Planned obsolescence
Planned obsolescence is when a company designs a product so it becomes outdated, less useful, or stops working after a limited time, encouraging people to buy a replacement sooner than necessary. This can happen through using cheaper parts that wear out faster, making repairs difficult or impossible, or limiting software updates so older devices lose features. The result is higher costs for consumers and more waste for the environment. Alternatives include making products more durable, designing them for easy repair, and providing longer software support.
Examples
Printers
Many printers are sold at a loss. Ink costs little to produce but is sold at a high price. The ink cartridges are designed to wear out quickly, forcing you to replace them often. They usually come with a limited number of print jobs before they need to be replaced, tracked by a chip inside the cartridge. This not only increases costs for consumers but also contributes to electronic waste.
Apple
Apple has a track record of disabling software features when repairing your device yourself.
Devices like the iPhone are paired to their parts using small microcontrollers. Repair shops with access to proprietary Apple services can "activate" freshly replaced parts by syncing new serial numbers to Apple cloud servers. This way, Apple can approve or deny each repair, and can potentially use this data to see where user freedom should be restricted next...
| Part | Consequence | Source |
|---|---|---|
| SSD | Can't use the new SSD | https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/21/22989226/apple-mac-studios-removable-ssd-blocked-software-replacement |
| Screen | Shows a warning and disables authentication by facial recognition ("Face ID") and display an "Important Display Message" | https://www.ifixit.com/News/70848/parts-pairing-powers-planned-obsolescence-french-complaint-argues |
| Home Button (older iPhones) | Shows a warning and disables authentication by touch recognition ("Touch ID") | https://www.ifixit.com/News/32887/what-to-do-if-your-iphones-home-button-stops-working |
| Battery | Shows a warning and hides battery health information | https://www.ifixit.com/News/32343/apple-is-locking-batteries-to-iphones-now |
| Camera | Shows a warning | https://www.macrumors.com/2021/01/21/apple-seeds-ios-14-4-rc-to-developers/ |