The Members Forum

That shiny new Android phone you just bought? Yeah, it's a piece of trash. No, I'm not some Google-hating Apple fanboy. The iPhone 4 is junk, too.

So is that giant, flat-screen 3D TV and tablet you bought in the past year. It's trash. All trash.

Of course, everything ends up broken, obsolete and unusable at some point. The trouble is, the companies that make our consumer electronics are deliberately or carelessly decreasing the useful life of our gadgets so they can sell us another one sooner.

 

The strategy is called "planned obsolescence," or "designed for the dump" as one organization colorfully puts it.

The light bulb industry pioneered the idea of planned obsolescence in the 1920s and 1930s. Philips, General Electric and other bulb makers formed a shady organization called the Phoebus cartel to, among other things, make sure light bulbs couldn't last more than 1,000 hours.

I had a bulb burn out last week. Even though I bought the bulb a year ago, it died sooner than a bulb at a nearby fire station that was purchased in, and has been burning continuously since, 1901. They don't make 'em like that anymore. There's no money in it.

A wide range of industries have gradually embraced planned obsolescence, increasingly designing products that can't be easily or affordably repaired, or that "wear out" after a short time.

Computerworld has the details HERE!

-- Edited by barney on Sunday 23rd of January 2011 11:54:44 PM