Paradise or Oblivion

Planned Obsolescence: 8 Products Designed to Fail
Manufacturers' planned obsolescence costs consumers and the environment.
By Brian Clark Howard

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technolo...10#slide-9

Don't you hate it when something breaks just after the warranty runs out? Or what about that new electronic gadget that fails to work with your old accessories from the same manufacturer? Some of these infuriating problems were caused on purpose, by product designers practicing "planned obsolescence."

Planned obsolescence isn't always easy to identify, since there can be many reasons why something becomes no longer useful, including technological irrelevance or changing social tastes. And some degree of planned obsolescence is probably necessary in many fields, through so-called "value engineering" (eg, a car would not be affordable if every part had to be made strong enough to last 100 years). But there are also ways manufacturers exploit planned obsolescence to make consumers buy more product, such as by purposefully making it difficult, or too costly, to make repairs, or by preventing backwards compatibility.

At least as early as the 1960s, critics have complained that planned obsolescence wastes consumers' money, uses up valuable resources and chokes our landfills. The issue has big environmental implications, because our insatiable appetite for stuff drives carbon emissions and pollution. (True, some have suggested that planned obsolescence could benefit the environment, if products were made to be easily recycled and/or upgraded as technologies progress, versus promoting the throwaway culture that we have now.)

1. Ink Cartridges
2. Video Games
3. Textbooks
4. Fast Fashion
5. Software
6. Cars
7. Consumer Electronics
8. Light Bulbs