On principle it's rather annoying, but in practice, customers don't ask for repairable items. It just doesn't affect their purchases. As long as that's the ca

On principle it's rather annoying, but in practice, customers don't ask for repairable items. It just doesn't affect their purchases. As long as that's the case, they'll buy the cheaper of a repairable vs non-repairable unit. And so that's what competitive vendors will make. A major factor is continued development. Any product under active development is in this cycle. Consumers see a 10 yr old washing machine as almost archaic vs the newest ones. So they don't see as much value in the old device -- not enough to repair when a new one is 40% off for the labor day sale. For items that aren't under active development -- like a coffee maker, an iron, a lawn mower -- they care about its total lifetime and the costs of repairing it.