Hello again, fellow readers and fixers! There’s a term that refers to the state of being that makes us favour new stuff and trends. Something that leads us to switch to new and better ways of working and entertaining ourselves. And what sometimes leaves us unable to keep old, but otherwise functioning everyday items going any more. We call this planned obsolescence.
The word “obsolete” refers to a product, service or practice that’s no longer in use or becomes outdated or old-fashioned. Obsolescence refers to the act of making them obsolete by introducing newer or improved products, services or practices. Take moving from horse-drawn carriages to heavy-goods vehicles (HGVs) for transporting goods, for example. You can move much larger volumes of products over longer distances with HGVs than you can with horse-drawn carriages.
There are other forms of obsolescence that we encounter in the real world. But today, we specifically focus on planned obsolescence for this discussion.
The beginnings of planned obsolescence…
Before it all started, manufacturers produced all kinds of everyday items that last a long time until they naturally break. Lightbulbs, cars, cameras, you name them! Back then, manufacturers made sure they built their products to last. But the concept of planned obsolescence started to take root and spread across whole industries…
During the 1920s, Alfred P. Sloan, then president of General Motors, came up with a strategy to stimulate demand for GM’s cars. Back then, rival car giant Ford aimed to sell progressively improved versions of the Model T across the US market. Sloan coined the term “dynamic obsolescence“. He wanted to get consumers to perceive their current cars as outdated, compared to new models. This is so that they can replace their car with the new one, even if it still works perfectly fine.
In 1924, the Phoebus cartel, consisting of prominent lightbulb makers, came together for a meeting in Geneva. They agreed to make lightbulbs with a much shorter lifespan than typical bulbs at the time. The cartel even made sure to impose heavy fines on manufacturers who made longer-lasting bulbs! However, engineers thought there was some merit to this strategy. They believed that bulbs began to lose efficiency and increase energy wastage after 1,000 total hours of operation.
Then in 1932, Bernard London, who was a real estate agent, used the expression “planned obsolescence” in its proper context. He published an article with the title, “Ending the Depression Through Planned Obsolescence”. Here, he presented it as a way to recover from the Great Depression by stimulating demand for consumer goods. By then, however, some manufacturers, like those in the Phoebus cartel, already cottoned on to the idea. And so, the rest is history…
How planned obsolescence works
Planned obsolescence is where manufacturers deliberately make a product that becomes useless or outdated within a set time period. They do this to ensure that we keep replacing their existing products with new versions of those products. To that end, manufacturers employ different approaches to getting us to discard otherwise perfectly-working and repairable items. They typically consist of all of, or a combination of any of, the following:
- Contrived fragility: Designing and making an item in ways that make it deteriorate quickly.
- Anti-repair measures: Making products difficult or even impossible to repair to deter people from servicing these items themselves.
- Sealed-in batteries: Using adhesive to secure batteries in some electronic items to make it harder to replace.
- Programmed obsolescence: Using software/firmware to restrict or render products useless to force replacement of consumables or new models.
- Perceived obsolescence: Combining marketing campaigns with frequent product update cycles to make current items seem outdated.
- Withdrawal of product support: Stopping hardware and software support for a product within an arbitrary period of time.
So, let’s go over each of them in turn!
Contrived fragility (also referred to as contrived durability)
Now, there’s a degree of uncertainly that affects how long a product will last. That’s intrinsic to everything people and manufacturers make. Even the longest-lasting and best looked after item will eventually break down. So imagine this scenario; you bought an item that you previously knew lasted a very long time from a shop. You happily use it for its intended purpose as you normally do. Then one day, it inexplicably breaks much sooner than your old one did. What gives?!
Your newer item is a victim of contrived fragility, of course! It’s a product design strategy that focuses on artificially limiting a given product’s lifespan. A typical manufacturer takes into account an expected average lifetime during all development stages. Therefore, it specifies how long each part should last and then makes each of those parts accordingly.
One way they limit durability, is incorporate “weaknesses” into the product, so that it wears out quickly through normal use. They could use inferior materials in critical areas, such as plastic for gears of other stress-bearing parts. Or they could make its design layout inefficient in order to create excessive wear and tear on components. The goal here to get consumers to replace their broken items with new ones as soon as realistically possible.
Many people call this form of obsolescence “contrived durability”. However, we’d argue that contrived fragility is a more accurate term. That’s because fragility conveys weakness, whereas durability actually conveys strength.
Anti-repair measures
You bought a spare part for your item that just broke down, and decide to try fixing it yourself. Unfortunately, you notice that it has screws that you don’t have a screwdriver for! So you have to go out and do one of the following:
- Buy the appropriate screwdriver in order to perform the self-repair job.
- Send the broken item (and the spare part) to an independent or OEM-authorised repair centre, and have it fixed there.
- Contact the manufacturer and get one of their technicians to come out and fix the item for you.
Apple are particularly notorious for this (and their anti-repair stance in general). They introduced pentalobe screws in 2009, starting with the 15-inch Macbook Pro. This type of screw requires a corresponding pentalobe screwdriver to fasten and unfasten. It became synonymous with Apple devices, though some other manufacturers used them as well.
Another anti-repair measure is to tightly integrate critical parts into a single complete part. For example, manufacturers often permanently mold the drum bearings into the wash tubs. The bearings are a mechanical component that’s prone to wear and tear during normal use. This kind of product design means you can’t replace the bearings without replacing the entire tub.
Also, some manufacturers don’t even sell replacement parts for their products. Or when they do sell them, they price them as close to the cost of a whole new product. They do this to make people think that they’re better off scrapping their items altogether, and buying new ones.
Sealed-in batteries
This is common in smartphones, watches, wireless earbuds and many other electronic goods. Manufacturers know that these items last only as long as the part with the shortest lifespan. And that part is usually the battery. Batteries naturally lose capacity, output power and the ability to maintain steady voltage during normal use.
The practice of sealing batteries into smartphones began when Apple introduced the original iPhone in early 2007. Back then, early smartphones had batteries that user can replace themselves. And replacing the battery that wears out (or becomes a spicy pillow!) in those phones is very simple. You just remove the cover, take the worn battery out, put a new one in, and re-attach the cover.
Over time, other phone makers caught on, and began releasing their phones with sealed-in batteries. Nowadays, the vast majority of smartphones are like this. Replacing batteries in those require a heat source and specialist tools to remove the rear cover and access the internals. There are very few new smartphones that still have easily removable batteries. Among these are the Samsung Galaxy XCover series, the Teracube 2e and offerings from Fairphone and Shiftphone.
Programmed obsolescence
You try to print some homework off that you desperately need to hand into college, school or university. But the printer simply won’t print your documents! You open your printer, take the toner or ink cartridge out, and notice there’s still some left inside. You put it back into the printer and try printing again. Only, it still won’t print! What trickery is this?!
You fell victim to programmed obsolescence, where a manufacturer artificially disables a product in its software or firmware. It does this to stop the product from working, in order to get the user to buy replacements.
This is common in printers with ink cartridges containing smart chips. Manufacturers program the chips to stop printers from using them after a certain number of uses or period of time. That’s even though there’s still usable ink inside the cartridges, or the user can refill them. The end result is to get users to replace ink cartridges as frequently as possible.
Perceived obsolescence
Let’s say you bought a new phone, laptop, or some other item from a shop, and started using it. Then a few months later, the manufacturer releases a new version of that same item. Your first thought on seeing that new item advertised online or in-store was, “Crap, my current one’s out of date!”. And there’s the concept of perceived obsolescence in a nutshell.
There are many kinds of everyday items, where people desire them for aesthetics instead of functionality. Clothes and shoes are two examples of these. Manufacturers regularly release new items that have various different cosmetic changes from previous iterations. For example, they change patterns, colours, decals or motifs on a given item. This creates the illusion of a brand new item, when it’s really functionally identical to the old one.
Withdrawal of product support
When your item breaks down, you start looking for spare parts in order to fix it. But you find out on the manufacturer’s website that they don’t sell any parts for it. Then you notice that the item is end of life!
Manufacturers define for how long they provide support for a given product. They can sell replacement parts, provide technical support, and make software and firmware updates available. After a defined period of time, they stop supporting the product and designate it as end of life. When it’s end of life, it no longer gets support from the manufacturers.
Smartphone makers are particularly notorious for this. Many models from these OEMS only get software updates for a couple of years, if that! As time passes, unpatched vulnerabilities in software and firmware can leave users susceptible to security breaches. The end result of product support withdrawal is to make people by new items much sooner than they normally would.
However, sometimes it’s not actually manufacturers, but Governments, that push for planned obsolescence. This is legal obsolescence, where Governments enact policies to gradually phase out older products. For example, major cities such as London, Paris and Amsterdam introduced low/zero emission zones. They implement them to improve air quality by restricting or barring use of polluting vehicles. This can encourage people to replace older vehicles that have combustion engines with electric vehicles. Or, they may alternatively switch to using bicycles or public transport.
Why it’s bad for the planet
Planned obsolescence results in increased waste, as it makes us buy new things more frequently than we should. We allow manufacturers and brands to seduce us in this way through clever marketing, product placement and attractive offers. These encourage us to be wasteful by constantly hopping to new products, even after a short time using previous models! As a result, we consume so much resources that we’re harming the environment in the process.
Manufacturers also waste valuable resources by making unnecessary changes to their products too often. These changes often serve little-to-no useful purpose for consumers, when the end result is essentially the same product. In turn, this feeds into the vicious cycle, further damaging the environment and amplifying climate change.
Planned obsolescence also discourages repairing and reusing otherwise perfectly viable items, through various anti-repair measures. This tempts us to take “the easy way out” in replacing broken or worn items with new ones. If manufacturers won’t let us repair items that we buy and own, then we can’t learn how to repair them.
All of this culminates in a “throwaway society”. We condition ourselves into always demanding the latest and greatest in everything we buy. And so, through this kind of consumerist attitude, we choose to use, discard and buy new. So much so that we end up forgetting that we should reduce, reuse and recycle instead…
How we can tackle planned obsolescence
However, it doesn’t have to be this way! We can do our bit to help reduce waste and protect the environment. One key way we can tackle planned obsolescence is through education. By teaching others how to repair their stuff, we can help them keep items working for longer. We can encourage them to make better consumer choices. For example, they can buy refurbished items or upgrade their existing unit, instead of buying new ones.
Another key way is to push for legislation to tackle planned obsolescence and encourage right to repair. We can help support efforts to bring in new laws to ensure manufacturers provide long-term product support. Efforts to counter lobbying efforts to oppose right to repair by manufacturers and business groups are also important. We can also rally behind other people who support right to repair. These include notable YouTubers such as Louis Rossmann, Hugh Jeffreys and Linus Sebastian of Linus Tech Tips.
By fighting planned obsolescence, we can stem the tide of waste and ensure they don’t end up in landfill sites. You can do your bit too, by not buying new stuff when your old ones still work fine. And try to fix them when they do break. So remember, just keep calm and keep on fixing!