To repeat the cliche: the plural of anecdote is not data.
I am pretty sure that there are as many people with counter-examples.
E.g. I haven't had a Mac with issues since 2010. 2008: MacBook white: plastic starts discoloring, the rubber starts peeling. 2008: Mac Mini DVD drives gives the ghost after a year or so. 2009: MacBook 13" aluminium has broken DRAM SIMMs.
Never said I did a study, just my 2 cents.
The whole article is one person's account. As is my comment. There might be others with counter examples, but learning from one's experiences is what humans do.
Yep - Still running an Early 2011 Macbook pro just fine here - had a motherboard failure but was repaired by apple under an extended warranty for that particular issue. Other than that, no issues.
I'm still running a 2008 Macbook Pro with no issues other than a battery replacement. I did upgrade the RAM and replaced the SuperDrive with a disk drive and the disk drive with an SSD.
I bought a MacBook Pro in 2010 that my brother is still using every day and works great. I have a Retina MacBook Pro I bought in 2012 that I used every day all day for work until earlier this year and I still use several times a week, and it still works flawlessly.
If your MacBook Pro is "dying" (what does that even mean? what component(s) are failing?) you should get it repaired. If you put up a stink they might even do it for free.
The desktop hardware still seems pretty good (besides the lack of hardware updates) but software is another story along with lack of general eco-system fixes.. like support for Demos or paid updates in Mac App Store.
My first macbook pro lasted ~4 years, then I sold it for ~50% retail. Second macbook pro died after 2.5 years with a screen hardware issue. Third, and probably last, macbook pro is dying after 1.5 years.
If I was a conspiracy nut, I would say they don't care about declining quality because otherwise people wouldn't buy the next release as replacement.
I'm getting off the Apple bandwagon for my next laptop.