What you need to know about 'planned obsolescence'

Have you ever wondered why that consumer appliance you bought for $500 last year is now dead only a short time later? Compared to equipment built ten to twenty years ago, today's electronics are dying rapid deaths, sometimes only a year or so into their lives. Do you find this peculiar? There is a whole section of the population that will attest that the major electronics companies are engaged in a term known as "planned obsolescence," which basically means that these companies are designing their products poorly enough for them to fail very quickly; this forces the average consumer to purchase another unit very quickly, often by the very same manufacturer that they bought the previous defective equipment from.

Going back about 10-20 years, you can clearly see the difference in the quality of these consumer electronics products. They seemed to have been built more ruggedly, sometimes outlasting generations of similar equipment. There are instances of computers that were introduced in the 80's that are still working fine today, as today's versions of these systems often fail within a few years of purchase. Is there a single reason for this decay of the very machines that we have grown to adore and let run our lives on a daily basis?

Let's talk about the quantity of yesterday's equipment versus the quantity that we use today. In the previous years, when computers and electronics were just beginning to appear on the scene, there was only a fraction of these devices needed to quell the demand for them. Today, instead of mere thousands of a particular computer or music device, we need millions, and in some cases, tens or hundreds of millions to meet the demand. I would assume that when you mass-produce over a certain number of any type of goods, the quality of the workmanship, parts and methods decline very quickly. In order to meet the demand, they have to move the line faster and of course, to meet the financial end of the device, the quality of the parts used declines even quicker. Stacked on top of that, the demand for faster, smaller and lighter components contributes to the failure of these devices. By making parts smaller and more dense, factors such as heat and basic wear and tear seem to take their toll much faster.

Looking at this from a business point of view, it's genius. Imagine you are a company that sells a certain type of electronic widget that every man, woman and child simply have to have. Now, imagine if you built this product to last 20 years by using the best parts, methods and materials known to man. How long do you think you would sustain your business? First of all, you would lose a huge slice of second time buyers, simply because their original widget is still working great, even after ten years! Secondly, you would probably be slaughtered by competing companies that are making cheaper and faster widgets that do virtually the same exact thing yours does at a much lower price. You would also probably have to provide parts and service advice for your longer-lasting equipment as well. Couple all of these factors together and you have a recipe for disaster. You would simply go out of business trying to keep up with the other companies who are turning over their widgets at a few-year pace.

These days, no company would admit that their products may only last for a few short years. Frankly, they shouldn't be responsible for putting an age stamp on their products either. A product is a mechanical product and there is no federal law that states when a consumer buys a widget that it should last for a certain amount of years. If the consumer purchases the widget within a year, then they should seek warranty service. If the consumer neglects to buy an extended warranty then that consumer will have to face the realization that the widget they bought for hundreds (or thousands) of dollars a few years ago may need replacement at full value. This is part buyer-beware and part keeping yourself under extended warranty. Consumers can also report these products and companies to a host of places that will attempt to get to the bottom of why the product doesn't meet your expectations.

Unfortunately, today's consumer electronics products (including computers) are being built faster and with less quality than the same products years ago and it's only going to get worse as the years go on. As consumers, we want better products that do more tricks, but, don't realize that with better equipment comes more manufacturing issues. Faster chips that can perform more tasks generate more heat. Cooler electronics means that more people will want them, which in turn makes the companies have to build them faster to keep up with demand. All of these issues force the companies of today to cut corners, send most manufacturing overseas and force the consumer to buy their new devices at a more feverish pace just to turn a profit. Servicing the equipment through the manufacturer is almost impossible and for good reason: cost. It costs the company most of the profit margin they made on the device just to fix them. Have you ever wondered why the companies make you go through so many hoops just to have your device repaired? It's simply because they already made the money on the device and would rather not put it back into fixing the device. It's better for them just to have you scrap the device and go purchase another one, thus, contributing to their bottom line again.

Most of us don't want to hear this stark information, and some of us refuse to believe it. Those who were brought up in the dawn of the computer and digital age are especially hit hard with this information; we just don't want to accept the fact that our $500 phone only lasts two good years when our Sony Walkman lasted 20 years easily. There's not a bright light at the end of this tunnel; we are living in a disposable society and within a few more years just about everything you use from computers to cellular phones will simply be discarded (hopefully recycled) when either a new unit arrives or the device goes dead. One last word of advice: don't fall in love with that shiny new smartphone you just purchased for a cool half-thousand dollars--you won't have it for long.