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> With low-cost products, the strategic response for manufacturers would be to lower new product prices and flood the market, thus reducing the appeal of repair

> With low-cost products, the strategic response for manufacturers would be to lower new product prices and flood the market, thus reducing the appeal of repair. This isn't a bad thing. Let them sell their products as cheaply as they want, but as long as the repair option is cheaper than the buy new option, most people will repair. Even if it's cheaper to buy new many will still repair if that repair is easy enough. It's a lot easier to stick with something you know works, fits your needs, and is already in place than it is to throw it away and replace it by rolling the dice on some cheap electronic good from china which might not work at all, and may not do everything as well. The lazy/safe option is very attractive to consumers. > If independent repair was widely available, products would have a longer lifespan, making them more valuable. Manufacturers would be incentivized to raise new product prices, which hurts consumers. That doesn't make much sense. If everyone can just keep using their valuable old thing, companies will have to bring down the price on the new thing to get them to buy it. Even people who do buy the new version can sell their valuable old one to someone else who now doesn't have to buy the new one. In the face of reduced demand for a new product, raising the price for it would be crazy.

supportlocal4h 4y ago
<grandpa voice> When I was a child </grandpa> our home used the same phone for 20+ years. Now they are stocking stuffers every year. And it's not because they got dirt cheap. Somehow somebody convinced us that life with an old phone is unbearable, even if it still works the same as it did on day one.
- autoexec 4y ago
  Apple turned phones into status symbols and some people really will look down on you if you don't have the newest iphone or worse, any model at all of an android device. Apple also made batteries irreplaceable and forced iphones to slow down as they aged which I'm sure didn't hurt. Not everybody is buying into it, but I've seen both adults and children genuinely struggle with the social pressure they faced to have only the newest and most expensive iphone at all times and it was just depressing. When I was a child, nobody cared what phone you were using. You generally didn't care either as long as it could be used out of earshot of the rest of the family. For all the problems cell phones cause us, at least it's been a long time since kids had to suffer the pain of having to stand in their family's kitchen for every telephone conversation with friends and romantic partners.

supportlocal4h 4y ago

<grandpa voice> When I was a child </grandpa> our home used the same phone for 20+ years. Now they are stocking stuffers every year. And it's not because they got dirt cheap. Somehow somebody convinced us that life with an old phone is unbearable, even if it still works the same as it did on day one.

autoexec 4y ago
Apple turned phones into status symbols and some people really will look down on you if you don't have the newest iphone or worse, any model at all of an android device. Apple also made batteries irreplaceable and forced iphones to slow down as they aged which I'm sure didn't hurt. Not everybody is buying into it, but I've seen both adults and children genuinely struggle with the social pressure they faced to have only the newest and most expensive iphone at all times and it was just depressing. When I was a child, nobody cared what phone you were using. You generally didn't care either as long as it could be used out of earshot of the rest of the family. For all the problems cell phones cause us, at least it's been a long time since kids had to suffer the pain of having to stand in their family's kitchen for every telephone conversation with friends and romantic partners.