William Sommerwerck wrote:
There are many factors that cause something to fail. I you
don't use it, it has no working life. I don't wish to play
semantics but if you use it you are using up its working life.

Not so. With mechanical devices, regular moderate use provides a longer
useful lifetime than using the device only rarely.



Yes, this is also true with EM (Electro-Mechanical) devices like
pinballs and jukeboxes (and other arcade games)- regular use keeps the
contacts on the relays clean from their designed in rubbing action
(overtravel). If the machine is not used then the contacts tend to
oxidize and not pass electrical current well leading to service calls.

HOWEVER the topic here is a solid state mobile phone - and that device
really doesn't care too much if it is on or off as long as it operates
in a reasonable temperature range (around 20 - 35C). Chances are it will
be obsolete before it fails if it runs cool to the touch.

Heat is the enemy of electronics, mostly capacitors - and their life
gets quite short the warmer the operating temperature gets above
50C...just read the spec sheets. Typical electrolytics endurance: - up
to 5,000 Hours at 105°C or about 210 days (7 months) running 24/7.

John :-#)#

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