Planned obsolescence

Planned obsolescence  (Pollution,  Ecocide)
Interest of	Apple
Designing things to break early.

Planned obsolescence describes a strategy of deliberately ensuring that the current version of a given product will become out of date or useless within a known time period; most of the times achieved by intentionally designing a product to cease proper function within a specific window.

This proactive move guarantees that consumers will seek replacements in the future, thus bolstering demand.

History

The world's first international cartel was initially called Phoebus, and it limited the lifetime of lightbulbs as well as fixing their price.

=Phones

Apple

In early 2018, French authorities used this law to investigate reports that Apple deliberately slowed down older iPhones via software updates, following a new law that banned planned obsolescence in particular.

Samsung

Samsung AMOLED displays used in[mobile phones have suboptimal ribbon cables that deteriorate over time, resulting in the screen turning completely white. Another point of failure is the degraded TFT layer which causes green or purple lines to appear on the display. Both issues can be triggered by a software update. They render the device unusable, requiring the user to repair or replace the display or to upgrade to a new device sooner than they had needed to. These issues are well known to the public thanks to Samsung's own Galaxy S20 series of mobile phones.

Digital products

Digital products are easily created that stop and effectively self-destruct after a specific number of uses, or which can be remotely disabled or degraded.

Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.