Planned obsolesce, also known as building obsolesce in industrial design as well as in economics is defined as a policy of planning and designing a product with an intentionally limited useful life so that it gets obsolete for being no longer functional or unfashionable after a certain period of time. The chief reason behind this strategy is to generate prolonged sales volume by diminishing the time between each purchase of the consumers. Design is considered to the most crucial factor for obsolescence. In the past, however, this strategy was rarely implemented by the investors. In the past products were made to last for a prolonged period of time. Some individuals still belonging old watches or record player that have been passed through generations and are still in working condition. Several factors are there that are responsible for planning obsolesce. The ultimate goal of obsolesce is to encourage or motivate the consumers to buy more and thus prevent shutting down of industries. Designers, through their work, is a major part of planned obsolescence Organizations often uses designers to develop trust of the consumers over the durability of the products In this report, research about the role of design when it comes to perpetuate obsolescence will be discussed in detail.
Research paragraphs
The market strategy of today’s produces has undergone several modifications compared to the market strategies of the same in the past. Two of the chief factors, namely, population and technology can be considered as the chief reason behind this rapid change. Planned obsolescence is one of the strategies that have evolved due to the two mentioned factors. In earlier days, products were manufactured to last for a prolonged period of time. However, now days, the population have increased to a great extent. Hence the number of labors has also increased. In the contemporary society, if products are made long lasting like the past, the number of purchase would have decreased to a considerable amount. This would have result in shutting down of various industries. Consequently, millions of labor and workers would have suffered unemployment. Not only has this, due to advancement in technology, the competition between the organizations also got increased to a tremendous level. Planned obsolescence, motivate the consumers to buy new products in order to keep the respective industries open.
According to Roedl, (2016), planned obsolescence works best when producers possess at least one oligopoly. Oligopoly assures the producers that consumers will surely buy the replacement from them. In this case, an asymmetry in information takes place between the producers as well as the consumers. Producers and designers are aware of the durability of the product where as consumers are not. Andrews (2015) stated that in US, the automobile designers stated planned obsolescence in the year 1924 when the America automobile industry began to saturate. In order to maintain the sales, Alfred P. Sloan Jr., the head of General Motors suggested a annual model year design that will convince the consumers that that they will need a new replacement every year. This concept of Sloan imposed far reaching impact on auto business. While Henry Ford opposed designing for planned obsolescence and continue with the traditional marketing, the profit if General Motors surpluses Henry Ford in the year 1931 and gain the place of a dominant organization in the company thereafter. The frequent design change made it necessary for the company to use a body-o-frame instead off a lighter unibody design that was used by majority of the then, European Automakers. However, the term ‘ planned Obsolence” got popular first in the year 1954, when An American Industrial designer Brooke Steven, defined planned obsolescence as the act of “Instilling in the buyer the desire to own something a little newer, a little better, a little sooner than is necessary.”In the 1950s, planned “Instilling in the buyer the desire to own something a little newer, a little better, a little sooner than is necessary.” Had gained its popularity as a term for products that are designed to go out of fashion or get destroyed quickly. In the year 1959, one of the most well-known global automobile manufacturers protested against this concept with the help of their advertisement. One of their tagline included “We don’t change a car for the sake of change.”
From the 60 several protests took place against the concept of designing products keeping in mind planned “We don’t change a car for the sake of change.” In the year 1960, Vance Packard, who was one of the most popular culture critics, published the waste Makers where the manufacturers were accused of making the systematic attempt of converting the consumers into debt ridden, wasteful and permanently is content individuals. In his writing he exposed that designers are often compelled to design products that are not going to durable, in order to enhance the number of repeat purchase.
When it comes to the role of design in perpetuating obsolescence, the concept of contrived durability came into place. Contrived durability refers to the strategy of shortening the lifetime of the product before releasing the same in the market by designing it to deteriorate quickly. The designs of all the products are compromised of an expected average lifetime which needs to be decided early. The chief reason behind the strategy of contrived durability, designs to shorten lifetime are chosen for cost a well as weight saving reasons. Contrived Durability is not prohibited by law and producers are free to set the durability of the manufactured products.
According to Stead, (2016) in order to enhance the number of repeated purchase, manufacturers often design produces that cannot be repaired by the consumers themselves, A great example of such products that are being designed for being throwaway after getting damaged is the disposable cameras, where consumers needs to purchase an entire new products after each and every usage. Manufactures are often found to design the product in a way that the replaceable parts are either unavailable or uneconomic. Other examples of this designing strategy include the Apple’s Tamer resistant pentalobe screws that are really tough and almost impossible to be removed by commonly used consumer tools. Front loading washing machines also contain drub bearing, which are intentionally designed to become wear prone making it impossible to renew without replacing the entire tub. One of the major goals for such design is to make the cost of repair nearly equal to the replacement cost or in order to prevent any kinds of servicing of the products. Some devices are designed with batteries that are not replaceable. While this at makes it easier for the designer to develop a thinner and sleek looking product, it also makes the product completely obsolesce once the barriers got expired.
The concept of perceived obsolesce includes the change in the styling of the products by the designers in order to make the previously designed products out of fashion or obsolete due to decrease in the desirability of out of fashion items.
A good number of products are primarily desirable to the consumers for aesthetic purposes rather than its usefulness and functionality. The concept of perceived obsolescence has been chiefly designed for these products. One of the most common example of such products is the products manufactured but the apparel industry. Products like dresses, suits, shoes, purses and other clothing posses a cycle of desirability popularly known as fashion cycle. In order to dominate the fashion cycle and keep the cycle of purchasing and discarding apparels by the consumers, the fashion designers of the apparel industry continuously introduce new aesthetics while discontinuing older designs. This not only allows constant ales in the industry in spite of the fact that the previously sold products are still fully functional. One of the chief examples of organizations that follow the strategy of perceived obsolesce is Nike. For instance, the shoe range of the company, keeps on changing the material combination as well as the color of the product every 2 to 3 months in order to ensure constant demand for the product (Roedl, Bardzell & Bardzell, 2015).
Systematic and programmed obsolescence are quite similar. The former can be defined as the strategy of obsolescing by altering the system in which the product is used in a way as to make its continued use difficult. Programmed obsolescence, is defined as the strategy of manufacturing an item in a planed way in order to ensure its disability.
From the above discussion, It can be clearly understood that design plays the most vital role in perpetuate obsolescence. The strategy to obsolete the product mainly depends on the type of the products and the demographic segmentation of the consumers. For instance while the strategy of contrived durability have been designed for daily usable products, the concept of perceived obsolesce have been designed for products that are purchased for aesthetic reasons rather than functional causes. The chief concept behind designing products that are to be obsolete after a certain time period is to keep the cycle of selling and purchasing moving. If products are designed to have high durability, people will not buy new products to replace it for a prolonged time which in turn will impose negative impact on the business. From the above discussion it can be clearly understood that designing products intentionally, with lower durability possess the potential to influence the decision of the company about product engineering. That is this concept can encourages the producers to use the leas expensive components in order to satisfy the product lifetime projections. Along with this, planned obsolesce, stimulates the demand of the consumers and motivate them to buy a new product within a very short time period if they want a functioning product (Echegaray, 2016). These products are often brought from the same manufacturer from whom the previous product had been purchased or from a competitor who also depends on the strategy of planned obsolescence. The designers are found to design product keeping in mind the oligopoly of the organization in the market. For instance, Apple in order to pressurize the consumers to return to them in order to buy a new replacement, designed their ports that are not repairable by other Smartphone selling organizations. Even products are designed in such a way that a specific part of them that are most prone to get affected are made unavailable in the market or the price range of that specific part is intentionally kept at a higher end in order to ensure that consumers are left with no other options than to purchase a new device. In order to deliberately make the product obsolete, product are designed in such a way that it becomes difficult for the consumer to use the products continuously. For instance, The Samsung Galaxy Note7 is popularly known for its battery defects that caused several units to catch fire as well as explode. In order to address this issue, the company stated rolling updates that eventually resulted in throttling the functionality of the device.
While designing the product for planned obsolescence is highly attractive to the produces, for the consumers as well as to the society it posses the potential it cause significant harm and negative impact. For instance, continuous replacement of products enhances the wastage as well as pollution. This process also involves usage of more natural resources resulting in higher spending of rhe consumers.
Conclusion
From the above discussion it can be conclude that design perpetuates obsolescence to a great extent. Products for obsolescence are designed keeping in mind the functionality of the product. The chief motive behind planned obsolescence is to enhance to keep the demand for the products going and enhances the revenue of the organization by deteriorating the quality of the product sold to the consumers. Planned obsolescence is imposing highly negative impact on the environment and the society. Repeated purchasing is not only resulting in high consumer spending but it also resulting in usage of more natural resources. Not only this it since planned obsolescence is creating more wastage and pollution, it is also adversely affecting the environment. Hence in order to deal with the issue, producers should concentrate on replacing this strategy by an innovative one that will both keep the purchasing cycle going without harming the consumers or the environment.
Reference List
Andrews, D. (2015). The circular economy, design thinking and education for sustainability. Local Economy, 30(3), 305-315.
Echegaray, F. (2016). Consumers’ reactions to product obsolescence in emerging markets: the case of Brazil. Journal of Cleaner Production, 134, 191-203.
Roedl, D. J. (2016). Making things last: digital obsolescence and its resistance by DIY culture (Doctoral dissertation, Indiana University).
Roedl, D., Bardzell, S., & Bardzell, J. (2015). Sustainable making? Balancing optimism and criticism in HCI discourse. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), 22(3), 15.
Stead, M. (2016). A Toaster for Life: using design fiction to facilitate discussion on the creation of a sustainable Internet Of Things.
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