[ogre_codes]

> I believe that car manufacturers in the US are required by law to produce spare parts for 10 years after a model rolls off the assembly line.

With a car your spare parts are typically a small fraction of the value of the vehicle even used. With an iPhone, an official replacement screen will cost more than the 4 year old device is worth. Likewise the mainboard.

Really what I'd like to see is Apple doing a re-use campaign where they recover working parts from their own recycle chain, certify and resell them.

[Brian_K_White]

Then again, why is the device worth so little? Did it actually degrade that much? Or is it largely the product of the fact that it isn't supported any more, in both software and hardware? And, is that lack of support, in either the software or hardware domains, a fact of nature, or something under some interested parties conscious control?