planned obsolescence
Discussion
Sort of prompted by the Argos furniture thread, and the comments of "buy cheap, buy twice" etc..
I listened to an interesting program on Radio4 the other week, The Landfill Designers,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00k9hn9/The_...
More info here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence
It's a whole new concept to me, I had no idea it existed, even though its been around for nearly a century.
How goods of all descriptions are designed to become technically or functionally useless within a given time frame, that can be as simple as a mobile phone no longer being the top of the range model, which is IMHO excusable if the next model is better/faster in some easily quantifiable way,
or the more insidious design of products to literally fall apart or break in a short period of time. Often when minor design changes with pretty much zero cost to the manufacturer would make the product last a lot longer, if not "forever".
Present in everything from furniture, white goods, electrical goods, tools, and although there were no specific examples in the program, probably cars, which is a shame, are our four wheels P&Js designed to fall apart after 3 years?
We've probably all muttered something along the lines of "I'm sure it was programmed to break" when the washing machine packs up 2 weeks after the warranty expires. Well, it probably was.
It's not neccesarily down to how much you pay for the product in the first place, all down to the design ethos of the manufacturer in the first place, real world example being I have a £70 pair of shoes that are at least 10 years old now, still look great, all in one piece and have been resoled about 5 times, yet I have other more expensive shoes that are on thier last legs after 12 months.
Sorry if this is dull as dishwater, I found it interesting!
I listened to an interesting program on Radio4 the other week, The Landfill Designers,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00k9hn9/The_...
More info here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence
It's a whole new concept to me, I had no idea it existed, even though its been around for nearly a century.
How goods of all descriptions are designed to become technically or functionally useless within a given time frame, that can be as simple as a mobile phone no longer being the top of the range model, which is IMHO excusable if the next model is better/faster in some easily quantifiable way,
or the more insidious design of products to literally fall apart or break in a short period of time. Often when minor design changes with pretty much zero cost to the manufacturer would make the product last a lot longer, if not "forever".
Present in everything from furniture, white goods, electrical goods, tools, and although there were no specific examples in the program, probably cars, which is a shame, are our four wheels P&Js designed to fall apart after 3 years?
We've probably all muttered something along the lines of "I'm sure it was programmed to break" when the washing machine packs up 2 weeks after the warranty expires. Well, it probably was.
It's not neccesarily down to how much you pay for the product in the first place, all down to the design ethos of the manufacturer in the first place, real world example being I have a £70 pair of shoes that are at least 10 years old now, still look great, all in one piece and have been resoled about 5 times, yet I have other more expensive shoes that are on thier last legs after 12 months.
Sorry if this is dull as dishwater, I found it interesting!
maxrider said:
Does this sit with electrical items, TV's & Hi-Fi equipment etc. changing from silver to black about every 5 years to make stuff look 'dated'.
I notice all tellies are now black whereas 2 or 3 years ago all were silver. Give it another couple of years and they'll be silver again?
They dont mention this specifically in the program but it wouldnt surprise me in the slightest, now you mention it, it does make sense.I notice all tellies are now black whereas 2 or 3 years ago all were silver. Give it another couple of years and they'll be silver again?
It definatly exsists, Where i work we have 3 computer towers full of DVD/CD Drives, and after 10,000 burns they will all go at around the same time.
So thats 21 CD/DVD drives that die within 3 or 4 days of eachother. Its a pain in the ass but there isn't much that can be done.
So thats 21 CD/DVD drives that die within 3 or 4 days of eachother. Its a pain in the ass but there isn't much that can be done.
Edited by Slate99 on Tuesday 19th May 12:03
Duke of Rothesay said:
iPods are one of the most ruthless and cynical examples.
Many people buy a new one every year just to be seen with the latest.
I noticed that a friends recent iTouch couldn't use the same power adapters as earlier versions, which did seem cynical seeming they're not provided with one as standard.Many people buy a new one every year just to be seen with the latest.
colleague used to work for a manufacturer and in early 80s he was asked whether the control unit could be programmed to 'fail' (switch off) after a certain time thus requiring at least an engineers visit. It could of course but never happened.
HP or Epson used to have a clock in their printers and once it reached zero it required an engineer to reset it before you could do anything with the printer again.
automatic service indicators on most modern cars must be able to be set as required....
HP or Epson used to have a clock in their printers and once it reached zero it required an engineer to reset it before you could do anything with the printer again.
automatic service indicators on most modern cars must be able to be set as required....
Duke of Rothesay said:
iPods are one of the most ruthless and cynical examples.
Many people buy a new one every year just to be seen with the latest.
There's a big difference between planned obsolescence (i.e. it can't be used due to terminal failure or lack of backup) and continual product upgrades.Many people buy a new one every year just to be seen with the latest.
Apple seem to release a new version of the iPod every three minutes or so, but my 1G Nano is running just fine and won't be replaced until the battery dies. Even then it may well be worth replacing. The newer ones don't sound any better, and as all I do is listen to it (rather than phone or browse, or indeed show it off to people) there's absolutely no incentive to change.
longblackcoat said:
Duke of Rothesay said:
iPods are one of the most ruthless and cynical examples.
Many people buy a new one every year just to be seen with the latest.
There's a big difference between planned obsolescence (i.e. it can't be used due to terminal failure or lack of backup) and continual product upgrades.Many people buy a new one every year just to be seen with the latest.
Apple seem to release a new version of the iPod every three minutes or so, but my 1G Nano is running just fine and won't be replaced until the battery dies. Even then it may well be worth replacing. The newer ones don't sound any better, and as all I do is listen to it (rather than phone or browse, or indeed show it off to people) there's absolutely no incentive to change.
This is why Apple change the look and colours of iPods.
So you can be seen to be hip and with it by using the latest model.
I know people who must always upgrade at the first possible opportunity when a new model comes out. They feel second class using the old model.
I've experienced the iPod one myself. My cousin and I both got the same model of iPod, the 20Gb one, for Christmas a few years back. His was probably 90% filled with music, used every day, dropped, scraped, generally well used and abused. Mine was around half full, kept in a case, only some light scratches on the back but still used pretty regularly. Within about a month of each other they both had the iPod with the sad face on the screen. That was when they were coming up for 2 years old so they were definitely obselete. The only option was a new hard drive for almost as much as a new iPod.
Just seems a little strange that both died at around the same time.
Just seems a little strange that both died at around the same time.
Crazy thing is that it is cheaper to pay a few thousand people to dig the raw materials out of the ground, transform them into a new washing machine, and ship it across the world, than it is to pay a bloke who lives 10 minutes away to come and swap out a faulty part.
Re. the colour changing of TVs and hifis - I think that is down to the high end kit setting a trend, which eventually filters down to the budget brands and is then seen as cheep looking, so the high end brands have to come up with something new to distinguish themselves from the Matsui/Alba tat.
Re. the colour changing of TVs and hifis - I think that is down to the high end kit setting a trend, which eventually filters down to the budget brands and is then seen as cheep looking, so the high end brands have to come up with something new to distinguish themselves from the Matsui/Alba tat.
I'd imagine that a large number of people, should their goods fail shortly after the warranty expires, would buy the replacement from a different manufacturer. The item would have to be really desirable to make me think it's worth buying another example that might break in 1 or 3 years or whatever. Therefore I wouldn't think its in the manufacturers best interests to intentionally market products that are shortlived, they will get a reputation for it. You might get away with something like that in items with short shelf lives (mobile phones, iPods / walkmans / mp3 players, perhaps computers, etc) but for something like white goods I'd have thought such a policy would be suicide. Even in something as emotional as cars, having a reputation for being unreliable is usually disaster. Making things look out of date though, that's quite interesting.
10 Pence Short said:
Duke of Rothesay said:
iPods are one of the most ruthless and cynical examples.
Many people buy a new one every year just to be seen with the latest.
I noticed that a friends recent iTouch couldn't use the same power adapters as earlier versions, which did seem cynical seeming they're not provided with one as standard.Many people buy a new one every year just to be seen with the latest.
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