> Wow, this is really not true at all.

Actually it is! The failure rate for a MacBook Pro was way under 2/10 when I was there during the lifespan of the product.

Apple calculates the lifespan of a product in different terms to the warranty. The warranties differ by country (EMEA & US have different warranties thanks to EU and individual state laws).

You're right that these machines can and will go for five years. My current laptop, a 17" MacBook Pro, has been with me since ~2007. It'll go for another year at least.

Apple will replace these devices when they are in warranty. True. But the concept of a warranty is what is wrong, not the replacement of an entire device.

It's better to have a device which is far less likely to suffer mechanical failure, which happens to require a more expensive repair when it does, than it is to have a device far more likely to suffer mechanical failure but with cheaper repairs (for a few select problems).

If you can't afford a MacBook Pro don't buy one. There are other machines on the market which are highly user-replaceable. I'm going to buy the new Retina, I won't be getting AppleCare, and I bet it lasts just as long if not longer as anything else you buy.

I deleted my post because honestly I think Apple and its future belongs to users like yourself, and that it will work out fine for everyone in the end. Just know that I have been buying a respectable number of Apple machines over the years, including three Mac Pros - which probably just confirms that I really am a member of an audience that Apple actively tries to get rid of.

So yeah, I can afford a MacBook Pro. I'm just choosing not to, anymore.

What will you replace it with? That's my problem -- I require Mac OS X.

I have the opposite problem. I would gladly use Apple's fairly decent hardware, but I can't stand MacOS X.

I don't know, I figure my machines still have 2-3 years of useful life left in them. A lot can happen in this time.

But I'm probably not going back to Linux (where I came from). Honestly, Windows doesn't looks so bad anymore. I admit I don't know the first thing about it, but maybe I'll give it a try.

I've been using Windows 7 on and off. It's largely OK, but not great. Cygwin is awful, the open-source community is nascent (at best!), the development tools are a OK, but semi-free (VS Studio Express is free, but if you need more, Visual Studio is expensive).

Integration with tools like git and svn are only through 3rd party solutions, and aren't as polished as one would like.

I could get by with it, but I would prefer not to. However, I'm also not particularly happy with the idea of going back to Linux, and my work still requires a Mac. Thus, stuck on Mac OS X.