In the more than 8 years I have worked at the COB, I have noticed our newer servers have a much higher failure rate than our older servers. This is not just exclusive to the COB. Other RIT departments have reported an increase in hardware failures with their newer equipment. Are manufactures cutting costs to the point where they are putting inferior components into their computers?

This makes me wonder if the manufactures are trying to make computers a throw away commodity. We purchase a computer that lasts about two to three years rather than one lasting five to six years. This means we are purchasing computers more often. Are the manufactures making more money with this methodology despite the fact that computer prices have fallen in recent years? Is this hurting the computer industry by creating less reliable systems that are used for everything from writing a paper to running a corporation? What do you think?