The Value of Electronics

ByFaris

Following my previous post on values, it occurred to me that electronic items have a very bad deprecation value. It used to be that cars are regarded as a bad asset since the value drops immediately after driven off the showroom, but I think nowadays, nothing ‘beats’ electronics.

I saw an advert for the new Apple Watch and was curious what are the prices and what’s new compared to my current watch. Mine is Apple Watch generation 1, purchased in 2016. Currently I think the latest is generation 7. I was browsing on Apple’s website and they offered some rebates for trade-ins. Oh that’s nice, I thought. So I tried the option. Apple asked for the serial number of my current watch (which is using an outdated OS, but still works fine) and after a few seconds, this screen appeared.

I was a bit confused at first but then understood: my watch is not fit for trade in and I might as well chuck it in the recycle bin. Not the exact words but that is what they meant, right? I was annoyed at this. I understand them seeing no resell or reuse value of my watch to them, since the recycle and refurbishment process takes a lot of time and cost, but suggesting for me to recycle it, seems to say that the watch is useless.

In fact it is not. It can still show time well, with automatic adjustment to daylight saving time and different world time zone (when connected to the phone). It can show all the notifications from my phone, and in limited ways, still react to them. And I don’t know how much processing power it has in it, but I am pretty sure it has more than the computer that was used for NASA to get to the moon. Also imagine all the effort in designing the hardware, making it able to withstand the forces while moving but sensitive enough to know I am walking or running; the effort in designing the software being able to dim, show the animation as I swipe between screens and also juggles all the data coming from the phone. It can still work!

Yet the suggestion was to recycle it, and I feel sorry that all those effort to create the watch, will be thrown away. I don’t know, it feels a bit sad.

Anyways, I am not buying an Apple Watch soon, not as long as this one is still working. Hope it goes on and keep serving me well.

Thank you for reading.

Similar Posts

  • Value of Time and Money

    ByFaris

    My daughter came home recently and asked whether she could join a music lesson, which costs £49 a month. I’ve seen it before and I was ready to say no, but she added that the lesson was done during class and her friend(s?) who joined it had to skip class. I was horrified! She calmed…

  • Are We Aliens

    ByFaris

    After dinner tonight, my son asked me the reason why Allah made us like this. “What do you mean like this?” I asked. “You know, like this,” he said and raised his arm.”You mean five fingers?” ”Yes,” he said. “Allah could have made us like a blob and like an alien, and then if we…

  • Parenting and Marketing

    ByFaris

    It is said that among the least effective form of parenting is the ‘Threat Method’ where you compel your children to do something in return for not being penalized. It is sometimes used alone or most of the time, it is always at the end of a ‘Cajouling Method’. “Be a good boy and tidy…

  • Useful Knowledge

    ByFaris

    A friend suggested that I join a professional course, which seems like a very good one, but requires a substantial amount of payment. Even if it didn’t cost anything, there’s still the time needed to be invested. So any way you see it, there’s always a cost to learn anything. I know I wrote previously…

  • AI Logic

    ByFaris

    Or rather the absence of logic! Coincidental to OpenAI having problems with ChatGPT today, this morning I stumbled upon this funny reply from ChatGPT. It began with me finding an old planner that I have not used, from 2022. Not wanting to waste it, I thought it would be useful if the dates still match…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *