Would you consider pay half now and then for each year a device lasts?
Over the past 5 years we can notice aggressive planned obsolescence applied across pretty much all products. From an all-sealed non-repairable designs to software limitations it's visible even to the non-technical users.
We can differentiate two product cycles. Premium products with no planned obsolescence - higher price, less frequent change of device. Mainstream products - designed to be replaced frequently, lower price.
Ideas
Initial price as low as mainstream. Users pay a fixed additional fee for each functioning year of the product thus reaching premium price if the product lasts longer.
A marketplace where only products with no planned obsolescence are sold based on the above model
Would you switch to such a purchasing model as a user?
Would you switch to such a production model as a company? No. Too hard to forecast cash flow on the business side. And how would you handle someone paying half then telling you the device broke? 1st year in warranty. Afterwards inspection before recurring payment. If you fake it you have to return the device. Maybe for an expensive piece of business equipment. For a consumer device I don't see that working -- the logistics of the "inspection" would impose prohibitive costs and administrative hassle. If someone doesn't submit to inspection you just turn them off? Seems like you want a subscription model based on usage, not a pay-for-use setup for the hardware. It's not a subscription model but rather a user feedback loop. Basically the producer should prove the device is still working rather than the user proving it's not working. Nope. Sometimes a device just gets outmoded, or my needs change, or I might just get bored with it. I wouldn't want to have to keep paying for it regardless.