The end of planned obsolescence, a dream or a trend ?

The end of planned obsolescence, a dream or a trend ?

When did you last change your phone? Three years is the average duration of ownership of an iPhone according to Apple. It is even shorter for other phones at only two years. Full memory or dead battery, our devices are no longer future-proofed. Despite their high cost, they don’t last all that long. You may think it’s just wear and tear but these failures are too premature and yet, most of the time, people are far from thinking that it was premeditated. For instance Apple would regularly innovates in order to maintain control over their products’ life span: uploading the latest operating system for older devices became impossible and replacing the battery or the screen yourself is becoming harder and harder. They also make the accessories obsolete so that the customers are being forced to replace them between each generation. Today, customers are increasingly being targeted through planned obsolescence, and this is becoming obvious to them. Planned Obsolescence has become a real scourge of modern times.

In fact there’s nothing new about this. Many theories about consumption emerged in the 30’s including Bernard London’s which stipulates that keeping products until the end of their natural life cycle was slowing down the economy. Two decades later, former American President Eisenhower followed in London’s footsteps declaring “to save the economy, we must buy, buy anything”. In the 60’s, Vance Packard set the cat among the pigeons revealing that some firms were secretly limiting the durability of devices in order to shorten their lifespan and so boost profits.

Customers became better informed and many disgruntled buyers dared to sue companies. For instance battery life in three generations of iPods was limited to 18 months, which infuriated many customers. Quickly enough, Apple reimbursed them. Indeed, they prefered slamming down the Pandora box rather than losing the case and so setting a precedent. In France in 2015 a bill was passed to fight against planned obsolescence and the risk run is 2 years’ imprisonment as well as a fine of 300 000€. Not only is planned obsolescence hard to prove, fines and penal servitude haven’t been enough to scare firms. What is really at the core of their concerns is their image. Today, being eco-friendly is trendy.

Firms now have to make their strategy evolve to attract customers and to change their economic model. Some companies have opted to develop customers’ loyalty with replaceable and repairable parts. In fact, even if consumers don’t buy new products, this economic model is viable because companies earn money from the spare parts and retain their customers. For instance SEB, a world leader in small electrical appliances, promotes its products by promising to stock parts for them for ten years. Fairphone is also a precursor of this new trend and a proof that the demand is real for such an economic model. Indeed in this case, consumers themselves believed in the modular telephone and financed it thanks to crowdfunding. For the Earth's sake, it would be a great economic step forward if it gains ground.

Claire Peters & Jeanne Schied