📠 Why do companies design bad products?

In 2020, Apple agreed to pay up to $500M to settle a lawsuit alleging that the company was intentionally slowing down old iPhone models as a way of selling more new iPhones.

This is a perfect example of today’s concept: planned obsolescence.

Planned obsolescence is the idea that companies intentionally design products to break more quickly as a way of selling more products & making more money. It leads to:

• environmental waste ♻️

• poor design & lower customer satisfaction with products 📠

• excessive consumerism 🛒

The whole idea can be captured in a simple paraphrase of the old Ford slogan:

Industrial designer Brooks Stevens coined the term “planned obsolescence” in 1954. He defined it as:

Art historian Nigel Whitely found that an earlier version of the planned obsolescence idea was developed in a 1932 book titled Consumer Engineering: A New Technique for Prosperity.

The authors of this book discuss “creative waste,” which Livia Gershon called:

Why do we live in a world of planned obsolescence?

The reason is quite simple:

It’s more profitable for corporations to produce low-quality products designed to be replaced because it’s a more sustainable business model.

Imagine: If you make a high-quality dishwasher that lasts for 30 years, you’ll have a hard time keeping your business running 20 years from now.

But if you design your dishwasher to break down after five years of consistent use - just after the four-year warranty expires - your company will likely make more money in the long run.

What are the costs of planned obsolescence?

This practice of making cheap products that are designed to be replaced is good for corporations, but bad for:

• individuals - because they’re paying more for low-quality products

• the environment - because more stuff is going in the trash

• our culture - because it leads us to a consumerist ethos in which we place less value on things once they’ve become replaceable

Another world is possible, however.

We’ve written previously about the concept of “upcycling”, where people will try to reuse, repair, or repurpose old objects and devices rather than throwing them out. (see the full post below)

For those of us living in the U.S. and other high-income countries, understanding “planned obsolescence” can help us acknowledge & overcome the wasteful consumerist tendencies of our culture.

Have a great weekend, folks.

ART OF THE DAY

Lake of Tears by Ilya Glazunov. 1988.