How long does an Apple product last? The joke goes, "two years," right after its Apple contract expires and a new model arrives.

Or so they say.

Apple has provided a new FAQ sheet to address questions regarding the company's dedication to the environment.

One of the questions is "How does Apple conduct its Product Greenhouse Gas Life Cycle Assessment?"

The company gives five answers, with one in particular grabbing the attention of various media outlets.

"To model customer use, we measure the power consumed by a product while it is running in a simulated scenario. Daily usage patterns are specific to each product and are a mixture of actual and modeled customer use data," writes Apple.

The mentioned "use data" has a definite time length measured from "first owners," according to Apple. The company states that for iOS and watchOS devices, three years have been estimated, while it's four years for OS X and tvOS devices.

It can be inferred from this statement that Apple expects its products to last for three to four years, thereby somehow giving Apple users as much as twice more than the time range they joke about Apple devices.

However, some reports also deduce that these Apple devices can still lag after two years because updates are usually modelled for the newer versions. Older devices may get the update, but that does not necessarily mean that their hardware specs may be able to support the added weight.

Apple does not intend to roll out updates simply to coerce Apple users to purchase a newer model. It's because security features need to be constantly monitored and updated as hacks get smarter and more complex.

The Journal suggests that "while each new version of iOS is designed to work with the latest iPhone, it also means that older iPhones are trying to run new software on older hardware. Updates are released not to provide new features but to ensure all devices are protected against security flaws and threats."

There may be ways to get around this two- to four-year deadline, such as taking care of Apple devices' batteries since newer updates usually require heavy battery use.

Care to share other tips? Post them in the comments section below.

Photo: Kārlis Dambrāns | Flickr