this post was submitted on 16 Dec 2024
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The "upside" of planned obsolescence is that devices are markedly cheaper if you're willing to not live on the bleeding edge (which is itself just marketing fomo bs..)
Case in point.. recently had to replace my phone. Since I now feel like a liability carrying around newish £500 one I took a look at some 2-3 years old. I eventually picked one I sort-of wished I'd gone for last time around except now I was spending 20% of what it would have cost me back then. So it's a little closer to the point of being obsolete than what it's replacing. But seriously. The amount of money people spend desperate to stay at the pinnacle of camera technology (that they can't really tell the difference on) or for Apple "AI" (I mean.. god.. really.. you're a smart independent person. How has Apples marketing team gotten this far into your brain?) is crazy. But the massively cheaper deals for what are, objectively, still amazing devices is something that only happens because of technology churn and "planned obsolescence".
That's not true. Businesses charge the most people are willing to pay.
I'm sorry you've been convinced that lowering your standards resulted in cheaper prices. It did not. It only resulted in worse products for us and higher profits for businesses.
It literally resulted in a cheaper price
There isn't much progress in phones.
There was a period between 07 and 2016 (maybe) where each new generations of phone was a big leap in quality and capabilities, so I admit being in tech, so well paid and actually professionally concerned by the evolution I was on a 1 to 2 year cycle for a while. That reminded me of the evolution of computers in the 80s/90s...
Now, I recently I broke my galaxy S8 from 2017 and went to check new phones and of course looked at the current flagships and ... meh... Yeah they are better I mean it's 6 generations later but they are not that much better. My old phone could already do 90% of what they do and 100% of what I need and it's just not worth it, especially since I'm pretty sure my income hasn't followed the same curve as flagship phones prices.
So yes, nowadays even a 7 year old phone is more than enough for the vast majority of the population except for people who need a status symbol or some weird use at the margin I can't think of. (An no, your photo sucks donkey balls and no one cares about them and you don't need 12 sensors and an AI coprocessor for your tiktok stories that only 3 peoples watch)
I've got an S9+ and find most newer phones worse in some way or other. Either no expandable memory or no headphone jack. And I've already come to terms with losing my am/fm radio receiver and IR blaster. I intend to use this device until it becomes more expensive to repair than to just buy a new one.
Hopefully some manufacturer can notice there's still a niche demand for these things by the time that happens.
You're totally correct and I forgot about that. My S8 could actually do more than the latest flagship if we consider the headphone jack and removable storage. So yeah.. progress...
Honestly I think my iPhone 15 was a downgrade in terms of battery life compared to my previous 13 with a slightly degraded battery. If it wasn't for USB C I'd still happily have that phone. And shit if it wasn't for getting a screaming deal on that 13 I'd still have my 8.
And the s8 had a 3.5mm headset jack.
I stayed on my phones longer when I had a replaceable battery and expandable storage. 5yrs was typical only replacing when they stopped turning on or I couldn't get new batteries for them.
I JUST replaced my six-year-old phone, and the battery still lasted the better part of a day! I was astounded. It’s crazy not having to charge it every day, now.
Except the pace with which said edge moves too depends on how frequently most people replace their devices.
Meaning that without planned obsolescence combined expenses for tech of an average person per period of time would be the same.
Yes. People pay actual money for things they can't explain in words other than "new cool" or "3.141 times faster" or "14.88% better". I'm of an opinion that this concerns all computer things. Not even only personal computing. It's a tulip bubble that hasn't yet burst. A very big one.
If the essence of things we do with PCs hasn't changed since year 2003, but we do it the harder and more wasteful way due to vanity, there has to be an implosion.
🤨
What? I always felt there's something Nazi-like about Apple.