Planned obsolescence
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Obsolescence is the state of being which occurs when a person, object, or service is no longer wanted even though it may still be in good working order. Synonyms for the quality of being obsolete are outdated, old-fashioned, antiquated, anachronistic, backward and fossil.
Planned obsolescence or built-in obsolescence in industrial design is a policy of planning or designing a product with a limited useful life, so it will become obsolete, that is, unfashionable or no longer functional after a certain period of time.
Non-user-replaceable batteries
Some products, such as mobile phones, laptops, and electric toothbrushes, contain batteries that are not replaceable by the end-user after they have worn down, therefore leaving an aging battery trapped inside the device. While such a design can help make the device thinner, it can also make it difficult to replace the battery without sending the entire device away for repairs or purchasing an entirely new device.
On a device with a non-openable back cover (non-user-replaceable battery), a manual (forced) battery replacement might induce permanent damage, including loss of water-resistance due to damages on the water-protecting seal, as well as risking serious, even irreparable damage to the phone's main board as a result of having to pry the battery free from strong adhesive in proximity to delicate components. The manufacturer or a repair service might be able to replace the battery. In the latter case, this could void the warranty on the device.
The practice in phone design started with Apple's iPhones and has now spread out to most other mobile phones, notably Samsung Mobile starting in 2015 with the Galaxy S6.
Earlier mobile phones (including water-resistant ones such as the Samsung Galaxy S5 and the Sony Xperia V) had back covers that could be opened by the user in order to replace the battery.
See also
- Commodification
- Deprecation
- List of obsolete technology
- Planned
- Sustainable design
- Disruptive technology
- DMSMS
- Moore's law
- Shelf life
- Superseded scientific theories
- Centennial Light
- Phoebus cartel
- Setting up to fail
- Artificial demand
- Durapolist — producer that manipulates the durability of its product
- Electronics right to repair — government legislation to allow consumers repairing their own devices
- Life spans of home appliances — averages published by the U.S. National Association of Home Builders
- Phoebus cartel — worked to standardize the life expectancy of light bulbs at 1,000 hours, down from 2,500 hours
- Prognostics — engineering discipline focused on predicting the life times
- Bathtub curve a concept of typical product failure
- The Man in the White Suit
- Electronics right to repair
- Product lifetime
- Criticism of Apple Inc.
- Computer recycling
- Shelf life
- Ethical Consumer
