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101.708 INGLS
Report on Planned Obsolescence
Team One: Casillas Ramos, Miguel ngel Collado Martnez, Winebaldo Jos Madrid Gonzlez, Guillermo Ramos lvarez, Hugo Alberto Rodrguez Alonso, Pedro Miguel
12-12-2013
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 2 Formal Definition of Obsolescence, Origin and the Problem that Originates ........................................ 2 Types of Planned Obsolescence .............................................................................................................. 3 Technical or Functional Obsolescence ................................................................................................ 3 Systemic Obsolescence ....................................................................................................................... 3 Style Obsolescence .............................................................................................................................. 4 Damage to Environmentally .................................................................................................................... 4 Obsolescence in Companies .................................................................................................................... 5 Alternatives and Solutions to Planned Obsolescence ............................................................................. 6 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................................... 7 BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................................................... 7
INTRODUCTION
Have we ever questioned ourselves for what reason cell phones remain obsoletes a year after being put on Market? Is it normal that when we buy an iPhone 2, six months after its put on Market appears a new model of the same product? Has anyone of us seen a light bulb functioning for more than 5 years? If the answer it is negative, it is obvious that there are a phenomenon hidden until our days, which we called Planned Obsolescence.
Systemic Obsolescence
Planned systemic obsolescence is the deliberate attempt to make a product obsolete by altering the system in which it is used in such a way as to make its continued use difficult. New software is Universidad de salamanca | Types of Planned Obsolescence 3
frequently introduced that is not compatible with older software. This makes the older software largely obsolete. Even though an older version of a word processing program is operating correctly, it might not be able to read data saved by newer versions. The same thing may be said of printers and refill cartridges, for example. Another way of introducing systemic obsolescence is to eliminate service and maintenance for a product. If a product fails, the user is forced to purchase a new one. This strategy seldom works because there are typically third parties that are prepared to perform the service if parts are still available. To combat this third party repairing say in the case of replacing a laser assembly in a DVD drive soldered points are on the printed circuit board without explanation so, unless the user knows which ones to remove, the item cannot be repaired. In turn, third parties can overcome this by reverse-engineering (a legal practice), but at added expense which may drive up the price of thirdparty repair to the point that it is economically unattractive to consumers.
Style Obsolescence
Marketing may be driven primarily by aesthetic design. Product categories in this case display a fashion cycle. By continually introducing new designs, and retargeting or discontinuing others, a manufacturer can "ride the fashion cycle". Such product categories include automobiles (style obsolescence), with a strict yearly schedule of new models; the almost entirely style-driven clothing RECURSOS DEL Recursos Consumi industry (riding the fashion cycle); and the mobile PLANETA dos phone industries with constant minor feature enhancements and restyling. Planned style obsolescence occurs when marketers change the styling of products so customers will purchase products more frequently. The style changes are designed to make owners of the old model feel out of date.
Recursos Existente s Recursos Consumidos
Recursos Existentes
Damage to Environmentally
Planned obsolescence is therefore required in order to set up a consumer society and thus a booming market. The period to use our products, namely, its useful existence, defines the amount of shopping that is made. In this manner when the producers develop a product assign it a lapse of working time just to break down when that time finishes, forcing the customers to buy one again, since repairing the broken one would cost almost as much as it would take to buy a new one with better features, also considering that the product we had would already be obsolete in the market. However, this consumption method issue is directly reflected in the nature, as it has being calculated that the 80% of the products and materials that pass through the hands of a consumer turn into rubbish six weeks later. There are some points that consider the problems that all this rubbish carries. 1. The extraction. In the first place, the raw materials for product fabrication can be also understood as resources exploitation. The countries where the product is sols have almost finished the raw Universidad de salamanca | Damage to Environmentally 4
materials, which have forced them to pull out the raw materials from less developed countries, e.g., African ones. The raw materials on the Earth are about to end, a third of them has been already used. 2. The production. Through the production of the final products pollution is originated because of the combination of chemical products with natural resources. Using these process toxic and environmental-harmful wastes are created. The introduction to the natural cycles of these wastes is really difficult, and they trigger the death of many workers as they have been exposed to carcinogenic substances. 3. The rights. An average American originates 726 kg of rubbish every year. These products transformed in waste are buried under the earth, some of them being previously incinerated. The electronic waste generates some specific problems. For example, they are toxic, because they are made with plumb, mercury and cadmium. They also has selenium and arsenic, among others. When these materials are molten they release toxins, to the air, earth and water, and they even promote the climate change. There are some electronic landfills where all these wastes end up. The biggest one can be found at Guiyu (China).
Obsolescence in Companies
Today, the market is full of cheaper products, the quality controls are absent, for products placed on the market must be "patched" to solve problems of origin, especially where technology is the foundation. There are many products that are returned shortly be tested soon after buying it, because failures are detected and that society has become accustomed to this happening, "Failure, I change and I returned the other, with the hope that will not fail again", the case is that if there are quality control "product by product", the costs that would be higher, therefore the prices are lowered at the expense of considerably lower, both the quality and the duration thereof, assuming can fail with a certain ease. Today is so normal that every company use the planned obsolescence, but now we will centre in one: APPLE. Case 1: A guy from the U.S.A. bought an iPad1 six months after came out. it costed one thousand dollars with insurance. Now since Apple has rolled out their new iOs6 (Around June 2012), the iPad1 is no longer being supported. In return applications that he has paid money for are no longer being supported and ultimately they stop working like several applications have so far. So basically we can see clarity that Apple is now planning when they make their devices obsolete so those pesky non-apple sheeple will start purchasing their products a little quicker. Now here comes the kicker, the apple sheeple will defend apple by stating the iPad1 cannot handle the graphics the iOs6 displays. But, even if it cant handle all the aspects, what is so wrong with having a light update so the users can continue using the apps they paid for. Here comes the comparation, cause the same boy on this case has his xbox for 6 years and Microsoft still updates it. His home screen looks like windows 8, they have updated the look/feel about once a year. He can now use the internet, netflix, hulu, hbo, etc on his XBOX. All on the same hardware!! But to Apple, that is not possible because supposed to be the superior company. Universidad de salamanca | Obsolescence in Companies 5
Case 2: Its about Brazilian lawsuit accuses Apple of 'planned obsolescence' with fourth-gen iPad Apple's legal troubles in Brazil grew on Thursday, as news emerged that the company has been hit with a class-action suit alleging that the quick release of the fourth-generation iPad constitutes "planned obsolescence" with regard to its predecessor. Brazil's Jornal do Comrciao reports that the Brazilian Institute of Politics and Law Software (IBDI) has filed suit against the iPad maker, claiming that the company could have, when launching the thirdgeneration "New iPad," implemented all of the technological upgrades it introduced in the fourthgeneration model. Apple's failure to do so, the suit alleges, amounts to planned obsolescence and unfair business practices. "Consumers thought [they were] buying high-end equipment," said IBDI attorney Sergio Palomares, "not knowing [it] was already an obsolete version." If Apple is found guilty of unfair business practices, the company could be forced to compensate all Brazilian customers who bought the third-generation iPad. The newest model of iPad debuted in October alongside the iPad mini. The new model was largely acknowledged as an incremental upgrade to the third-gen model, which it replaced after only six months. Following the introduction of the fourth-gen iPad, some Apple Stores began allowing customers to exchange their slightly older models for slightly newer ones, though this was not a nationwide company policy. The newer iPad does offer a faster A6X processor, a FaceTime HD camera, and a port compatible with Apple's new Lightning connector standard. These are the features, the IBDI suit claims that could have been built into the third-generation model.
Recognize that you are not fully in control of your actions. Manufacturers, retailers and marketers understand human psychology better than you (unless it is your job as well). Youre being manipulated. Although youre being manipulated, you can adjust your behavior to compensate for the direction in which youre being subconsciously pushed. Consider whether the product youre interested in purchasing is a need or a want. Its fine to buy products that are nothing more than wants, but its better to do so after youve given some thought to the alternatives. How many hours did you need to work to be able to afford this product, after taxes? If a new mobile phone, not including the two-year contract, costs you one hour of work, it may be a better choice than a phone that costs twenty hours of work. What percentage of your net worth are you spending to make this purchase? If your net worth is negative and you owe more in debt than you own, how far back will this put your debt-reduction progress? Choose products that arent designed to fail quickly.
B) To global level:
Selecting all the best technology out of all the available variants is a good tactic. Some old technology that many thought was history has been revived. One of these is the phonograph record player that enjoyed a revival with the emergence of rap. Recycling absolutely everything is an axiom that we still have to learn to take to heart. We should not make anything that cannot be recycled. A good example of this is nuclear waste. Unless we can invent a way to recycle nuclear waste without harm, we should not be making any. All metals, glass, paper, wood, some plastics, fabric and organic "waste" are totally recyclable. There is no excuse whatsoever to not reuse them. As an example, it takes only 10 percent of the energy to recycle aluminum as it does to mine and process aluminum from raw ore, the same is true for iron. The problem about CO2 produced for contamination is now so severe that planting trees alone is not enough; we will have to take direct action. Removing carbon from the atmosphere has been done by shellfish for eons as they turn it into calcium carbonate in their shells; we do this when our bodies make bone. The process that nature uses can be duplicated in the lab and scaled up in order to gobble up all the CO2 that we have been injecting into the atmosphere. We must develop better energy source like: solar, piezoelectric, wind, etc. Some of the ideas are centuries old and have been successfully used by people like the Dutch who were using windmills as long ago as the 12th century, Solar energy has been used to cool cities and homes in Iran for centuries or, Iceland runs most of its power needs on geothermic energy.
CONCLUSION
How are we contributing with these types of systems to maintain them? Or even better, what are we doing wrong that makes us want to feed a destructive system? These are some questions that we ask ourselves, because we are who feed up this problem, we are directly responsible and we are not conscious about it because we are who shopping, or changing our mobile phones when it have broken. But we preffer incriminate to the companies such as only responsable, but we are wrong, we have the last word on this problem changing our lifestyles.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
http://www.forbes.com/sites/moneybuilder/2012/11/06/resist-planned-obsolescence-oraccept-the-financial-consequences/ http://syzygyastro.hubpages.com/hub/End-Planned-Obsolescence http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence The Story of Stuff, Annie Leonard, 2007 http://distrito.wordpress.com/2011/06/05/sabias-que-la-obsolescencia-programada http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread923404/pg1