"Jim Conley" wrote in message
news:x3vQd.399406$8l.360834@pd7tw1no...
Hello,

I'm a journalist writing a story for Mobile PC Magazine on the decline of
quality in consumer electronics. I sent Sam Wasserman an e-mail regarding
this topic this morning and he recommended posting to the newsgroup. I'd
be
interested in the thoughts of sci.electronic.repair readers about whether
the quality of electronics is genuinely on the decline and if so, why?

Here's some of the questions I hope to answer with this article.

Has there been a quantifiable decrease in the life span of consumer
products
over the last fifteen years?
What segments of consumer electronics seem to be hardest hit?How long are
consumer electronics meant to last?
Are they any documented cases of electronics being intentionally crippled
to
reduce shelf-life?
Does the concept of a manufacturer's warranty mean anything anymore or has
point-of-purchase warranty become expected of consumers?

I appreciate your input.

Jim Conley



Someone else's post referred to TV life declining to 7/8 years etc. What
seems to have been missed out is that circuitry has become more complex
(albeit usually 'hidden' inside an IC). Extra complexity will bring down the
MTBF. Extra complexity has of course also brought us CDs, DVDs, teletext
systems, RDS, all the various flavours of surround sound etc. etc. So, if
you want reliability to increase, the asnwer is quite simple - get rid of
all the 'gadgetry' which is now used to boost the product sales. It isn't
going to happen.

When you do write your story, try not to be biased, and rather show a
balanced picture of things. Quality has not declined, it has probably
increased, but so has complexity. The nett result may be shorter MTBF - that
is for you to investigate.