Consumer products and planned obsolescence?

fez said:
No its a conspiracy theory pedalled by people who don't understand how things work.

You can still buy a washing machine that will probably last 15 years but you won't pay £200 for it, you will pay £1000 for it.
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And there me thinking getting 8 years out of my £1000 LG washing machine before it really died was good

Ok i Admit i was hoping that it would have lasted 10 years when i bought it.
 
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chaparral said:
And there me thinking getting 8 years out of my £1000 LG washing machine before it really died was good

Ok i Admit i was hoping that would have lasted 10 years when i bought it.
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You do wash more often than a family with six kids though.

chaparral said:
Bought some liquid & capsules for the washine machine

JXud6F7.jpg
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Ice Tea said:
Do you believe that products have been purposely designed to break or become obsolete within a set time frame or is it just a conspiracy theory?
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I believe they are designed to save tiny amounts of money in order to fulfill their function till the point where they fail for the average consumer. They don't want you buying a new washing machine in 25 years... but in 3 to 5.
 
Stopping support for old OS is a joke, I appreciate tech moves on but I'm sure it's alado a convenient way to force people to upgrade, it's a joke. Perfectly workable tech becomes practically useless.
 
chaparral said:
And there me thinking getting 8 years out of my £1000 LG washing machine before it really died was good

Ok i Admit i was hoping that it would have lasted 10 years when i bought it.
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As I said elsewhere in that post. Washing machines have hundreds of points of failure nowadays so the chance of an item breaking is much higher. Out of interest, did you get someone out to look at it or do any googling as to the issue.

sigma said:
Stopping support for old OS is a joke, I appreciate tech moves on but I'm sure it's also a convenient way to force people to upgrade, it's a joke. Perfectly workable tech becomes practically useless.
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No its not. Tech moves on, security moves on, very few people still use the devices from even 5 years earlier. If we took this approach to tech we would still be on the iPhone 5 and about 5 years further back in every way. Bleeding edge tech should be exempt from things like right to repair in some aspects of it.

What about smaller companies as well. Should they have to support devices from 10 years earlier? Right to repair makes far more sense for mechanical items and for components. Not for things like software. Apple supports 6 years worth of devices in general before they stop issuing updates but you can use it for years after that if you want. You just can't have updates and potentially some things won't work. I don't think thats a problem.

You also can't expect to pay peanuts for something and get support and updates for years to come. Thats one of the ways they cut the costs.
 
fez said:
As I said elsewhere in that post. Washing machines have hundreds of points of failure nowadays so the chance of an item breaking is much higher. Out of interest, did you get someone out to look at it or do any googling as to the issue.
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In it last 10 months the PSU & Drain pump failed which we paid over £200 to be fixed and a few months later it wouldn't spin as the drum was banging around to much.
Got quoted over £500 to get it repaired as it needed a new drum, Dampers, Door seal plus some other parts, plus labour

It was this LG washing machine (Paid £995 for it back in 2013)
www.lg.com

12KG TRUESTEAM™ 6 MOTION DD WASHING MACHINE - F1495BDSA | LG UK

Discover LG F1495BDSA. Click for pictures, reviews, and tech specs for the LG 12KG TRUESTEAM™ 6 MOTION DD WASHING MACHINE.
www.lg.com www.lg.com
 
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fez said:
As I said elsewhere in that post. Washing machines have hundreds of points of failure nowadays so the chance of an item breaking is much higher. Out of interest, did you get someone out to look at it or do any googling as to the issue.



No its not. Tech moves on, security moves on, very few people still use the devices from even 5 years earlier. If we took this approach to tech we would still be on the iPhone 5 and about 5 years further back in every way. Bleeding edge tech should be exempt from things like right to repair in some aspects of it.

What about smaller companies as well. Should they have to support devices from 10 years earlier? Right to repair makes far more sense for mechanical items and for components. Not for things like software. Apple supports 6 years worth of devices in general before they stop issuing updates but you can use it for years after that if you want. You just can't have updates and potentially some things won't work. I don't think thats a problem.

You also can't expect to pay peanuts for something and get support and updates for years to come. Thats one of the ways they cut the costs.
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I'd rather pay more for support and those on the bleeding edge should also pay more. Not everyone needs the latest phone or tablet, this is where my main gripe is.

It makes environmental sense, how many devices are there out there? What amount of rare metals etc? Nobody needs a new phone every 6 months and also plenty of old phones can do the job for a lot of people. Batteries also need to be made replacable/more interchangable/easier to recycle.

It's likely that the near/medium term future we'll be havings wars over resources, it'll be interesting to see how people adapt.
 
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Smartphones ideally should have smarter batteries. Ie no need to charge every day but once every ten days.

Hate battery life on smartphones. Send a few texts, look at a video, 20 min chat and boom the power is down to 58%
 
cheesefest said:
Smartphones ideally should have smarter batteries. Ie no need to charge every day but once every ten days.

Hate battery life on smartphones. Send a few texts, look at a video, 20 min chat and boom the power is down to 58%
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Smarter batteries? Go on, I'll bite... How will a smarter battery increase battery life ten-fold?

Also if that's the battery life that you are getting at the moment on your phone then I suggest you need to get a better phone
 
cheesefest said:
Smartphones ideally should have smarter batteries. Ie no need to charge every day but once every ten days.

Hate battery life on smartphones. Send a few texts, look at a video, 20 min chat and boom the power is down to 58%
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I doubt a phone capable of that will sell very well. Look at Garmin watches, they measure battery life in weeks on some models but they are niche compared to the daily charging Apple Watch.
 
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