[joeblow9999]

Originally Posted by Toz

Well, let's be fair. Apple knows how to make a fine product, and time it well. The iPhone 3GS is currently up to par with the 4S in terms of firmware. How many other companies are supporting phones from 2009?

Apple is also the master of artificial obsolescence. They might be able to boast that they have this or that OS version number running on an older model, but a closer look reveals that they have purposely limited many features in the hopes of forcing the user to upgrade and give them more money. Users can install these features using a jailbreak method and have them work fine, despite Apple's claims that there was some underlying hardware limitation. See: multitasking, Siri, etc.

Originally Posted by Toz

Their laptops and desktops, while much pricier, also have a longer shelf life than their Windows counterparts.

This is an oft-stated claim but I have yet to see any actual evidence that points to Macs being empirically more reliable than PCs. Macs are manufactured in the same Foxconn facilities that are also used by Dell, Lenovo, HP, ASUS, and the rest, so at the very most they should all be equally reliable.

Or, if by "longer shelf life" you are referring to a Mac staying faster for longer, this is also a stretch if not outright false. Speaking in terms of specs, Macs are simply PCs running a different OS. A Mac with an i3-2100 CPU, HD 2000 GPU, 4GB of 1333 DDR3 memory and a 1TB Western Digital hard drive will perform *identically* to a PC with the same specs, and vice versa. There is nothing exclusive to Macs that makes them magically faster or less prone to obsolescence. Take a PC, cram it into a narrow enclosure, put an Apple logo on it, sell it for $1,000 above the cost of the actual components and bam, you've got a Mac.

Apple's design specifications tend to take the route of "form over function." They sacrifice adequate ventilation in their desktops and notebooks in favour of thinness. It's pretty common knowledge that Macs run very hot. My mom's iMac idles between 60 and 70 °C, as did the unibody MacBook Pro that I used to own. When I would do anything resource-intensive like video transcoding, it would quickly jump to 83 °C or even higher. A friend of mine uses several 2011-model iMacs at his church for running the sound and lighting system, and they all hit 85 °C under load frequently.

Originally Posted by Toz

I know plenty of people still using pre unibody Macbooks that are just as functional as they were day one.

I fail to see how this is significant or exclusive to Apple. I have a ThinkPad from 2007 (around the same age) and it's also just as functional as it was day one. The keys are a bit worn down and there is the usual wear and tear you'd expect from an older laptop, but it still works great. Hell, I also have a Dell Dimension desktop from 2002 sporting a 2.6 GHz Pentium 4, 2GB of RAM and a 128MB AGP video card that runs Windows 7 great, including Aero desktop.

Originally Posted by Toz

No one ever affords Apple an objective look. It's either mindless butthurt anti-Apple fanboyism (as exhibited 2 posts up) or senseless adoration.

I take issue with your summation of my post as "mindless butthurt anti-Apple fanboyism." Might as well call Richard Dawkins a "mindless butthurt anti-Jesus atheist" because he levels criticism at religion.