Planned Obsolescence

Planned obsolescence is the process of deliberately producing a product with a short product life cycle in order to pressure consumers into buying replacement products. The principle behind planned obsolescence is to shorten the time between each purchase in an effort to create a continuous flow of sales. As Brooks Stevens once said, planned obsolescence is "instilling in the buyer the desire to own something a little newer, a little better, a little sooner than is necessary." (Adamson, 2003). Many manufacturing companies use planned obsolescence in order to cut costs, increase profits and make sure consumers are continuously buying their products. However when customers are taken advantage of with incompetent products, this may have troublesome consequences, not only to manufacturers and customers, but to the whole economy.

Before the 1940's, the main objective of manufacturing companies was to produce the most reliable, durable and high in quality products. People preffered longlasting products more than they did stylish and did not mind if they were 'excessively bulky and large.' (Brown, 1981) However, when World War II ended there was a depletion of natural resources and an increase in labour cost (Sherif & Rice 1886). By the 1960s most companies had no choice but to produce products having shorter life cycles in order to cover high costs of manufacturing (Giaretta, 2005). In the past the typical German automobile would last on average 15-20 years with little need for repair (Slade, 2006), while nowadays automobiles are replaced more often. This increase in product replacement is also due to the vast differences in ideologies of todays society compared with the past. Consumer preferences have changed, favouring the most stylish, feature-rich and popular items rather than the most durable ones. As the main objective of commercial enterprises is to protect and grow their sales revenue they continuously update their product range to entice consumers to upgrade to newer models.These new models may have only minor and sometimes cosmetic modifications designed to render previous models obsolete in the eyes of consumers. The change in customer preferences has certainly contributed to the growth of planned obsolescence. One of the first industries where planned obsolescence was used was the automobile industry, the reason being that everyone who could afford a car had one, and had no reason to buy a new one. That's when producers of automobiles decided to make their products more stylish in order to encourage more sales (Slade, 2006).

Companies ensure that a product does not last forever by employing functional obsolescence: this includes limited functional life design, design for limited repair and design aesthetics that lead to reduced satisfaction. (Packard, 1960) states that, "When deliberately planned, certainly the most dubious of all types; a product wears out or breaks down at a given time, usually not very distance." Limited functional design began when designers realised they could control the durability of components or materials used in manufacturing to limit products' life span (Stokey 1981) An example is when nylon was introduced by the American company DuPont, demonstrating their exceptional durability and sturdiness in ladies stockings. Companies were not making enough sales due to the stockings long-lasting nature and decided to manipulate the material into being more fragile (Dannoritzer, 2010). Limited Functional Design does have its downside, in that consumers will pay only half as much for a product they must continuously replace (Strausz, 2008), therefore a company does not make more profits than they would if the product lasted twice as long. Companies rely on design for limited repair, the incentive that the cost of repairing a product outweighs the cost of replacing it (Guiltinan, 2009). Companies often make new components excessively expensive or simply stop producing spare parts to encourage consumers to buy new. Due to the premature failure rate and false advertising of all three generations of iPod batteries, in 2003 US customers sued Apple Computer Inc. The batteries did not last as long as promised, broke down 1 year later and were first made to be unfixable however later were able to be replaced for one fifth of the iPod's price (Konrad, 2005). Another example is the creation of non-repairable disposable cameras which could only be used once (Adolphson, 2004). Companies also design aesthetics that lead to reduced satisfaction (Cooper, 2005). The overall design of products are made to become damaged with everyday use, for example the surfaces of appliances become less refined rendering customer discontentment and early disposal.

Products can be made obsolete by ways other than built-in accelerated wear and tear. Technological obsolescence is the process of replacing items with more advanced items that meet growing demands of customers (Giaretta, 2005). By adding or upgrading product features, whether superficial or pure innovation, an existing product may be seen as outdated or useless. In the case of planned obsolescence, most companies create superficial technological improvements in order to influence customers into buying something they believe has more features or higher performance. An example that fits this situation is the production of digital compact cameras with more megapixels. Customers were made to believe that an increase in megapixels increased the quality and resolution of pictures, however it actually decreased the quality of the image because megapixels only affect the size of the picture not quality (Sonntag, 2000)

Companies are under continuous innovative pressure to execute a fast production of new designs, while trying not to lose their customers to competition. Competive pressure due to globalisation of markets (Giaretta, 2005) has resulted in companies introducing new products at an accelerating pace. Research shows that electronic firms produce new products too quickly with poor practicality, and usually end up producing a product similar to their competitors (Bayus et al., 2003). TNCs need to spend R&D effort to ensure that the product does render itself unfit for use after a certain amount of time.

Shorter product cycles have terrible environmental consequences. Every year, planned obsolescence produces massive amounts of waste, which consumers eventually have to pay to get rid of. According to several sources, North America throws away more than 100 million mobile phones and 300 million computers each year while selling 20 million televisions but only making an effort to repair 20,000. This results in enormous environmental damage from lead, mercury and toxic glass (Boland, 2001; Slade, 2006). Another environmental consequence is that earth's scarce resources are depleted