It has become rather apparent to me that with such rapid advancement of technology that many devices are dated as soon as they are launched. The main problem lies not with the advancement but how they are quickly left behind in support.
For most reviewers, an item is sent from the company for review purposes but (hopefully) gets sent back. This of course causes a slight problem for the consumer. One complaint (among the many that I always seem to have) is just how short sighted reviewers are. None tend to look at how a product fairs over a few years. Actually the only place that I know of that gives reliability scores is Consumer Reports (probably the best unbiased reviewers). Yet despite having some sort of reliability score, it is for the brand, not the product.
While it is understandable that because most electronics change so quickly reviewers tend not to look at the life of a product, for buyers it is a bit frustrating. As with other posts, I've mentioned numerous times that consumers spend a lot of money on a product, so to have it start failing within a couple of years benefits no one.
For reviewers and the companies that produce these products generally claim that when a product starts to fail that it is time to upgrade. While the wealthy may have the luxury to do this, most people could not possibly replace a device such as an iPhone every 2 years. Perhaps if electronics were cheaper then it might be more acceptable, yet people are investing in a product to last then awhile.
Of course reviewers are never going to do reliability scores for older products because they are that, old, outdated. This is a problem that will probably never really see a solution because of simply how fast the tech world moves. People no longer care about last year's technology let alone things from 5 years ago.
Somehow within the past decade consumers have moved towards preferring disposable items. It used to be products were made high quality and a consumer could have faith that it would last a very long time. In fact I still have a VHS player that is still good, tower speakers that function just as good as when purchased. Cassette players and cassette burners that all function well enough.
It is sad to see that not only do reviewers neglect looking at how a product fairs over time, but so have consumers. A product over a year old is considered outdated and needs to be replaced, regardless of costing a large amount of money. When the day comes where reviewers and consumers take an interest in the life of products, I will wear a giant grin but alas, it does not look to happen any time soon.
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