Planned obsolescence

Planned obsolescence is a plan used in economics and industrial design. It means making products to not last very long on purpose.

This makes a product stop working well or look old after some time. This makes people want to buy a new one. This plan helps keep sales up by getting people to replace their things more often.

This works best when a company is very popular and people keep buying from them. The company knows how long the product will last, but customers do not. When more companies join the market, products often become stronger. For example, when cars from Japan with longer lives came to America in the 1960s and 1970s, American car companies had to make better cars.

History

In 1924, many people already had cars, so the automobile market grew very big. To sell more cars, General Motors executive Alfred P. Sloan Jr. suggested changing car designs each year. This made people want new cars with new looks, led by Harley Earl and his team. Many people thought Sloan started this idea, though it came from the bicycle industry. He called it "dynamic obsolescence", but others called it planned obsolescence.

This idea changed car making, the product design field, and the American economy. Smaller companies couldn’t change designs every year. Henry Ford didn’t like this because he liked simple, lasting designs. GM became the top car company in 1931. The yearly changes meant cars needed a body-on-frame structure instead of the lighter unibody used in Europe.

The term planned obsolescence was first used in 1932 in a pamphlet by Bernard London. In 1954, Brooks Stevens, an American designer, popularised the term when he used it for a talk. He described it as making people want newer things sooner than needed. Soon, others used the term, and by the late 1950s, it meant making products break easily or go out of style quickly. In 1959, Volkswagen joked in ads that they didn’t change their cars just for the sake of it. In 1960, Vance Packard wrote about how businesses try to make people always want more in his book The Waste Makers. He described two types of planned obsolescence: making people feel they need something new, and making products stop working well on purpose.

Variants

There are different ways companies may plan for products to have a shorter life. One way is by making the product break down faster. This can happen when companies use weaker materials or designs that wear out quickly. For example, toys with brittle plastic parts can break if played with roughly. Phones and other small electronics often have batteries that wear out fast, and sometimes the battery cannot be replaced by the user, meaning the whole device must be replaced.

Another way is by making repairs hard or impossible. Some products, like certain cameras, are made so that you can only use them once. Other products may have parts that are very hard to fix, like special screws or glue, making it very costly to repair. Sometimes, companies make it so that if you try to use a part that isn’t made by them, the product won’t work at all.

Some products may also stop working on purpose after a certain time. For example, printers may stop working when the ink runs out, even if there is still ink left. This is done through special chips that track how much ink is used. Software can also be made to stop working after a certain time, forcing people to buy new versions or devices.

Alternatives

Perceived obsolescence

When designers change how products look, people might want to buy new ones even if the old ones still work well. This happens because many people like products more for how they look than for how they work. Clothing is a good example. Designers keep changing styles, so people keep buying new clothes even though the old ones are still good.

Shoes are another example. Companies like Nike make the same basic shoe but change colors and materials often. This keeps people interested in buying new pairs. Cars also get new looks sometimes. This is called a "facelift". It usually just changes the paint and small design details, not how the car works.

Some electronic products, like phones, also follow this pattern. Companies like Apple products often release new colors or small updates. This makes people feel like they need the newest model, even if the old one still works. Some phone makers, like OnePlus, release updated models every six months. Others, like Sony Mobile and Samsung, also release special versions of their phones partway through the year.

Laws and regulations

Europe

In 2015, France made it illegal for companies to design products to break easily. Companies can face big fines or even time in jail for doing this. France also requires companies to tell customers how long a product should last and when they will stop making replacement parts. If a product breaks within two years of being bought, the company must fix it or replace it for free.

The European Union has also taken steps to stop this practice. In 2023, they voted to support a rule to ban planned obsolescence. In 2024, they made it clear that stores must give accurate information and not force customers to buy replacement parts only from the original maker.

North America

In October 2023, Quebec passed a law to stop companies from making or selling products designed to break easily. In the US, several states like California, Minnesota, New York, and Colorado have passed laws to support the right to repair products, focusing on issues related to intellectual property rights.

Critics and supporters

Some people support planned obsolescence. They say it helps make products better over time. Philip Kotler thinks it is just a normal part of competition and technology.

But others do not like it. They say it wastes resources and is not fair to customers. Vance Packard says many changes to products, like how they look, may not really help customers. Some people suggest working with designers to make products that last longer. The Environmental Law Institute says this practice makes people buy new things instead of using old ones, which can hurt the environment.

One way to help is by reusing materials and recycling products. This is called the “cradle to cradle” cycle. It helps keep materials in use and reduces waste. Michael Braungart and William McDonough say this problem began during the Industrial Revolution and often makes it cheaper to buy a new product than to repair an old one.

In academia

Russell Jacoby wrote in the 1970s that ideas and learning change in the same way as products that are made to last only a short time. Just like companies create things that need to be replaced quickly, ideas can also be made to seem old, so people keep looking for new ones.