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Rod Speed

Alan wrote
(Michael Black) wrote
(Alan ) writes

Planned obsolescence has been a tenet of the automobile
industry since the '30s. General Motors, in particular
used styling to make a 2 or 3 year-old-car look "old"
and in need of replacement with a newly styled model.

A bigger engine, prettier colors, new styles, all those
things are at the heart of 'planned obsolescence.'

"Improving" the features on your cell phone every
year is the result of planned obsolescence.

No, that's fashion. If the old still works, then it's not obsolete.

He's right.

People who follow fashion trends are in the same boat.
Their clothes aren't obsolete, they simply don't want to
wear them anymore because they want the latest.

"Fashion" allows companies to sell the same thing to the same people.

But the notion of "planned obsolescence" is that
it's designed from the beginner to not last long.

I'm not arguing that fashion causes people to buy new things.

Well, you may think that. But the term "planned obsolescence"
has been used for decades in exactly the way I described

Only by those who dont know what it means.

Packard who popularised the term didnt use it like that.

-- a way to make people feel their "old" thing is no
longer desirable and must be replaced with a "new" thing.

That isnt PLANNED obsolescence,
because there is no PLANNING involved.

You're applying the term to something that isn't
repairable, or to something that won't last a long time.

Yep, one that has been PLANNED to fail before it needs to.