[nicholassmith]

Not necessarily, I bought a Macbook just over 5 years ago off eBay that was about a year old, I gave it to my girlfriend. Still going strong, issues with the battery (not Apples fault, battery wasn't looked after) and maybe it needs some new RAM. My iPhone 1 went to my Mum, then my cousin, then my nephew. There was at least 3-4 years of life out of that.

I'll probably trade up my iPhone 4 to a 5 purely for the better camera to save lugging a DSLR as well, but then it'll go to my girlfriend and it'll get used for another year or two.

This is compared to having to constantly try and sort my girlfriends Android phone (she gave in just within a year of ownership and sold it), and the question I get every 14-18 months of "What laptop should I get? This one is so slow now".

Lifecycles are determined by the user, not by a company really, people who buy on cycles aren't being forced to buy it, they want to buy it.