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I'm going a little bit on a tangent here, and this may not apply so much to recent Apple phones, but Apple phones had planned obsolescence in terms of the desig

by shard 5y ago

I'm going a little bit on a tangent here, and this may not apply so much to recent Apple phones, but Apple phones had planned obsolescence in terms of the design of their physical appearance such that you can tell almost instantly which generation it is. This allows broadcasting of status, that this person can afford the latest while that person can only afford to use a 2-year-old phone, thus artificially driving the upgrade cycle.

zepto 5y ago
That isn’t planned obsolescence, because the people who upgrade for status reasons don’t destroy their phones - they either pass them on or trade them in. Arguably it’s the opposite of planned obsolescence - even used phones are not obsolete and are still in circulation. It’s also worth pointing out that this is Apple’s stated policy - they want phones to last longer so that more people have them and they can continue to sell services to them.
- fsflover 5y ago
  > That isn’t planned obsolescence, because the people who upgrade for status reasons don’t destroy their phones This has nothing to do with the definition of planned obsolescence. It does not matter what people do with the old phones.
  - zepto 5y ago
    It obviously does. If the phones are still in service, then by definition they are not obsolete.
    - fsflover 5y ago
      Reread the thread. In this thread, the OP is speaking about design obsolescence.
      - zepto 5y ago
        > Reread the thread. In this thread, the OP is speaking about design obsolescence. I don’t need to reread it. My response applies to design obsolescence. Relatively few people upgrade every year these days. The fact that the old devices are still desirable negates the idea that people don’t want them because they look outdated. I.e. changes in design are not causing people to stop using the devices. For design obsolescence to apply to Apple, workable devices would need to be retired from service early because they were no longer seen as desirable. That isn’t happening.
        fsflover 5y ago
        > Relatively few people upgrade every year these days. [Citation needed]
        zepto 5y ago
        No - this is trivially googled. Compare phones sold to phones in service. Tens of millions vs more then a billion.
        shard 5y ago
        I don't think what you are stating is the definition for planned obsolescence. For example, even though there is a used car market, the fact that someone upgrades their car due to fashion means it's planned obsolescence. In fact, that's where the term was born.

by shard 5y ago

zepto 5y ago

That isn’t planned obsolescence, because the people who upgrade for status reasons don’t destroy their phones - they either pass them on or trade them in. Arguably it’s the opposite of planned obsolescence - even used phones are not obsolete and are still in circulation. It’s also worth pointing out that this is Apple’s stated policy - they want phones to last longer so that more people have them and they can continue to sell services to them.

fsflover 5y ago
> That isn’t planned obsolescence, because the people who upgrade for status reasons don’t destroy their phones This has nothing to do with the definition of planned obsolescence. It does not matter what people do with the old phones.
- zepto 5y ago
  It obviously does. If the phones are still in service, then by definition they are not obsolete.
  - fsflover 5y ago
    Reread the thread. In this thread, the OP is speaking about design obsolescence.
    - zepto 5y ago
      > Reread the thread. In this thread, the OP is speaking about design obsolescence. I don’t need to reread it. My response applies to design obsolescence. Relatively few people upgrade every year these days. The fact that the old devices are still desirable negates the idea that people don’t want them because they look outdated. I.e. changes in design are not causing people to stop using the devices. For design obsolescence to apply to Apple, workable devices would need to be retired from service early because they were no longer seen as desirable. That isn’t happening.
      - fsflover 5y ago
        > Relatively few people upgrade every year these days. [Citation needed]
        zepto 5y ago
        No - this is trivially googled. Compare phones sold to phones in service. Tens of millions vs more then a billion.
      - shard 5y ago
        I don't think what you are stating is the definition for planned obsolescence. For example, even though there is a used car market, the fact that someone upgrades their car due to fashion means it's planned obsolescence. In fact, that's where the term was born.