Ted Landau, via Ben Thompson:

It’s 2014 and I’m happily using a 5-year old Mac Pro with SSD. Not sure if I should be impressed or depressed by what this says.

Thompson notes this is another factor killing PC sales. Why buy a new machine when you can just upgrade the hard drive and have what feels like a new machine?

I put a hybrid drive in my 2007 iMac over the weekend and think I’ll get at least another year out of it. I only use it as an iTunes server for the house, but that’s pretty astounding. That machine will be 7 this summer. This effect is one of the reasons I think Apple’s making it harder or impossible to upgrade your machines.

(Edited this post because I originally said it was the reason which I don’t think is true.)

ADDED: I had thought that the RAM and disk drive in the 2012-2013 iMacs were non-upgradeable but it turns out it’s technically possible, just a lot harder. Let’s just say that I still think it’s a happy coincidence that Apple’s design choices are making their devices less user-upgradeable. Happy for Apple, not necessarily its customers. At least I’m not dropping $2500 on a Power Mac every time like I used to.