definitely worthy of celebration. And maybe even
a special trip to the dump!
This is Larry Schneider, logging off.
