Reply to Planned Obsolescence/End-Of-Life in DJ equipment...

Hello. I've been reading a lot for law school about planned obsolescence or end-of-life stuff and one of the areas it's impact is most prominent is on the electronics and appliances. DJ gear being electronics, also get to suffer from this market design to make corporations more money, thus, doing business as usual.

The thing is that DJ gear is something we expect to last as in the way it is abused at the club, by traveling, by use etc, but at the same time, it is also our musical instrument we get to learn to play and to master and becomes our instrument. So in that sense it's not like your drum set will fail or your guitar will become obsolete, but an S4 can (and will) fail and you bet your ass will become obsolete.

The almighty unbreakable 1200's do continue to last and be the instrument of choice for Dj's worldwide but the more feeble, contemporary gear like the S4 if it doesnt fail due to internal components crapping out, it's tight integration with traktor can make it obsolete whenever NI wants. I've heard about Dj's having their gear for more than 10 years and still be rolling with that but on this controllerist generation, who will be using an S4 10 years from now? How long the thing can last before it craps out? I use the S4 as an example but we also include the Maschines, the Launchpads, the Synthsations etc.

A Roland 808 can last for many years but a Twitch? Only time will tell but with this very aggresive way to diminishing its life to make some quick bucks will hurt us all in our pocket.

Apple, the brain of most our DJ gear , takes planned obsolescence to the core of it's business (anyone remembers the Ipod 18 month battery case?) going to lengths not seen before like the user not beign able to first change the battery, then the hard drive and now the RAM. All that shit is soldered on the MoBo if anything fails at all, you must take it back to the store and if out of warraty, pay whatever they ask or buy a new one. No wonder Apple just created the least repairable laptop ever.

But a computer is something that is kinda expected to replace every 5 years or so since the new software will slow your shit down to a crawl (or in my case my black Macbook wont upgrade to Mountain Lion) but DJ gear is something we expect to work for years to come as it's something expensive, delicate and something we get to learn and get familiar with. So what are your alternatives if any? Should there be an DIY approach? Anyway to save our craft from planned obsolescence?