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> HP soon decreased the quality of their printers to increase faults I often hear such claims of planned obsolescence and while I won't put it past companies t

> HP soon decreased the quality of their printers to increase faults I often hear such claims of planned obsolescence and while I won't put it past companies to do it, they feel a bit too conspiratorial to me. Are there any documented cases / exposes of companies doing this, as opposed to just making lower quality stuff because it is cheap? I am talking of deliberate planned obsolescence, and not of things like the iPhone battery scandal where Apple throttled the speed of devices to prevent sudden shut-offs.

euanc 6y ago
"The Phoebus cartel existed to control the manufacture and sale of incandescent light bulbs. " "The cartel lowered operational costs and worked to standardize the life expectancy of light bulbs at 1,000 hours[6] (down from 2,500 hours),[6] and raised prices without fear of competition. The cartel tested their bulbs and fined manufacturers for bulbs that lasted more than 1,000 hours. A 1929 table listed the amount of Swiss francs paid that depended on the exceeding hours of lifetime.[8]" https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Phoebus_cartel&oldid=980971162 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Phoebus_cartel&ol...
blacksmith_tb 6y ago
My impression is that it's just guesswork, extrapolation from the already-dubious DRMed inkjet refills and toner cartridges.
sly010 6y ago
Making batteries hard to replace by gluing them in is obviously a conscious decision, not some sort of cost saving.
- ThePowerOfFuet 6y ago
  There are simple pull-tabs to remove them. The alternative is a hard shell (which decreases the space available for energy storage)... or letting the battery flop around inside the unit, I suppose.
- cbmuser 6y ago
  Gluing something in instead of using screws is just faster and cheaper to manufacture. And if it's a product like a phone that 90% of the customers will replace with a new one in just a few years, the large majority of customers actually won't care.
toyg 6y ago
In some cases the effect is indirect but equally likely to be achieved somewhat on purpose. If I am under pressure to cut costs and I fire my QE team, I didn’t do it explicitly to achieve planned obsolescence, but I’ll get that result anyway. There won’t be anything on paper saying “we want quality to go down”, but everyone involved will just know what the game is.

euanc 6y ago

"The Phoebus cartel existed to control the manufacture and sale of incandescent light bulbs. " "The cartel lowered operational costs and worked to standardize the life expectancy of light bulbs at 1,000 hours[6] (down from 2,500 hours),[6] and raised prices without fear of competition. The cartel tested their bulbs and fined manufacturers for bulbs that lasted more than 1,000 hours. A 1929 table listed the amount of Swiss francs paid that depended on the exceeding hours of lifetime.[8]" https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Phoebus_cartel&oldid=980971162 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Phoebus_cartel&ol...

blacksmith_tb 6y ago

My impression is that it's just guesswork, extrapolation from the already-dubious DRMed inkjet refills and toner cartridges.

sly010 6y ago

Making batteries hard to replace by gluing them in is obviously a conscious decision, not some sort of cost saving.

ThePowerOfFuet 6y ago
There are simple pull-tabs to remove them. The alternative is a hard shell (which decreases the space available for energy storage)... or letting the battery flop around inside the unit, I suppose.
cbmuser 6y ago
Gluing something in instead of using screws is just faster and cheaper to manufacture. And if it's a product like a phone that 90% of the customers will replace with a new one in just a few years, the large majority of customers actually won't care.

toyg 6y ago

In some cases the effect is indirect but equally likely to be achieved somewhat on purpose. If I am under pressure to cut costs and I fire my QE team, I didn’t do it explicitly to achieve planned obsolescence, but I’ll get that result anyway. There won’t be anything on paper saying “we want quality to go down”, but everyone involved will just know what the game is.