According to some estimates, there are around 600 million PCs in use around the world that are at least five years old… and Apple’s Phil Schiller thinks it’s sad that people are still using them.
Schiller made the comment yesterday at Apple’s latest big event, where they launched the iPhone SE and the 9.7-inch iPad Pro. Interestingly, it was also on a day that Apple proudly declared itself to be running on 100% renewable energy and showed off a rather impressive recycling program (complete with an iPhone-disassembling robot).
Apple’s big on being green, and their commitment to the environment is beyond question at this point — which makes you wonder why Schiller would casually take a shot at one of the greenest computing practices of all: getting absolutely everything that you can out of the devices that you purchase.
Lots of those 600 million older PCs are in use by people who can’t afford anything better. They might be a tad more inclined to use their money to purchase things like food, rent, and clothing. Others, like my parents, don’t find using their trusty old computer for more than half a decade sad at all. Their computing needs haven’t really changed, so there hasn’t been a compelling reason for them to replace their hardware.
Schiller (that’s him talking into the handphone up above) managed to offend all kinds of people in the tech community, including, ironically enough, plenty of faithful Mac users. Apparently not everyone that plunks down a thousand bucks-plus on a decently-equipped Macbook or iMac wants to replace it every two or three years.
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