MTOPRO

Adventures in Open Source Solutions

  • Increase font size
  • Default font size
  • Decrease font size
Welcome

MTOPRO mission

MTOPRO.com helps you to connect like-minded people who believe that knowledge should be for the people and improved and expanded by the people.  In doing so, we want to help put you in touch with the best community knowledge and software available.

 

Ever wonder, "If it's so good, then why is it not supported by the rest of the industry?"

Perhaps 'Planned Obsolescence'?

Widipedia.org says that Planned Obsolescence "is the process of a product becoming obsolete or non-functional after a certain period or amount of use in a way that is planned or designed by the manufacturer.[1] Planned obsolescence has potential benefits for a producer because the product fails and the consumer is under pressure to purchase again, whether from the same manufacturer (a replacement part or a newer model), or from a competitor which might also rely on planned obsolescence. [1] The purpose of planned obsolescence is to hide the real cost per use from the consumer, and charge a higher price than they would otherwise be willing to pay (or would be unwilling to spend all at once).

For an industry, planned obsolescence stimulates demand by encouraging purchasers to buy sooner if they still want a functioning product. Built-in obsolescence is in many different products, from vehicles to light bulbs, from buildings to proprietary software. There is, however, the potential backlash of consumers who learn that the manufacturer invested money to make the product obsolete faster; such consumers might turn to a producer (if any exists) that offers a more durable alternative."

Much of big business today uses this sort of planning to keep the consumer investing and then returning to invest again as the technology breaks down and/or becomes outdated.