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Made to break

by Volker Weber

Hanno sent me a link to this interesting interview with Giles Slade. I listened to it on my way to Wiesbaden today. You may have heard most of the things in this interview elsewhere, but I found some statements quite interesting:

• When was the last time before buying new hardware you really asked yourself: do I really need this upgrade?
• iPods are designed to last a year.
• In 1932, General Electric brought the first lightbulb to market that was deliberately designed to last shorter.
• In the long run, a product with planned obsolence will always outsell the long-lasting product despite its higher quality.
• The long-lasting Ford Model T had to surrender to a General Motors strategy of cars that wouldn't last as long.
• These short-cycle model changes at GM were driven by people who were previously in Women's fashion related industries.
• Hardly any customer actually takes advantage of a lifetime warantee
• Casual consumption of goods and electronics today is like casual sex was before AIDS.

I did not know when and why single use goods where invented. Did you?

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Tags: giles+slade planned+obsolescence

Comments

Vowe, re: single use goods, I assume you mean other than virginity? LOL.

People LIKE new things. Fashion is a sure mark of a wealthy culture no longer worried overall about feeding itself.

I have an excellent intellectual property attourney who told me a few years ago that one of the fascinating things about "Click Through" agreements is that even though we all use them, and they're a common industry tool, at least here in the states they've had almost no real court testing. Everyone sort of tiptoes around the fact that their very complexity and the mechanics of them being required may actually invalidate them.

Andrew, you should take some time before writing a comment. ;-)

I am mostly angry about planned obsolescence that comes with batteries. An iPod Nano or a PDA do not really need to have their batteries soldered inside so that you cannot replace them. Laptop and cellphone batteries do not really have to come in a new format with every product line.

Of course I upgrade my electronics every now and then. But laptops and mp3 players last longer than 2 years, just their batteries don't. And it's usually not worth to replace the battery of a laptop due to inflated prices.

We need a battery standard for rechargeable batteries for electronic gadgets, cell phones and laptops. But I guess that will never happen.

P.S.: Yay, Volker, you find the exact same things interesting as I do. :-)

@Volker -- that second post was a response to another article that I'm sure was there and is now gone. Something about "Do you know what you agreed to?"

@Hanno re: Batteries -- I agree completely. Not only battery standards but for the love of FSM can't we get some standards for block adapters? Should all 9v DC block adapters have the same connectors? Gr.

Andrew, it is not gone. It is just the previous post.

iPods: that sounds about right. See iPod comments here :o)

Hello,

I'm surprised [and pleased] to see my interview with Leonard Lopate mentioned on a German website. Thank you, Volker. I have to agree with
Hanno that there is no real reason for these things (except of course, the manufacturer's greed) and that there should be accessible batteries and perhaps and interchangable standard in all handheld devices. I'm also concerned about something Leonard told me on the show, that printer cartridges are programmed to expire after a certain date and also that the nearly empty warning is programmed to display itself when they are really more than half full. I'm finding out more about this every day and it appears to be true. In the U. S. there is not yet any legislation to control the manufacturers as there is in Europe. I wonder how this is working out at a street level. Best Wishes, Giles Slade

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vowe.net is a personal website published by Volker Weber a.k.a. vowe. I am an author, consultant and systems architect based in Darmstadt, Germany.

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