As a kid growing up in the 1980s i took apart everything i owned or get my hands on to see what was in it. Toy trucks, R/C cars, tape decks, computers, game consoles, bicycles, typewriters, my mom's sewing machine, the lawnmower, etc...
Most of the electronic stuff i took apart in the 1980s and early 1990s had a lot of "through-hole" style (for lack of better description) components soldered down onto a (usually) single or double-sided PCB. Resistors, Diodes, Caps, Transistors and stuff just like we've all got in our lil plastic trays, with the long leads that you stick through the hole and solder.
Nowadays (i spend a great portion of the day working on computers) most electronics stuff i see is mostly miniature surface mount components, which from a manufacturing standpoint makes lots of sense for a lot of reasons. There are exceptions, i.e.. caps, crystals, chokes (where size is a factor in its specification or performance) and high-power transistors or voltage regulators (large to dissipate heat).
Is there plenty of through-hole stuff still being used in manufacturing these days, or with manufacturing shifted towards SMD, will through-hole resistors, transistors, diodes and such start to grandually become less available and more expensive over the next several years? I can think of some places where through-hole stuff is a better option, i.e. protoyping or higher powered stuff. Looking at the catalog at National, there's no shortage of through-hole stuff in current production at the moment. I'm sure it'd be a long, slow process (like decades) to phase out through-hole components completely and use up all the stock/surplus.
I've spoken with a hobbyist on IRC that claims to build most of his projects with SMD components- he arranges them on his PCB, applies solder paste appropriately and sticks it in a toaster oven. He could be full of crap, i've never seen pics, but i can't think of any reason why he'd lie about it. He's knowledgeable, helpful, and well-respected, and doesn't smack of someone just trying to be l33t. Surface-mount is actually his preference, but to me it seems like that approach would be more hassle and less fun (disclaimer: i've never done it that way). Through-hole stuff just seems like it would be so much easier to work with.
Thoughts?