What does HL think about Planned Obsolescence?

[Serious]

I'm sure by now, most people in this forum are somewhat familiar with concept, but there's never been an official discussion pertaining to this subject matter(i checked the search history).

Investopedia defines "planned obsolescence" as:

A manufacturing decision by a company to make consumer products in such a way that they become out-of-date or useless within a known time period. The main goal of this type of production is to ensure that consumers will have to buy the product multiple times, rather than only once. This naturally stimulates demand for an industry's products because consumers have to keep coming back again and again.

Read more: Planned Obsolescence Definition | Investopedia

This concept was casually strolling through my head after watching this segment:
Environment - Digital pollution? Datas centers, planned obsolescence, recycling materials - YouTube

Should we as consumers hold companies to a higher standard of making products more efficient? Or is it ok for companies to create products, just to fail?

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16807ItQQF4"]chuckii booker - Games (LP Version) - YouTube[/ame]

 

[88m3]

unethical

 

[www.THUG.com]

Capitalism at its finest! This subject is often brought up in my rl discussions but I think so many manufacturers are in on it. I've noticed through the years that products don't last as long as they used to and they're not well built.

***Look at our cars and how fast and how often they have issues. There's that long standing joke that soon as the warranty runs out, the floodgates to car troubles start pouring in.

***My sister had an A/C that was brought in the 70's/early 80's that cooled her entire house until the 2000's. Yet I bought an A/C in the 2000's that only cooled 1 room and it broke within a few years, which meant I had to go out and buy another.

I remember growing up in the 80's seeing industrial strength equipment from the 60's/70's like those industrial metal fans, desks and chairs that lasted through thick and thin. Now this same equipment can be broken to pieces within months due to regular wear and tear. They're all in on it, its greed at its best!

 

[Meta Reign]

As another poster said, it's unethical, but I wouldn't want to outlaw it.

 

[daze23]

Capitalism at its finest! This subject is often brought up in my rl discussions but I think so many manufacturers are in on it. I've noticed through the years that products don't last as long as they used to and they're not well built.

***Look at our cars and how fast and how often they have issues. There's that long standing joke that soon as the warranty runs out, the floodgates to car troubles start pouring in.

***My sister had an A/C that was brought in the 70's/early 80's that cooled her entire house until the 2000's. Yet I bought an A/C in the 2000's that only cooled 1 room and it broke within a few years, which meant I had to go out and buy another.

I remember growing up in the 80's seeing industrial strength equipment from the 60's/70's like those industrial metal fans, desks and chairs that lasted through thick and thin. Now this same equipment can be broken to pieces within months due to regular wear and tear. They're all in on it, its greed at its best!

cars, and everything else are more complicated now. tech like A/C's are much more efficient. an A/C from back then is gonna run your electric through the roof. no offense, but your sister probably got a low BTU (and cheap) A/C

I'm not saying 'planned obsolescence' doesn't happen, but you have to think about your examples. people always bring up how a Nintendo lasted forever, but an Xbox dies. but you have to consider other factors, like the amount of hot tech in an Xbox, and the Nintendo didn't even need an internal fan

 

[CouldntBeMeTho]

I see it as a sign of a decaying, greedy, and decadent society. but then everything we buy is made in fukking china anyways.

 

[Julius Skrrvin]

Objectively terrible. i suppose its good for the economy..... but its obviously terrible for the consumer, and for the planet in general. people get new phones like every two years. thats a lot of electronic waste being dumped into the environment, the majority of people aint disposing of this stuff properly. as we continue to.get bigger and bigger gains in processing power itll continue, too. no efficiency....

 

[daze23]

Objectively terrible. i suppose its good for the economy..... but its obviously terrible for the consumer, and for the planet in general. people get new phones like every two years. thats a lot of electronic waste being dumped into the environment, the majority of people aint disposing of this stuff properly. as we continue to.get bigger and bigger gains in processing power itll continue, too. no efficiency....

I was listening to something recently on npr, and they were talking about the value of all the old cell phones people have laying around. it was in the billions...

 

[Mr. Somebody]

People arent stupid. It will work a couple times until the cost outweighs the new benefits and at that point the company will lose money getting comfortable with earnings and taking a gamble on the stupidity of their consumers. They fail and have to release the epic hotness to stay relevant.

 

[tru_m.a.c]

car, and everything else are more complicated now. tech like A/C's are much more efficient. an A/C from back then is gonna run your electric through the roof. no offense, but your sister probably got a low BTU (and cheap) A/C

I'm not saying 'planned obsolescence' doesn't happen, but you have to think about your examples. people always bring up how a Nintendo lasted forever, but an Xbox dies. but you have to consider other factors, like the amount of hot tech in an Xbox, and the Nintendo didn't even need an internal fan

I agree....I agree

Objectively terrible. i suppose its good for the economy..... but its obviously terrible for the consumer, and for the planet in general. people get new phones like every two years. thats a lot of electronic waste being dumped into the environment, the majority of people aint disposing of this stuff properly. as we continue to.get bigger and bigger gains in processing power itll continue, too. no efficiency....

Seems like need to consume is being manipulated and used 'against' us

Can't say I'm personally against it because I'm not personally effected. But I can see how this is terrible for vulnerable populations.

 

[Julius Skrrvin]

I agree....I agree





Seems like need to consume is being manipulated and used 'against' us

Can't say I'm personally against it because I'm not personally effected. But I can see how this is terrible for vulnerable populations.

its bad for the consumer in that your product essentially fulfills the functionality you want for an increasingly short period of time. you're getting less bang for your buck, and the company is making extra $$ off repairs and refurbs. but the market isn't selecting against this behavior. people don't care about reliability as much as they do the glitz and Glam of the cutting edge. and since most people interested in this stuff can afford it they don't think twice. there is no incentive to stop planning obsolescence.

 

[CrimsonTider]

Who does this other than Apple?

 

[daze23]

a lot of what yall are talking about is just the rate tech moves, and how people feel the need to have the 'latest' crap

dudes lose their phone on purpose to get a new one, and blame it on a planned obsolescence conspiracy

 

[Brown_Pride]

a lot of what yall are talking about is just the rate tech moves, and how people feel the need to have the 'latest' crap

dudes lose their phone on purpose to get a new one, and blame it on a planned obsolescence conspiracy

there's a lot of truth in this HOWEVER planned obsolescence can also apply to the rate at which tech is divulged. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that the crap we see is not the best we can get for a relatively same price.

As for cars, while they are "advanced" the parts that break tend not to be. It's usually low cost metal and/or poor design in an effort to save costs. I had an intrepid way back in the day that had the handle keep fuking up. Ultimately I pulled the door off and found they had a piece of METAL pulling on a piece of PLASTIC. Common sense is gonna tell you that the plastic will break over time. I imagine a $10 increase per handle (or $40 cost per car) could have fixed this. $40 bucks...

Same thing with the power windows. They had two moving pieces of metal being held together with a plastic clip. Over time the metal moved and broke the clip, over more time without that clip the two metal pieces bowed and the window didn't work right until i bent the shyt back and welded some stuff to keep them from doing that.

Thing is both these repairs were $200+ dollars had i taken them into their "service center". You're not gonna tell me they don't eat off that shyt.

What i wonder is how much money would America be saving if we didn't have to buy the next "best thing". I mean look at phones. I still use my Samsung SII and it works great. I wont get an S3...wtf for? Same with my ride. I have an old 2002 Maxima, paid for. Why on god's green earth woudl I upgrade if i don't need to? I save money because of it.

Would america in general be better off if people saved or if we spend (particularly when we spend what we don't have...)

 

[www.THUG.com]

cars, and everything else are more complicated now. tech like A/C's are much more efficient. an A/C from back then is gonna run your electric through the roof. no offense, but your sister probably got a low BTU (and cheap) A/C

I'm not saying 'planned obsolescence' doesn't happen, but you have to think about your examples. people always bring up how a Nintendo lasted forever, but an Xbox dies. but you have to consider other factors, like the amount of hot tech in an Xbox, and the Nintendo didn't even need an internal fan

The A/C was left with her house. She didn't get rid of it because it worked well. That thing cooled her living room, dining room, and upstairs. I can see if you said MY A/C was cheap since it quit within 3-5 years and only cooled 1 area. But she had an old ass A/C, that lasted way longer, still pumped out cold air and worked better than my brand spanking new A/C!

Cars are cheaply made, no one can argue against that. They hardly use steel anymore, they're now made with that cheap ass fiberglass and plastic that smashes on 5 mph or less collisions.

The objective of planned obsolescence is to make the consumer re-purchase an item. Manufacturing products with inferior materials achieves that goal.