"Laptop4Life"

"Buy any LifeBook laptop from Fujitsu Siemens, and the company will provide you with a new laptop every three years until you die. The only requirements are that you need to buy a three-year extended warranty, you can only upgrade using Fujitsu parts, and you must turn in your laptop in good condition with the original receipt after three years."

Physorg

Hmm...let me share the laptop policy at my small business and my family. For the last 5 years, we have bought Toshiba Satellite laptops expecting a refresh every 18 months, not 3 years. They have all cost sub-$ 1,000 (the recent one for my daughter cost $ 479.99 in a special at Office Depot - not a slouch machine either with a dual-core 2GHz processor and 3GB of memory). We decline extended warranty.

We buy them using American Express, which for no additional charge extends the manufacturer warranty by 12 months beyond the manufacturer's traditional year. Amex has replaced motherboards and even "totalled" 2 laptops over the 5 years.

I am pretty confident the TCO of our "Laptop4Life" package is a small fraction of what Fujistsu or others offer. And when compared to beat-up machines I see my poor clients stuck with (some even have a 4 or 5 year refresh cycle), I wonder why their accountants and their discounted cash flow and residual value analysis do not get challenged more.