  Obsolete devices add to the rising levels of electronic waste, a major
environmental concern, and a contributing factor to climate change. In recent
years, device manufacturers have established environmental commitments and
launched initiatives such as supporting the recycling of obsolete devices by
making more ways available for consumers to safely dispose of their old
devices. However, little support is available for individuals who want to
continue using legacy or 'end-of-life' devices and few studies have explored
the usefulness of these older devices, the barriers to their continued use and
the associated user experiences. With a human-computer interaction lens, this
paper reflects on device usefulness as a function of utility and usability, and
on the barriers to continued device use and app installation. Additionally, the
paper contributes insights from a sequel study that extends on prior work
evaluating app functionality of a 'vintage' Apple device with new empirical
data on app downloadability and functionality for the same device when newly
classified as 'obsolete'. A total of 230 apps, comprising the top 10 free App
Store apps for each of 23 categories, were assessed for downloadability and
functionality on an Apple iPad Mini tablet. Although only 20 apps (8.7%) could
be downloaded directly onto the newly obsolete device, 143 apps (62.2%) could
be downloaded with the use of a different non-legacy device. Of these 163
downloadable apps, 131 apps (com-prising 57% of all 230 apps and 80.4% of the
downloadable apps) successfully installed, opened, and functioned. This was a
decrease of only 4.3% in functional apps (of the 230 total apps) compared to
the performance of the device when previously classified as 'vintage'.
