Planned Obsolescence Needs to be Obsolete

Welcome

Article from ADMIN 43/2018

By Ken Hess

I'm sure I'm not the only one holding an $800+ mobile phone that will be obsolete in two years. You know, just in time for the contract to run out. Technology has a very short shelf life. I don't like that aspect of very expensive technology. I have an iPhone 7, but now the iPhone 8 and the iPhone X are both available. There's a lot of pressure to have the latest and greatest model of cell phone, tablet, and computer. Who can afford to upgrade once a year when new models hit the market? Eight hundred dollars for a phone, $800 for a tablet, and $2,000 for a new laptop is just too much money to toss out the window for tech that I'll have to replace in 12 to 18 months. And now we're told that certain vendors slow down tech that is only slightly out of date. That's taking planned obsolescence a bit too far.

Early in the 20th century, carmakers realized that no one would buy a new car model if the new ones looked exactly like the old ones, so they gave minor facelifts to distinguish among different model years. New taillights, new grilles, and perhaps a dashboard redesign is all it took to attract new buyers and traders.

Technology manufacturers have taken a lesson from the carmaker playbook, in that the feature list from model to model is not significant. The result is that people stick to their old tech. Frankly, I would never have changed from my iPhone 4 had it not become impossible to use because of its slowness and inability to hold a charge.

I had to purchase an iPhone 5 to have a usable device.

My iPhone 4 and my iPhone 5 are both lying on my desk – in perfect shape but not in use, while my new but now obsolete iPhone 7 gets older every day.

And it's not just Apple that makes products that we must replace on an almost annual basis. I feel like laptops are basically disposable these days. Even the MacBook Pro has a very short lifespan. I picked up a 2015 model MacBook Pro a few days ago that felt very sluggish. I didn't want to

...

Use Express-Checkout link below to read the full article (PDF).