Planned Obsolescence: The Business of Making Product Become Out-dated

When Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, he used carbon filaments. This filament allowed bulbs to last long. An example is the Centennial Bulb in Livermore, California, which has been burning since 1901 (116 years).

However, it was a challenge for commercial producers of light bulbs. As customer base grew, people were not interested in paying for replacement, and there was the risk of overproduction and less profit. Therefore, manufacturers needed a solution.

In 1920, three major electrical companies, Germany’s Osram, UK’s Associated Electrical Industries and US General Electric met and decided to produce bulbs that will last for about 1000 hours using tungsten filament.

Though it received backlashes from governments, it was probably the start of the business strategy of building obsolete factors into products. Soon, the car manufacturers joined and redefined it. Ford and General Motors built new car models with the intention of outdating older models.

It is quite easy to assume that manufacturers are wicked people who intentionally make parts of their products weak to encourage consumers to buy new ones but consumers play a role in it too. The love for new things and the culture of following trends contribute to the strategy of making things with a plan for it to damage within a period.

The smart phone industry is a good example of how planned obsolescence works. Manufacturers make new phones every year with specifications that make phones of a year before seem like a hundred year old product. Parts of a tech product give out easily and repairing or replacing a part cost more than buying a new one.

A N30, 000 phone bought in 2015 loses appeal to its owner because a faulty motherboard cost more than half of the phone’s price. Why repair it when you can get a N35, 000 phone with longer lasting battery, wider screen and more camera pixels.

So ends the life of a once dearly loved phone and its journey into the body of technology waste. Does planned obsolescence contribute to e-waste? Yes, it does. Visit a landfill near you, and you will see piles of phones, cathode tubes, batteries, printer cartridges, plugs and motherboards.

Giles Slade in Made to Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America observes that “in 2004, about 315 million working PCs were retired…of these, as many as 10 per cent would be refurbished and reused but most would go straight to the trash heap.”

If America of more than a decade ago had such amount of tech waste, what do you think is the amount in the world today? With technology, now cheaper and more accessible, tech waste is a major contributor to environment degradation.

However, it has not stopped mass production of new stuffs. Rather, it has increased. If a new car model has better engines, it might have sub-par electrical parts. If a phone has good batteries, the screen might be fragile.

Cutting production does not solve the problem of overproduction but by finding means of selling more. This is why adverts take up a good part of our TV and social media time. Strangely, it does not worry consumers; it excites them. While manufacturers learn to exploit planned obsolescence, consumers learn faster to accept it.

However, is there Any Good in It?

Imagine a world where people have just one product to use and it can last for many years, how many factories will remain. Planned obsolescence plays a role in availability of long-term jobs. It also encourages development of new technologies.

Moreover, some products are better suited for the short term. Brian Burns in his article on re-evaluating obsolescence in Longer Lasting Products: Alternatives to the Throwaway Society writes, “The life span of every product is complex and dependent on a wide range of social, technological, economic and environment variable. Increased product life may well seem justifiable but in some case, a better defined shorter life span might be appropriate.”

Even if these products can last forever, new technologies and style fatigue might outdate them. With the availability of different models, consumers have more choices, goods become cheaper and product innovation is at the forefront of manufacturing businesses.

Despite the positive and negative results of planned obsolescence, many companies will determine product life span for the sake of profit and trends. Future business administrators and strategists will use it and consumers will embrace it, unless the future holds different values.