My Dad still has fluorescent lights burning in the garage which were installed 1973, which apparently must have been a bad batch by the looks of it.
Back then the lights were thicker and they were rated 40W and their successors are now thinner and rated 36W instead, though both the length and the socket are still the same, I guess it would have been all too spectacular to change either of those :rolleyes:
Anyway, these 40W lights, 3 of them still going strong, have outlasted their replacements atleast twice now.
It's plain to see if you build something that lasts that's just not good business, you'd saturate the market with your one time purchase products and then file for going out of business a few years later simply because there's no need to buy a replacement for it.