Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/08/12/built-to-last.html
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The linked article is over a year old. Why is this popping up now? Is it merely because someone posted it to Reddit as well, or is there something more recent going on?
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Thanks for creating a new Boing Boing BBS account to let us know about the age of the article. Many of us never remember to verify that when following links posted here.
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Other than the batteries, I think the big thing is parts availability. I wish that there was a requirement to sell parts to repair for a reasonable charge.
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The article may be a year old but planned obsolescence has been a thorn in our side for decades!
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This is crazy! its almost as if sane, thoughtful people are making decisions over there…
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Missed title opportunity: EU Plans to make Planned Obsolscence Obsolete!
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Using government to make life appreciably better for the plebs through small sacrifices on the part of corporations. Hey, it’s some bleeding-edge shit, but I think I can get on board!
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Very nice ideas, but they sound like they’ll be enormously expensive to implement. But then, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to pay a little extra for something if it had a correspondingly longer lifespan.
Missing from this is the requirement to not improve the state of the art fast enough to render your older device relatively worthless when compared to next year’s model.
You know, Moore’s Law.
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Missing from this is the requirement to not improve the state of the art fast enough to render your older device relatively worthless when compared to next year’s model.
Well we both know that won’t happen. But your point is a valid one, in that what is needed is a requirement to support back-level devices/versions for longer. The idea (that Apple among others have) that just because they have produced a few annual iterations since then, my N year old iDevice is no longer supported, when it works just fine, but won’t take the latest iOS, is an idea that needs ruthlessly extinguishing.
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I owned a gen-one iPad. It became obsolete a year after launch, and they stopped allowing an IS upgrade shortly after.
I am typing this on an Android tablet. Enough said, Apple.
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meh… even old stuff these days is largely more than most people use/need.
Yes, but does anyone want to be seen by their friends and colleagues with a three-year-old iPhone? Nope, can’t have that. Too embarrassing.
Over here many people have mobile phone contracts that run in increments of two years and usually entitle you to a new phone whenever a new contract starts (you’re basically paying for it by installments over the two-year duration of your contract). So, no wonder mobile phones are built to last a little longer than two years – everything beyond that is borrowed time.
There’s another little wrinkle here in the US - the slow but steady switching of spectrum from TV to cellular. For instance, T-Mobile has been rolling out 600 MHz coverage, but you’ll need a new phone to actually use it. For better building penetration and long-range rural areas, it’s worth it, but if you get good coverage where you normally use your phone, you can wait.
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