As far as I can tell, for most credit cards (including Citi), manufacturer refurbished devices still qualify for extended warranty coverage as long as they are sold with the standard manufacturer warranty, which is the case with Apple-sourced refurbished devices. For cards where refurbished is an exclusion, Apple refurbished is still a good risk.
Citi specifically calls out “new only” in their ToS. Refurbs aren’t new. They don’t qualify. Even factory refurbs.
The “planned obsolescence” of Apple products is a myth without any material basis in fact. Yes, software bloat is a real thing, but that impacts every manufacturer. Apple has done a better job keeping their devices alive and supported than pretty much any other manufacturer, but obsolescence is a persistent reality with technology. Even if Apple did plan obsolescence to drive new device sales, that’s a great trade off in return for the fact that they aren’t in the business of collecting and selling information about me. If it’s free or cheap, you’re probably paying with your privacy.
Saying one manufacturer doesn’t obsolete things because they all suck at code optimization or accurately defining their product lifespan is really just rationalization of bad behavior by all, and not a proper defense for the behavior, either. The privacy thing is neither here nor there in that point.
And I don’t believe it anyway. They know their product lifespan. Pretending it’s years longer than the software will actually run on the hardware is disingenuous at best.
They know they design hardware that will last X years and their average bloat rate will make that hardware useless doing standard updates in X-many years, way before the hardware dies.
Just because the industry does it, doesn’t make it right. It’s the most unprofessional aspect of the entire tech industry these days, for those of us who remember systems design meetings and murder boards where we TURNED DOWN sloppy and poorly performing software for release because it crushed systems we were still selling service contracts on.
And THAT is how you tell what Apple really knows about their combined life cycle. How long will they sell AppleCare Plus for? Whenever that runs out, they know the headaches in the support division are too high and the costs too high to put up with the software division’s crap anymore on those products.
We sold service contacts that went out a decade on our stuff. We HAD to make software engineering meet a performance standard down to tens of milliseconds even as they added features over that entire 10 years. It CAN be done. The performance tests weren’t optional because in telecom, timing is everything.
In the few cases it couldn’t or shouldn’t we clearly announced what features would be DISABLED on older hardware. That way customers weren’t annoyed by their boxes slowing down for things they never wanted and never bought in the first place.
Case in point. People here say they run aviation apps just fine on iOS 10. A lot of junk comes with iOS 11 that isn’t necessary for security-only updates. It could be a choice, maintain security or keep up with bloatware. Apple doesn’t want to maintain the old stuff separately mainly because it drives sales. Not because it isn’t possible.
