The Not so Economical Lifespan of a Mobile Smartphone

Nokia Conversations has a nice post about the beatings your phone gets, wear and tear of misuse and abuse. Sometimes ending the lifespan of your phone abruptly. Or remarkable stories of people reviving their phone through extraordinair care after it had drowned. Yet some abuse never shows. I never bashed, crashed or drowned any of my phones. They are well cared for, well protected in full covering leather cases for the occasional bump or drop. All are nearly fully scratch free. Gently handled, regularly updated, polished and cared for. They are fed the finest software for betalabs. They are kept from all harm, only asked to performe their tasks diligently. So very diligently.

Still within one and a half years I sent already two N95 to the Nokia Care Center. They were overworked, overwrought, overplayed, overrecorded, overwebbrowsed and overnavigated. Imagine a phone requiring the equivalance of more than 5 battery charges from your battpack and carcharger each day during your vacation and each weekend.

At some point they give up, you know. They start showing pretty rainbowsprinkels on your display instead of the GUI. Still, I care so I try to revive them by caring. But at some point the screen stays dark, forever... Now I am kindly awaiting for a third N95 IMEI number. I guess this time I'll sell the replacement N95 to more caring people. People who only make superficial scratches... Scratches that don't kill a phones soul :-(

A Nokia N82 made from black Dark Vader plastic now serves my purposes. I expect it's IMEI will also change after about 12 months of hard use. Yet now a question pops up:

What is the design(at)ed lifespan of a (Nokia) mobile smartphone?

I challenge Nokia for an answer. More so, I challenge them for giving a decent warranty. A smartphone should last 3 years. Give me 3 years of warranty or partial money back. Admittedly I switch each 1-2 years from phone, but like with a car its resell value allows for this. From a car you may expect 100.000 km trouble free, 150.000-200.000 km with the good ones. Tell me how many hours should I expect from my phone running at full capacity?

What do you expect from your phone's reliability? Let's talk economics, let's talk about the real number of goldpieces per month a smartphone costs. I think I could drive a much bigger car for the real cost of some smartphones.