The history of planned obsolescence is revealed in this entertaining and surprising doc.

THE LIGHT BULB CONSPIRACY

(( Read more at source :http://www.cinemapolitica.org/film/light-bulb-conspiracy  ))

Once upon a time..... products were made to last.

 Then, at the beginning of the 1920s, a group of businessmen were struck by the following insight: 'A product that refuses to wear out is a tragedy of business' (1928).

Thus Planned Obsolescence was born.

Shortly after, the first worldwide cartel was set up expressly to reduce the life span of the incandescent light bulb, a symbol for

innovation and bright new ideas, and the first official victim of Planned Obsolescence.

During the 1950s, with the birth of the consumer society, the concept took on a whole new meaning, as explained by flamboyant

designer Brooks Stevens: 'Planned Obsolescence, the desire to own something a little newer, a little better, a little sooner than is

 necessary...'. The growth society flourished, everybody had everything, the waste was piling up (preferably far away in illegal

 dumps in the Third World) - until consumers started rebelling...

The current throwaway climate - where the latest technology is outdated after a year and electronics are cheaper to replace than

to repair – is the basis for economic growth. But infinite consumption is unsustainable with finite resources: With the economy

crumbling and consumers becoming increasingly resistant to the practice, has planned obsolescence reached the end of its own

life?

 Combining investigative research and rare archive footage with analysis by those working on ways to save both the economy and

 the environment, this documentary charts the creation of ‘engineering to fail’, its rise to prominence and its recent fall from grace.

Planned Obsolescence: Everything You Own is Designed to Fail

Read more at source http://www.libertyforjoe.com/2014/12/planned-obsolescence-everything-you-own.html


What is Planned Obsolescence?  It is the deliberate design or plan to make a consumer item obsolete, break, cease to be fashionable or otherwise useful in order to decrease the length of the "replacement cycle."  This practice is cleverly measured against creating the lasting need of the consumer for the product but to also establish trust in the use of the product while also being able to force the consumer to buy another product within an established time-frame.


Planned Obsolescence can be accomplished in a plethora of ways.  It can be accomplished via software update, parts designed to fail after warranty, made un-fashionable, inability to buy replacement parts, unreasonable repair costs, deliberately inefficient design, incompatibility with new or previous products, and a lengthy warranty process.  I'm sure there are more examples but these are the few that come to mind.

Here are a few items that most are familiar with that are designed to fail or become obsolete:  Textbooks, Cars, video games, Light-bulbs, ink cartridges, Smartphones, laptops, MP3 players, various software, printers, appliances and a host of other materials and objects.

Ink cartridges have been designed with chips within them that limit the number of print jobs that can be accomplished regardless of the amount of ink left within them.

Video Games are often made to keep you from being backward compatible.  This results in the need for more controllers, games, parts and other ancillary items across multiple platforms.

Textbooks are updated more often than they really contain new information.  Publishers often change the order of information within the book to make it difficult to follow along with newer versions.  This results in an inability to use previous books and forces students that have no other choice, to buy new books that contain little or no new information.

Software is similar to video games in that backwards compatibility is rare.  A new year requires a new Operating system and with it, new compatible forms of software.  Sometimes software is deliberately designed to run slower with newer Operating systems in order to encourage the consumer to purchase a newer version.  The need for newer software often leads to the need for newer more powerful hardware.

Light-bulbs have been designed to fail after a pre-determined number of hours.  Ask yourself how a light-bulb invented by Thomas Edison over 100 years ago is still working in a museum, but the light-bulb you bought last year just burnt out and needs to be replaced?

Cars fall victim to planned obsolescence by design, an inability to purchase replacement parts and in some cases basic maintenance is made nearly impossible through cost or an inability to obtain parts.  An instance that comes to mind is that on a ford Focus you must replace the airbox in order to replace the first air filter.  This turns an $11 dollar job into a $250 dollar job and forces you to replace an entire section of the vehicle that you would otherwise not replace for the life of the vehicle.

Consumer electronics such as cell phones and MP3 players fall victim to trickery within the battery as well as other forms of planned obsolescence.  Batteries are designed to fail after a pre-determined number of cycles.  Replacement batters are sometimes impossible to obtain or gain access to and are sometimes priced just below the price of replacing the entire unit.

I've covered a few examples of how things are designed to fail.  I hope I've showed you that Planned Obsolescence exists and that it is a problem.  We shouldn't be forced to buy substandard goods for the sake of consumerism.  Profits should not drive technology and innovation.  We sent people to the moon on less technology than you have in your smartphone, why can't we design lasting technologies that would make resources less scarce, more available to the rest of the world and catapult technology and innovation into a new era where what we create does not fail for the sake of stock holders?

What do you have to say about it?

 Are you aware of another product that is designed to fail?







How Manufacturers Get You To Buy New Appliances

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com

On the left, a wall of washing machines and stoves. On the right, a man is taking apart a vacuum cleaner, another a food

processor.

A little further away, an employee looking through a powerful magnifying glass pokes at a telephone with tweezers.

In the background, a television set without its shell is broadcasting a reality show.

"La Bonne Combine" [The Good Deal] in Prilly, in the province of Vaud, is the appliance-repair Mecca of French-speaking

Switzerland. "Look at this," says Felice Suglia, bringing over a circuit board.

"This is the heart of a television set. The condensers are soldered right next to a heat sink connected to the transistors.

The condensers are sensitive to heat. Why did Samsung put them here, even though there is room at the other end of the board?"

the repairman asks.

This simple question is one of many about the reliability of appliances and electronic devices.

More and more of them seem to be manufactured with planned obsolescence in mind — this is something that is often suspected,

 but rarely proven.

Electronics and appliance manufacturers are accused of deliberately shortening the lifespan of their products in order to force

consumers to purchase new ones sooner. "It is impossible to be sure, but we often have strong suspicions," says Christopher

Inaebnit, who runs La Bonne Combine. "Look at the latest washing machines.

Big-name companies set the ball bearings into the drum. Because new drums are so costly, that makes it almost impossible to

replace the bearings when they're worn out."

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/built-in-obsolescence-in-appliances-2012-10#ixzz3lGfmq4on


Is the Earth Doomed Due to Planned Obsolescence?

Man is a clever species. Technology has allowed us to advance more than any other species before us.

We sit as masters of our small blue planet.

However we are not masters when it comes to ideas that are sustainable.

With modern capitalism came the idea of planned obsolescence;

the idea that designers should build into products a self-destruct mechanism.

How did such a crazy idea come into being? What does it mean for the planet? And can we escape this circle of waste?

Where does the idea come from?

An idea is often marked with the symbol of a light bulb.

The light bulb was also the first product that was purposely designed with flaws. 

The ever increasing life expectancy of light bulbs frightened bulb manufactures.

It would of course stem demand. 

Demand and growth are key to our modern capitalism system.

Demand and growth are dependent on our needs or perceived needs. 

A light bulb is quite a simple product with little need for new models. 

Therefore the bulb companies formed a cartel and agreed to limit the life of bulbs to 1000 hours. 

 With this they secured the need that drove their business forward.

Today, designers purposefully limit the quality of products. 

Companies employ our best minds to create a product that fills the criteria that they demand and not what the consumer demands. 

If a printer manufacturer decides that a printer should print 20000 copies but then stop then the designer builds it to do that. 

Even if that means including a chip that records how many copies have been made and on the 20001 copy sends the error

 message that the printer has an internal error.

What does it mean for the Planet?

Would you really replace your printer every few years or you mobile phone every 6 months if it continued to work?

OK Mobiles are something of a status symbol and many people replace them for the newest model,

but boring products such as

printers, radios or cookers are less likely to replaced before they go wrong. 

The resulting waste is of course deadly for the environment.

Electronic waste is one of the fastest growing sources of waste according to the UNEP. 

It is also an especially dangerous form of waste as it contains many heavy metals and toxic plastics.

The rich world has found a place to put its electronic waste though: the developing world. 

They need computers too after all. 

The waste is often sent as used goods for resale however it is mostly just rubbish. 

Rubbish that is then “recycled” by the poor; recycled through burning the plastics away to get at the precious metals.

Can we escape this vicious circle of waste?

We can escape this waste and the answer is removing the incentives for planned obsolescence. 

 Taxing carbon for example, forcing companies to deal with the waste they create and setting standards.

Taxing carbon will result in companies being forced to pay more for the creation of products. 

The cost will be passed onto the consumer but the consumer will start paying more attention to how long something lasts.

Forcing companies to recycle their waste also makes them less likely to build things to break as it shifts the cost from the planet to

 the producer. Setting standards are also a very effective way to make quality products. 

Japan’s law on energy efficiency standards is a model for the world. 

The best in class become the minimum requirement for all future produced products

.

Planned obsolescence is only a good idea on a planet with unlimited resources and even then it is a massive waste producing

 concept. We cannot afford this policy just to encourage growth, as it results in over proportional damage to both the planet and

the consumer.

Read more at source :http://quiet-environmentalist.com/is-the-earth-doomed-due-to-planned-obsolescence/

Understanding Obsolescence

One of the main forces driving high levels of consumption and waste today is obsolescence—

the process of an item or technology being replaced, outdated, or falling out of use. Obsolescence can be a spontaneous process

 by which genuinely innovative technologies win in the marketplace, or it can be planned by manufacturers through methods like

regular changes in product styles or deliberately building poor-quality items.

Spontaneous obsolescence is generally a positive process and is a byproduct of genuine innovation—classic examples include

 the automobile replacing the buggy and the computer replacing the typewriter. In contrast, it is planned obsolescence, combined

with other factors like intensive advertising and the rise in disposable income, that is responsible for much of the unnecessary

waste we produce. Examples of planned obsolescence include:

Have you ever noticed how the “in” color for home appliances is always changing?

Recently it's been stainless steel or copper, in the 1980s it was black, in the 1970s it was avocado green—

and now green refrigerators are considered “retro

REad more at Source : https://www.newdream.org/programs/beyond-consumerism/rethinking-stuff/understanding-obsolescence

Obsolescence of desirability

According to latest ressearch since beginning of new millenia most new product are planned   obsolescence or built-in obsolescence or deliberately made to failare with short life spam


Planned obsolescence or built-in obsolescence in industrial design is a policy of planning or designing a product with

an artificially limited useful life, so it will become obsolete, that is, unfashionable or no longer functional after a certain

period of time .

The rationale behind the strategy is to generate short-term sales volume by reducing the time between repeat purchases..

Companies that pursue this strategy believe that the additional sales revenue it creates more than offsets the additional

costs of research and development and opportunity costs of existing product line cannibalization. In a competitive

industry, this is a risky strategy because when consumers catch on to this, they may decide to buy from competitors

instead.

Planned obsolescence tends to work best when a producer has at least an oligopoly.Before introducing a planned

obsolescence, the producer has to know that the consumer is at least somewhat likely to buy a replacement from them.

In these cases of planned obsolescence, there is an information asymmetry between the producer – who knows how

long the product was designed to last – and the consumer, who does not. When a market becomes more competitive,

product lifespans tend to increase.

For example, when Japanese vehicles with longer lifespans entered the American market in

the 1960s and 1970s, American carmakers were forced to respond by building more durable products.

Source :https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence

New German study finds ,Lifespan of consumer electronics is getting shorter

Find out what repairs entail before you need them?

Read more at Source :
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/03/lifespan-of-consumer-electronics-is-getting-shorter-study-finds

Investigation of planned built-in obsolescence for German environment agency finds percentage of products sold

to replace defective ones has increased remarkably,

Electronic product life spans are getting shorter, an investigation of built-in obsolescence for the German environment agency has indicated.

But consumers’ desire to replace products such as flat-screen TVs with newer model is also a major factor in what the research

 identified as increasingly wasteful consumption of electronic goods.

The environment agency asked Öko-Institut researchers to examine consumers’ reasons for replacing electrical and electronic

appliances with a view to establishing whether manufacturers are purposefully shortening product life spans to prop up sales,

a phenomenon known as built-in obsolescence.

The researchers did not draw a firm conclusion on built-in obsolescence but noted that the proportion of all units sold to replace a

defective appliance grew from 3.5% in 2004 to 8.3% in 2012, in what they deemed a “remarkable” increase.

And the share of large household appliances that had to be replaced within the first five years of use grew from 7% of total

replacements in 2004 to 13% in 2013. This too was largely due to an increase in the proportion of recently purchased appliances

replaced following a defect, which may point to an obsolescence problem.

However consumer preference is also playing a role. A third of all replacement purchases for products such as refrigerators and

washing machines were motivated by a desire for a better unit while the old one was still functioning.

Consumers are also increasingly keen to swap their flat screen televisions for better versions with larger screens and better

picture quality, even though more than 60% of replaced televisions were still functioning in 2012.

Policymakers are increasingly concerned about inefficient use of resources in resource-poor Europe, and about the environmental

 impact of this. The EU is looking to regulate product resource efficiency by including new standards such as durability and

repairability in requirements under the Ecodesign Directive, a law that is currently focused on energy efficiency for the most part.

For laptops, the desire to upgrade a functioning device seems to have lessened over the study period, the researchers said.

They could not point to clear evidence that laptops now break sooner than before but they noted that a quarter of recent

replacementswere due to a defect.

The study is the first phase of a larger research project by the German environment agency aimed at identifying ways of

increasing product life spans.

Got appliance woes? You’re not alone!


So how can you avoid getting burned by a big purchase?


Buy manual anolog model  over digital electronic, where possible !



Don't believe in reviews as most are written by paid to write companies and web sites

Source :  http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/sites-to-get-paid-blogging/

20 Sites To Get Paid For Writing And Blogging

You can choose to write about how-to’s, reviews,

tech, serious’ pieces or offer your writing services for hire.

Don't get fooled by flashy looks and look beyond flashy design


Our Simple Shopping Principal  For New Appliances and Electronics According to Our 30 Years Experience

Principals :

Repair your old appliances as much as you could

Buy cheapest one!

Buy most basic one with least options!

Buy them on the sale!

Don't expect more than couple of years from them as they won't last long


Expect unexpected as you won't get disappointed
 


When you want get new appliances you shold ask yourself  where I could get important information and

who I could trust to give me honest answer!

Questions such as :

Who to buy from?

What to buy ?

Where to buy ?

When to buy ?

Why to buy ?









News - Consumer Reports

Source http://www.consumerreports.org



Faulty appliances: What you need to know before you buy ?

CBC Marketplace investigates why some appliances don't last

www.cbc.ca

Read more at Source :

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/faulty-appliances-what-you-need-to-know-before-you-buy-1.2894272


According to Expert Appliances and electronics account for up to  35% of the total energy used in your home .

Selecting efficient products will save energy and money.

Designed to fail' electronics a global problem

Read more at Source : http://www.dw.com/en/designed-to-fail-electronics-a-global-problem/a-16369155


Many companies deliberately shorten product lifespans to ensure consumers continue spending.

'Built-in' or 'planned obsolescence' may be a savvy business strategy,

but it hurts consumers and people in poorer countries.

Has your printer or coffee machine died shortly after the warranty period expired?

Have you ever tried changing the constantly-tired battery of your smart phone?

Or was a replacement for your Notebook supposedly more expensive than the current, new model?

If the answer is "yes" to any of the above, you know what 'planned obsolescence' is: the process of becoming obsolete; that

is, outdated or no longer usable.

It makes good business sense for companies to create a product with a limited life span.

For the manufacturer, it means the production process is cheaper and ensures that in future the consumer will need to purchase

new products and services that the manufacturer offers as replacements for the old ones.

But the business practice has devastating consequences.

Customers are constantly forced to toss out defunct gadgets and parts, and buy new ones.

The environment suffers from an increased use of resources, and the throw-away mentality means more toxic electronic waste

 from industrialized countries piling up in the landfills of developing ones.

Electronics giants are the worst offenders

Stefan Schridde runs the German website murks-nein-danke.de (Bungling, no thank you) where frustrated consumers describe

their experiences with products that are designed to fail within a certain period of time.

In an interview with DW, Schridde said instances of planned obsolescence are common in electronic products. "When electricity

flows, you can do a lot," he said.

Indeed, most of the complaints on Schridde's website are about companies in the electronics, computer and telecommunications

sectors. And heavyweights, such as Epson, Brother, Philipps and Apple find the most mention.

By far the worst offender among the online complaints by November 7 was Korean electronics giant Samsung.

Schridde said most of the built-in obsolescence is seen in small and cheap parts where companies often use "plastic instead of

metal" to cut costs.

That view is echoed by economist Dominik Enste from the Cologne Institute for Economic Research.

"Companies don't always use products that are particularly durable," he said. Such practices don't just contradict the idea of

sustainability, he said, but also show that these companies don't take their social responsibilities seriously.

Schridde said that the longevity of products seems to play no role in product development.

Instead, manufacturers plow in "just enough money so that the product survives for three years.

" After that, the manufacturer's guarantee period expires and a new generation gadget is rolled out on the market, he says.

A global problem

However, the increasingly shorter life cycles, especially of electronic gadgets, do not just put a dent in consumer wallets.

They also lead to an increased demand for raw materials.

Electronic parts need metals such as gold, silver, copper and rare earths that are very expensive.

The production is energy-intensive and often takes a heavy toll on the environment

since it involves toxic materials. Obsolete appliances are often exported to developing nations where they clog up landfill sites.

In order to get to the precious metals in the electronic waste, the gadgets are often burned.

That, in turn, releases huge amounts of highly toxic fumes that are a real health hazard to people handling the waste.

'Damaging to all'

But economist Enste pointed out that companies alone aren't to blame for the surplus waste. In the end, "there's always the

consumer," he said. And many people apparently "want to always have the latest stuff. They want to keep up with trends."

Both Schridde and Enste say many consumers are driven by "cheap is cool" thinking.

The demand for cheap products leads to growing pressure on manufacturers and their supplies, Enste said.

This results in manufacturers cutting corners during the production process, for instance, by using a cheap, flimsy plastic part,

instead of a more expensive one made of metal that has a longer life.

A basic business tenet says that high demand fuels production, increased production encourages economic growth and strong

economic growth leads to more prosperity, but there needs to be more recycling and a better use of resources.

The power of the consumer

Enste, who also heads the "Academy for Economics with Integrity," is "optimistic that we can change some things."

The market economy doesn't only make possible a system that in the case of planned obsolescence, creates global problems.

It also has an antidote to it – the power of the customer. Every consumer can "buy products which he thinks suit him best."

Enste said sustainability must play a bigger role when it comes to opting for a product. That includes information about the

production conditions, energy consumption and the recycling of products

.

Equipped with this information, the customer can then make a qualified decision about "whether he prefers to buy two products in

five years or one that lasts for five years," Enste said.

10 Ways Products Are Designed To Fail

The consumer electronics market changes tremendously fast.

New gadgets are introduced every week and the producers need to make sure their customers buy them accordingly.

Marketers have found ways to convince us to buy a new gadget even though our old gadget is fully or mostly functional.

Profit is their motivation: shorter times between sales equal more sales overall.

Selling a phone to a single customer every 18 months is more profitable than only selling him one every ten years.

Therefore, producers are interested in shortening the time between sales.

The process of becoming out of use, discarded, obsolete is called obsolescence.

To sell more, producers are interested in speeding up this process. It gets nastier:

It’s called planned obsolescence when products are deliberately designed to fail after a certain time.

Planned obsolescence happens where engineering meets capitalism.

Products aren’t designed to last; they’re designed for the dump.

In this situation, engineers don’t aim to create the best possible machine.

They aim for maximum profit through steady sales.

10 Ways Products Are Designed To Fail

Read More At Source:

http://listverse.com/2013/04/02/10-ways-products-are-designed-to-fail/

Elias Chaves April 2, 2013

The consumer electronics market changes tremendously fast. New gadgets are introduced every week and the producers need to make sure their customers buy them accordingly.

Marketers have found ways to convince us to buy a new gadget even though our old gadget is fully or mostly functional. Profit is their motivation: shorter times between sales equal more sales overall. Selling a phone to a single customer every 18 months is more profitable than only selling him one every ten years. Therefore, producers are interested in shortening the time between sales.

The process of becoming out of use, discarded, obsolete is called obsolescence. To sell more, producers are interested in speeding up this process. It gets nastier: It’s called planned obsolescence when products are deliberately designed to fail after a certain time.

Planned obsolescence happens where engineering meets capitalism. Products aren’t designed to last; they’re designed for the dump. In this situation, engineers don’t aim to create the best possible machine. They aim for maximum profit through steady sales.

3-Incompatibility

The new thing doesn’t work with the old thing. I’ll replace the old thing! Marketers expect that kind of customer reaction when

 incompatibility is used.

Incompatibilities open a variety of sales opportunities like adapters, upgrades or full replacements. They make your life harder.

Incompatibilities come in the form of incompatible device drivers, incompatible plugs, incompatible file formats and file systems,

incompatible operating systems, incompatible hardware—you get the picture.

4-Heat

Heat is an enemy of electronics. The more the hardware is exposed to it, the faster it degrades.

An example of planned obsolescence in product design is the placement of heat-sensitive capacitors in the hottest area on a

circuit board, next to the heat sink.

So basically, the worthiest of protection is put in the danger zone. These devices will fail sooner than others which are better

designed.

5-Wear and tear

Our valued gadgets will never look as good as when they came out of the box. Over time, scratches appear, colors fade,

abrasions occur, plating falls off… sooner or later they’re worn-out.

The customer will replace his old and shabby gadgets sooner than those which look good.

Therefore producers try to design electronic gadgets in a way that they look brand new for a short time only—the first scratch

appears very soon. Not including protective cases also helps the process.

6-Planned Life span

Some gadgets have a preset life time. When the time’s up, they’re out of use.

The digital wine thermometer I bought my father for Christmas has a built-in battery that can’t be replaced.

According to the manual, the battery is good for about 2000 hours.

The manual did not explicitly instruct the user to trash the device once the battery has died—but that’s implied.

When the life span has expired, my father will waste a fully functional product. That’s great news for the wine thermometer industry.

7-Omitted features

Very often, when putting a new gadget on the market, commonly available features are being deliberately omitted.

Many customers will upgrade to the succeeding gadget with slightly better features once it is introduced.

This is a very good example: the first iPhone didn’t support 3G internet bandwidth, MMS, universal Bluetooth, not even video

recording, all of which were considered to be standard features.

Customers stormed the stores when the iPhone 3G came out: It had all that! But the poor 2 megapixel camera resolution

remained the same.


8-Massive repair costs


Repair costs of electronics are so high that often it isn’t worth getting them repaired.

The best option is replacement. Repair companies also generally charge fees for cost estimates.

That adds to the notion that customers don’t even consider repairing their electronic gadgets.

You can try to repair the gadget yourself, however, many consumer electronics nowadays are very difficult to service, more difficult

than a decade ago.

Some gadgets have tamper-proof screws that require special screwdrivers just to open them, which add to the repair costs.

Once opened, you might find out that the required spare part is no longer available.

9-Unavailable spare parts

Imagine that after serving you a long time, a minor but crucial part of your (insert defective device) has broken, but the rest of the

device works fine.

The customer service kindly tells you that the required spare part isn’t available anymore and that the service for that device has been discontinued. What can you do? Buy a new one!

The producer generally makes more profit selling new devices than spare parts.

Producers have found a solution to this dilemma: totally overprice spare parts.

10-Broken display glass

Mobile phones fall down easily. But broken display glass and all damages from improper handling are not covered by the

manufacturer’s warranty.

The dropper is reminded of his clumsiness every time he looks at the display (often the screen still works and only the glass is

damaged).

Manufacturers also use glass on the backside of their phones, doubling the chances of fracture.

The backside of the iPhone 4 series or more recently of the LG Nexus 4 could have been made out of a break-proof material.

A consumer will replace his gadget much sooner when the glass is broken than when it’s not.

Products Made to Fail and Break

Read more at source :http://www.offthegridnews.com/financial/products-made-to-fail-and-break/


They just don’t make things like they used to – intentionally! If products lasted for years, then we wouldn’t have to replace them

and manufacturers wouldn’t make as much money. Thus, starting in the 1950s and 1960s, manufacturers consciously decided to

make products that were designed to fail and break.

If you haven’t heard of this conspiracy to rip your hard-earned dollars out of your pocket over and over again, that may be

because business gave it a fancy name. The term “Planned Obsolescence” refers to the practice of intentionally designing goods

 to fail and break after a set time period of “acceptable life” once purchased.

Instead of being dismissed as a lousy idea and a way to cheat consumers, is it any surprise that it was embraced by businesses

 everywhere? You’ll see it most often in the following products:

Printer Inks: 

The amount of ink left in your printer is measured by a microchip, which shuts off printing when levels are below a certain amount.

 Not when the ink is gone – just when it’s below where manufacturers want it. And God help you if you want to print black and

white when the cyan or yellow are low – it’s not allowed! Manufacturers make more money from ink purchases than from the

printers themselves, so they installed the microchips to keep the revenues flowing.

Cars: 

The new model year is barely different from the previous year, but every year car makers rush something new to the market.

As a result, it is increasingly difficult to find older car parts.

Manufacturers don’t want to provide spare parts – they want you to buy a new car.

Thank goodness the Internet helps you fight back by letting you source parts from all over the country and even the world –

 otherwise your local dealer would have you right where he wants you when your current car breaks down.

Consumer Electronics: 

Apple once got sued for designing its batteries to fail just after the warranty expired.

They don’t do that anymore, but the market

as a whole seems intent on making your computer, laptop, cell phone, and mp3 player obsolete as soon as possible. Batteries die

, operating systems won’t support new programs, and replacement parts for “vintage” electronics stop being manufactured.

 But “new and improved” often isn’t any better – the new smart phones are notoriously bad at actually making phone calls, just to

give one example. It’s better to try and patch your old system for as long as you can!

Clothes:  

Clothing doesn’t hold together like it once did thanks to the rise of “fast fashion” retailing.

Basically, the idea is to find the new hot look and get it into stores as fast as possible using the cheapest materials and labor

 available.

The item is made to last as long as the fad – and no longer. Ripped seams, pulled threads, disappearing buttons, and

worn-through fibers are all hallmarks of this trend.

Being handy with a needle is one way to fight back, and so is buying vintage clothing – the old stuff was made with care and

designed to last a lot longer!

Nylons: 

The original nylon was used for parachutes by the military in WWII.

Try to imagine jumping out of a plane armed only with a few pairs of LEGGS or Hanes hosiery sewn together.

The original pantyhose and nylon makers quickly figured out that hose that lasted forever wasn’t profitable – so they made it

 weaker and more easily torn to keep the sales flowing.

There are so many more products out there designed to wear out and break down. With effort, you can avoid them or work around

 their flaws, but it’s no joke that manufacturers are after your wallet.

What tricks have you found to outsmart them and their made-to-break goods?

Planned Obsolescence: 8 Products Designed to Fail

read more at source http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/g202/planned-obsolescence-460210/

Designed to fail: planned obsolescence in every day used product

Manufacturers' planned obsolescence costs to consumers and the environment.

By Brian Clark Howard
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WHAT IS PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE?

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Planned obsolescence is when a product is deliberately designed to have a specific life span.

This is usually a shortened life span. The product is designed to last long enough to develop a customer’s lasting need.

The product is also designed to convince the customer that the product is a quality product, even though it eventually needs

replacing. In this way, when the product fails, the customer will want to buy another, up to date version.

Take for example a washing machine. Planned obsolescence means that the washing machine (seen opposite) is designed to last

about two years, before it breaks down outside the guarantee time.

Most of the components / parts have been manufactured from quality materials with the exception of some vital parts.

Two years after purchase, the washing machine will only need minor inexpensive repairs.

However, between 4 to 5 years the vitals parts begin to wear out and a replacement machine is required.

For planned obsolescence to work, the customer must feel that he/she has had value for money.

Furthermore, he/she must have enough confidence in the manufacturer/company, to replace the original washing machine with

the modern equivalent machine, from the same manufacturer.


Planned obsolescence is sometimes designed into a product, in order to encourage the customer to buy the next upgrade.

A good example of this is a mobile phone.

Mobile phones are often designed with only current technology in mind, despite the manufacturers knowledge of future

technological developments.

For instance, a mobile phone may have USB / connections / jack plugs, that fit current products, such as head phones and

computers.

This means that the phone is not future proof.

The manufacturer may already be working on updated phones, that connect using different sizes of USB ports / connections.

Although the current phone can be upgraded with software, eventually the ‘old’ USB / connections / jack plugs will make the

product obsolete.

The customer will need a new phone, even though there may be nothing wrong with his / her existing phone.

The old phone becomes obsolete.

Designers following the philosophy of ‘Built In Obsolescence’, ask themselves, ‘how can a product be designed so that it breaks

down quite quickly, but it still leaves customer confidence in the product and manufacturer intact’.

Planned obsolescence can be regarded as bad for the environment, because it leads to products being ‘dumped’ by customers,

so that new updated products can be acquired. The quandary that good designers face, is to design desirable products, with

components / parts that can be recycle or reused, when the product is thrown away, by fashion/style conscious consumers.

Planned obsolescence is sometimes deliberately and openly built into products for safety reasons.

Sell by dates and use by dates on foods, are a guide to both the retailer and customer, highlighting when a food product is safe to

eat and at its best.

Further examples are disposable cutlery and soft drinks bottles, which are manufactured cheaply and designed to be used once /

twice. These products are sometimes manufactured from biodegradable polylactide (PLA), which can be thrown away and yet is

safe for the environment.