Planned obsolescence is the strategy followed by
companies that are designing and manufacturing different products. It's goal is
to make consumers replace every product with the one that is newer before the
last one breaks or it's functionality becomes outdated. If it breaks, it is not
in the producer's interest that a consumer has a possibility to have it repaired
cheaply by an independent technician or (God forbid !) by the consumer himself
!
Nowadays,
the design experts' task is to make sure that the merchandise is bound to break
as soon as the warranty period expires.
If the
product is too simple to break on demand there are other tools to make it
unwanted by the customer. The great example would be fashion that is changed by
"independent" fashion creators every year.
Of course
the producers never admit to follow the planned obsolescence strategy and
mostly deny it openly.
Quote from
The Economist:
" A classic case of planned obsolescence was the nylon
stocking. The inevitable “laddering” of stockings made consumers buy new ones
and for years discouraged manufacturers from looking for a fiber that did not
ladder. The garment industry in any case is not inclined to such innovation. "
This graphic looks funny but look carefully at it,
think about different models of mobile phones, cameras, computers or cars that
we have recently used: doesn't it look familiar ?
Probably the most notable and "classic"
example of the concept in question is the story behind light bulbs production
industry.
In 1924 companies including OSRAM, Philips, and GE
decided to handicap the technology of light bulbs, because…they lasted too
long. The Phoebus Consortium was formed to control the market: from production
to distribution and sales. The decision was made that the bulb cannot last
longer than 1000 hours (instead of 2000 hours which was the regular time for
state-of-the-art bulbs at the time).
Planned obsolescence has a colossal impact on ecology. In 2013 the Green Party of Germany conducted
research that revealed that the "planned aging" of household
electronic equipment cost a couple of billions of Euros every year just in Germany.
Questions:
·
Have you ever come across the term "planned
obsolescence" before reading this article ?
·
What is your opinion on the subject: do you see
it as a real problem or maybe you think it is just an anti-industrial
conspiracy theory ?
·
Do you know any interesting examples of planned
obsolescence concerning the devices that you use every day ?
·
would companies benefit more from designing
durable devices and products?
Sources:
·
Sources of photos: quiet-environmentalist.com,
www.allhailtheblackmarket.com
I've know this term for a long time now and I'm not really happy because this has happend to me before.
ReplyDeleteIt is illegal for big companies to do that but these big companies often break the law.
I understand that big companies want to earn money by manipulating people to buy their product but some people are used to some things and they don't want to change it very often.
Samsung often tries to follow this kind of practise when dealing with their clients. It's happens really often when you buy moblie phones.
I never came across this term, but I know the case from my own experience. I see that it is a real problem. Guaranties are given at most for 2 years and very often it is easier to pay for repair then to wait months for repaired product on guarantee. In a mean time there are several problems with missing parts and hundreds of other causes why our product can’t be repaired quickly.
ReplyDeleteThe most problematic are AGD products like refrigerators, phones and cameras. It also depends on the shop, sometimes products are from different production series. I also heard rumors that products sent to Poland have way worse quality then those sent for instance to Germany.
To be honest, I've never understood what the big deal here is anyways. When I buy something over 200zł i always look for the best deal there is. Even though the price is a big factor, the lifetime of the product I'm buying is very important. If I buy something, I know whether or not this item is going to be with me for a long time or not. Buying things cheap is not always the way to go.
ReplyDelete· Have you ever come across the term "planned obsolescence" before reading this article ?
Yes. It might be surprising, but I've never been a part of it.
· What is your opinion on the subject: do you see it as a real problem or maybe you think it is just an anti-industrial conspiracy theory?
Depends. There are some things that break easily, but having some electrical background I can tell you that most of what you hear about this subject is just bogus. Things break. Even new ones break.
· Do you know any interesting examples of planned obsolescence concerning the devices that you use every day?
I can tell you a secret. A secret that none of the big companies would like you to know. LEARN HOW TO USE YOUR DEVICES PROPERLY. Done. I've said it.
· would companies benefit more from designing durable devices and products?
Panasonic Toughbook, anything from CAT, Vibram - somehow they're not out of business. From personal experience, I've had 4 Dell notebooks, 2 Acers, Lenovo and some Apple products. Couple of small problems (battery life etc), couple big ones (CPU and RAM died on me.... ) - after replacement I still use them (not as often but still). Nothing is forever - not even diamonds....
I think that most people, even if they're not familiar with the term, have heard about it or experienced it. Especially the people from our parents' or grandparents' generations often state that the products "are not what they used to be". My father is a huge fan of PRL and pre-PRL stuff, and he ownes several devices from 70s and 80s. The peculiar thing is they still work perfectly, while many of the modern ones break after a year or two.
ReplyDeleteArmand, I'm really glad - and nonetheless very surprised - you've never experienced this. I've had - and not once, but several times, especially when it comes to clothes. And - before you ask - I really use them properly ;). Shoes unglue and their soles fray after a few monts of walking, fabric of the clothes thins and fades after a few washes in low temperature.
As we still use some of my dad's PRL devices, I really start to believe planned (or unplanned) obsolescence may be true, even if only partially.
Yes I have heard about it and it is problem of our times. Our economy is based on constant growth and it wouldn't be possible without short product life cycle, because durable products are the biggest enemy of constant growth and when something is durable you maybe sell it only once to one person, but if not companies can gain money on service and selling another one. This problem exits since 1900. I think that is really big problem, because our mineral resources are limited and economy like ours is only wasting them.
ReplyDeleteI have noticed this problem in many cases for example in my car breaking disc. Around 1,5 year ago I changed all of them in my car and around 0,5 ago my mechanic showed me that disc were corroded from inside.
It depends on what type of economy in ours I think that is impossible to change it.
@Katarzyna, Samsung is expanding in every possible electronics market segment at the moment - they have to finance it somehow, don't they ? ;)
ReplyDelete@Karolina, isn't that true ?
ReplyDeleteThe problem with the terms of guarantee is that in most cases - you just can't wait f.e. for three weeks without a fully functional mobile phone or a computer. It just costs you more not being able to work than to pay for a repair or even buy a new device !
The rumors are probably true. My friend visited Ireland and reported, that clothes sold under the same brand are a lot better (in terms of quality) there.
@Armand, interestingly I have similar opinion about CAT products.
ReplyDeleteThe shoes are really durable, this is not only their slogan.
It great that there are still companies like that out there in the market.
@Cezary, why did you wrote this ?
ReplyDeleteNow I am worried about my brakes - I will have them checked ;)
Interesting example, I would never suspect something like breaking discs being the victim of planned obsolescence design...
This is undoubtedly a problem. Mercedes-Benz cars ever produced indestructible, which can be run over a few million kilometers. Today, it produces such materials to the sheet began to rust after a few years, and the engine stopped working after a certain distance.
ReplyDeleteThe same thing happens in every industry, not only in the cars industry. They are produced as refrigerators, televisions,every electronic equipment. A good example is the computer printer. Ink cartridges are manufactured in such a way that the end after the number of pages printed, although the container is referred to as ink.
Every manufacturer wants the biggest gains. It's very sad.
Like Cezary and Maciek said motorization industry is the best example of it but not only this industry. Few months ago my computer monitor broke down. I want to make a complaint but the guarantee period ended 2 months ago.
ReplyDeleteI heard a phrase "planned obsolescence" several times and it seems to me that this one is very true. Because a lot of devices get out of order almost immediately after the expiration of warranty. It is known, however, that manufacturers do not take great care to make devices last longer and prefer using cheaper parts, which are often more defective. They use those parts for mass production.
ReplyDeleteI think that nowadays people are more likely to spend more money for higher quality product that last longer then to save a bit and replace it every two or three years. I have heard that in some countries if you prove that the company "preuse" product so it will not lust very long, it will be fined a large sum of money.
ReplyDeletePersonally I try to do some research before I buy something and read people comments about the product.
I have heard about it and it is big problem nowadays. In the interests of large companies is to produce goods that will be replaced with new one in a period of time. Durable products are cause that after some time the demand decreases.
ReplyDelete"Planned obsolescene" is very noticeable in the automotive industry. Maciek gave us the best example, which is Mercedes-benz. In the service book of the old Mercedes was posting how to fix some crashes that sounded: "the manufacturer does not provide for a failure of this part". This testifies to the quality of those cars. Currently, the quality of Mercedes cars dropped significantly.
'Planned Obsolescence' is one of the main point in designing products today.
ReplyDeleteWe buy some product and should pray for minimum two years working .
Like @Patrycja Marciniak said, old stuff from PRL times work today and it's not something strange. Production of durable products it's not cost effective for companies.
@Maciej, the car company you mentioned is one of the most famous examples. You probably know the classic model W123 that was given a nickname "Beczka" due to the shape of the headlights.
ReplyDeleteThose cars could easily drive for more than a million kilometers. Modern models probably wouldn't last half the distance !
@Michal - I know of a similar example. My colleague, observed, that the life of the battery installed in his laptop decreased radically overnight - checked the invoice. And guess what: the computer was bought exactly three years earlier ! What an interesting coincidence...
ReplyDelete