calcifer 🧯Aug 20, 2024

I swear people don’t understand planned obsolescence. PLANNED is the key

If I stop supporting a 6-year-old version of something because I have data suggesting hardly anyone uses it anymore, that’s just garden variety obsolescence

If I plan on day one to stop support after 6 years, THAT is planned obsolescence. Same if I just make design decisions such that most of them will break before then.

If I deliberately break old things, that’s not planned obsolescence, that’s FORCED obsolescence.

Show threadFoolishOwlAug 20, 2024
@calcifer I've thought that Moore's Law was really about the CEO of Intel making a public declaration about the rate of planned obsolescence throughout the computer industry. Since Intel had an effective monopoly on key components, it was in a position to impose that rule.
Show threadFoolishOwlAug 20, 2024
@calcifer More in line with your original point, it's obvious that with mobile phones, they're deliberately designed to shorten their lifespans. They used to have replaceable batteries, removable microSDs, and operating systems that could be rooted and modified or replaced. The batteries are particularly egregious: batteries inevitably wear out.
Show threadcalcifer 🧯Aug 20, 2024
@foolishowl yes, non-user-serviceable wear parts is often a good example of planned obsolescence (sometimes there are other reasons for that choice, but 90% of the time PO is the controlling factor)
Show threadcalcifer 🧯Aug 20, 2024
@foolishowl the non-rootable OS isn’t really though; the controlling reason to avoid that is security (mostly for the benefit of the cellular providers, but also for corporate adopters). Stopping updates at a planned time is PO, as is carriers blocking old hardware.
Show threadFoolishOwl

@calcifer Points taken.

(I'm still sore that I selected my current phone based on its manufacturer's reputation for enthusiastic support for rooting, only to find that they'd reversed policies before this model came out.)

Aug 20, 2024 at 7:00pmWeb