CSA Online by Andrew Moore-Crispin We’ve been talking in this column for quite a while now. Granted, the conversation is a bit one-sided. In the time I’ve had the pleasure of working with the CSA writing this Online column, we’ve discussed everything from the latest and greatest coming out of the big tech-trade shows to holiday gift guides to smartphone buyer’s guides. We’ve looked at laptops, tablets, phones, even video games. So I feel as if we can be honest with each other. Consumer tech is kind of the opposite of green. It’s a tough truth to accept, given how the same technology can improve our lives, but it’s a truth nonetheless. As your last yard sale or charitable donation may attest, technology has a shelf life. It’s effectively disposable. It’s just a factor of the speed at which things change. Moore’s Law calls for about a doubling of transistors and, therefore, of computing power every two years. Moore put this law forward in 1965. It has yet to be proven untrue. While there’s a lot that a two-year-old laptop, smartphone, settop box, tablet or whatever can do, there’s a heck of a lot more that the newest model is capable of. In terms of pure progress, it’s good news. The pace of change does leave a lot of obsolete tech in its wake, though. The Pace of Change Back when the iPhone 6 was first released, it was reported that more than 500,000 iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus devices were flying off Taiwanese assembly lines daily. Even with better than half-a-million units being made every single day for a time, both models were in short supply on store shelves in those early days. That was more than two years ago. Two product cycles. Past data suggests that we should expect a new iPhone in September of this year. Remember Moore’s Law. So what happens to all of those old phones? In this example, there’s still plenty of life left; an iPhone 6 can be sold, passed down or otherwise handed on. iPhone 5? iPhone 4? The iPhone 3G turned eight in July of this year. Good luck selling one of those to anyone other than a collector. Keeping with this example, Apple is beginning to reckon with its own impact. On Earth Day this year, the company promised ‒ on the record ‒ that it will one day use exclusively recycled materials in its products...albeit without a plan to reveal or a specific timeline to which it was ready to commit. A Little Perspective Given how closely Apple is watched and, in some cases, mirrored by other consumer tech companies, we can hope that others will follow suit. One day, many of the raw materials which we’ve already collectively pulled out of the earth can be saved and put back into circulation in the next phone, TV, laptop, whatever. The sooner the better. So where do we come in as the people who buy all this stuff? 48 | www.snowbirds.org
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