Planned Obsolescence

David Pogue, New York Times columnist on personal technology wrote a short piece in the Scientific American about planned obsolescence called Death to the Upgrade. Well written and has a couple interesting points and facts. For example, americans on average buy a new phone every 22 months.

Check out Death to the Upgrade

Pogue, David. "Death to the Upgrade." Scientific American 309.3 (2013): 32. Ebscohost. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.

In the Journal of Industrial Economics, a man by the name of Jay Pil Choi attempts to depict the financial motivations for companies to incorporate planned obsolescence into their products. He shows the thought process as to why companies do this and possible answers for why companies aren't invested in long term durability, quality, and longevity.

I really like that this is an article from 1994 showing that the problem of planned obsolescence has been around as long as I have. This is not a new issue and yet we, as consumers, fall for it every time. We continuously buy technology we know was made to fail.

Click this link to see the Journal of Industrial Economics study.

Choi, Jay. "Network Externality Compatibility Choice and Planned Obsolescence." The Journal of Industrial Economics 42 (1994): 167-82. JSTOR. Web. 11 Nov. 2013