5 ms·

This seems like a pretty strong claim given that 4 billion Android phones are made each year with <2 years of kernel support. Where are you even getting this fr

This seems like a pretty strong claim given that 4 billion Android phones are made each year with <2 years of kernel support. Where are you even getting this from?

olalonde 4y ago
Again, this is a misunderstanding of what planned obsolescence means. Supporting software costs money. The longer the support offered, the higher the cost of the phone. A line has to be drawn: a reasonable duration that doesn't increase the cost of the phone by too much. That line is ultimately driven by consumer preferences. Planned obsolescence would be setting a timer on the phone that disables it after two years. > Where are you even getting this from? From basic economics 101 theory and empirical observation.
- lupire 4y ago
  Writing software costs even more money. And software is more profitable if you break your old software and ruin the attached hardware after 2 years.
- blululu 4y ago
  I’m not sure how you’re trying to define planned obsolescence in order to say it doesn’t happen. Maintenance has costs and it has benefits and a corporation tries the weigh those according to its best guess. But the biggest cost for maintenance as far the decision makers are concerned is not the extra 10 engineers required to support a product with 100M unit volumes for another year. It is the opportunity cost of not selling a new device next year. The fact that the device is not working as long as its usable lifecycle as a conscious matter of corporate planning is pretty much the definition of planned obsolescence. And I can personally vouch that when execs are pressed about why they don’t commit the to longer support terms the answer that comes back is “we want to sell more units next year”.
  - olalonde 4y ago
    Those execs are not very clever. Why not drop the support after just 2 months?

5 ms·

This seems like a pretty strong claim given that 4 billion Android phones are made each year with <2 years of kernel support. Where are you even getting this fr

by blululu 4y ago

This seems like a pretty strong claim given that 4 billion Android phones are made each year with <2 years of kernel support. Where are you even getting this from?

olalonde 4y ago
Again, this is a misunderstanding of what planned obsolescence means. Supporting software costs money. The longer the support offered, the higher the cost of the phone. A line has to be drawn: a reasonable duration that doesn't increase the cost of the phone by too much. That line is ultimately driven by consumer preferences. Planned obsolescence would be setting a timer on the phone that disables it after two years. > Where are you even getting this from? From basic economics 101 theory and empirical observation.
- lupire 4y ago
  Writing software costs even more money. And software is more profitable if you break your old software and ruin the attached hardware after 2 years.
- blululu 4y ago
  I’m not sure how you’re trying to define planned obsolescence in order to say it doesn’t happen. Maintenance has costs and it has benefits and a corporation tries the weigh those according to its best guess. But the biggest cost for maintenance as far the decision makers are concerned is not the extra 10 engineers required to support a product with 100M unit volumes for another year. It is the opportunity cost of not selling a new device next year. The fact that the device is not working as long as its usable lifecycle as a conscious matter of corporate planning is pretty much the definition of planned obsolescence. And I can personally vouch that when execs are pressed about why they don’t commit the to longer support terms the answer that comes back is “we want to sell more units next year”.
  - olalonde 4y ago
    Those execs are not very clever. Why not drop the support after just 2 months?